Advertising Specialty Institute®, the largest media and marketing organization serving the advertising specialty industry, revealed earlier in November a groundbreaking new study that promotional products beat out all forms of TV, radio and print advertising as the most cost-effective advertising medium available.

The comprehensive study was completed by a team of interviewers who surveyed travelers in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Respondents were asked if they had received any advertising specialties in the last 12 months and the majority were businesspeople over age 21.

Among key findings, results indicate that:

* 84% of people remember the advertiser on a product they receive.
* 42% have a more favorable impression of an advertiser after receiving an advertising specialty.
* Nearly one quarter, or 24%, indicate that they are more likely to do business with an advertiser on items they receive.
* Most respondents (62%) have done business with the advertiser on a product after receiving it.
* The majority (81%) of promotional products were kept because they were considered useful.
* Among wearables, bags were reported to be used most frequently, with respondents indicating that they use their bags on average nine times per month.
* The average cost-per-impression of an advertising specialty item is $0.004, making it less expensive per impression than nearly any other media. (According to Nielsen Media data, the CPI for a national magazine ad is $0.033; a newspaper ad is $0.0129; a prime time TV ad is $0.019; a cable TV ad is $0.007; a syndicated TV ad is $0.006; and a spot radio ad is $0.005)

These statistics conclude that marketers get a more favorable return on investment from advertising specialties than almost any other popular media, with a very low cost-per-impression, high recall among those who receive ad specialty items, and increased intent among recipients to make purchases from the advertiser.

Source: ASI

Parking permits are promotional chameleons. Their main purpose is to provide your employees’ cars with identification. Permits, however, can provide other services for your company or institution.
- Permits provide safety
Permits clearly mark your employees’ cars. If a car enters your company’s parameters without a permit, it will be noticed.

- Permits are promotional
Permits are always in your employees’ cars. Whenever an employee drives around town, goes on a trip or parks at home, your parking permit resides inside the employee’s car. Make your parking permit stick out by adding a creative slogan about your company brand.

- Permits are not just for corporations
Many universities, hotels, apartment complexes and hospitals have parking permits for employees, visitors and residents. Whether the permit is a hang tag or a static cling, these parking permits will clearly mark anybody’s car.

With top companies spending billions of dollars advertising to prospective clients, customer acquisition appears to be the most important objective at these businesses. However, a business’ most valuable consumers are often its current customers.

Here are five tools that businesses can use to follow up with customers:

1. Start simple with a Thank You card. Businesses that don’t send Thank You cards are usually facing time constraints. Thank You cards send a positive message, especially if they are hand-written. Although this does take time, a thoughtful Thank You card can separate your business from the competition (especially if they’re too busy to send one!)

2. Similar to Thank You cards, postcards are another way to follow up with your customers through the mail. An added benefit of using postcards is that they can deliver a variety of messages. Postcards can serve as reminders, congratulatory messages, holiday greetings or marketing fodder. Keep the message informative and fun, but not overly promotional. Imprinting a brand logo on the postcard is a sufficient reminder to the customer.

3. “Leave Behinds” are simply promotional products given to customers after a client meeting or sales transaction to show a business’ appreciation and leave a lasting impression. The product essentially follows the customer to their home or workplace and serves as a reminder tool.

4. Use corporate gifts to build customer loyalty while increasing your brand’s value. Corporate gifts are a popular use of high-end promotional products. Start by gathering a list of your top clients. It could be a large or small group depending on your budget. Keep in mind that the goal of corporate gifts is to add value to a brand and its relationship with the consumer, so choosing a high quality gift in lower quantities is more effective than a high quantity of products with lower value. Corporate gifts are a great way to keep your business at the top of clients’ minds.

5. A strategy to communicate with customers after a sale is to collect feedback. Follow-up a sale with a phone call or e-mail that surveys the customer’s experience and satisfaction with the product or service. This is a strategy that has two-way benefits. Not only will customers feel empowered with the opportunity to voice their opinion, but businesses can greatly benefit from the information gathered. Just remember to keep the survey short and simple.

When implementing these CRM strategies, it is important for businesses to keep two key ideas in mind. First, personalization helps cut through the clutter. A direct mail piece addressed to “Our Valued Customer” defeats the purpose of CRM. Imprinting a brand logo or message onto a promotional product makes the gift more personal. Personalization reduces the generic feel that plagues most marketing campaigns. Secondly, a loyal customer is a business’ best salesperson. Customers who are satisfied with their relationship with a business are a doorway to new sales leads. In other words, investing in customer retention also leads to customer acquisition.

Low credit score mortgage
California california equity home loan mortgage refinance
Commercial loan application
Free credit scores
Credit card debt fact
Debt it settlement yourself
Texas home insurance
Credit card applications for
Search for debt settlement companies
Home loan mortgage second california refinance
Juniper credit card application
Insurance melbourne sexual health
Insurance sexual health products
670 credit score
Small business health insurance
California home equity loans
Tesco credit card application
Card credit debt letter settlement
Home loan refinancing california refinance mortgage
Extended auto warranty in florida
Credit card merchant account
Credit card debt settlement
Whole life insurance quote
Commercial loan calculator
Buying long term care insurance
Credit score to
Long term health care insurance in london
One time credit report
Line credit reports
Osteoporosis long term health care insurance
Average credit scores
Credit card debt consolidation loans
Best home loans
Equity hawaii home rate
Auto insurance in florida
Credit score values
Credit card debt settlement
Kaiser permanente health insurance plans
Report credit bureau
Renters insurance rate
Credit card apr 0
Health insurance individual quote
Card debt settlement
Avoid credit card debt
Individual health insurance in texas
Allstate cancer insurance
Credit report dispute
Equafax credit report
Information credit report
Progressive auto insurance
Compare credit card offers
Rhode island health insurance
Credit card offers opinions
Credit card transfer offers
1sourceautowarrantycom
Georgia payday loan
Online life insurance protection
Home loans and mortgages
Auto insurance comprehensive coverage
Debt settlement good or bad
California home mortgage refinance bad credit loan pay
Average credit score
Home loan refinance rate bad credit refinance mortgage
Prepaid credit card companies
Broker commercial loan mortgage
Insurance home owner policy
Company credit report
Homeowners insurance pennsylvania
California health insurance quotes
Credit report repair services
Auto insurance coverage
Out credit card offers
Average credit card debt
Bankruptcy credit score
Homeowners insurance quotes texas
Federal long term care insurance program
Auto loans rates

Businesses and marketers often face a common obstacle: How to advertise a brand, its products and services under budget constraints. With the many costs involved in running a business, advertising budgets are one of the first to shrink when funds are tight. Therein lies another challenge. With less advertising, how can businesses garner enough attention to attract consumers and generate sales?

The solution is a concept called Credibility Marketing. It’s the idea that support by third-party consumers has higher credibility than messages created by marketers.

Here are three ways to generate third-party endorsements:
Testimonials- Offering prospective customers testimonials or blurbs about another client’s positive experience is a big credibility booster.

Case Studies- Consumers like product demonstrations. It gives them a chance to see how the product works, what it can be used for and how effective it is. Case studies are demonstrations on paper.

Press Releases- If your business is looking for a large audience, media publicity is the way to go. Dabbling in the publicity arena may seem scary because businesses feel as though they have no control over what is being said.

Using testimonials, case studies and press releases is a cost effective way to advertise a brand, product or service. These third-party endorsements are great credibility boosters that give consumers more confidence in a business.

[If they can make up the word ‘Bracketology’ we can get creative too!]

College basketball teams are deep into their conference schedule and March Madness™ is just around the corner. Bars and restaurants can benefit from the excitement of March Madness™ by implementing marketing strategies that optimize their brand exposure and increase sales traffic. Traditional marketing strategies such as newspaper ads or radio spots can be effective, but including a sales promotion or premium product in a marketing plan has been proven to be even more successful. These ideas can be customized to fit your business and customers’ expectations to create a fun and exciting atmosphere for March Madness™.

Tournament Brackets: Spice up bracket contests by awarding participants who correctly complete a region or round of games on the bracket. Discounts on a product or service or imprinted products can be given away as prizes. Breaking down the bracket and prize pool increases the number of winners, which boosts traffic at the business. Display the grand prize at the business location to increase word-of-mouth or “buzz” marketing for the prize and brand.

Prize Drawings: Create a prize drawing for a March Madness™ watch party sponsored by your business. The winner can invite friends to watch a basketball game and enjoy snacks, refreshments and other special treatments provided by the business. Other prizes can be given away such as imprinted bottle coolers or tee shirts. Not only are drawings a great way to attract customers, they can also be used to survey participants. It gives your business an opportunity to ask customers about your product or service and how it can improve.

Promote Game Day or Night: Create a calendar and label featured games that will be broadcasted at your business. Place the calendar on dining tables or at a bar where customers can view the schedule. A great way to attract customers to game nights is to create a trivia game. Trivia questions can be general or customized for different themes. Get creative with prizes and include your brand name. Glassware imprinted with the brand logo or message is a great giveaway.

Marketing is constantly evolving and adopting new strategies to reach people. Traditional media, such as television, radio, newspaper, magazine and mail flyer advertising, are not as popular as they once were. Some consumers even find traditional advertising annoying.

A recent survey by IBM titled “The End of Advertising as We Know It,” found that “Traditional advertising players risk major revenue declines as budgets shift rapidly to new, interactive formats, which are expected to grow at nearly five times that of traditional advertising.”

Alternative advertising refers to marketing that uses unconventional methods, such as text messaging via cell phones, viral advertising on the Internet or social networking through Web sites like MySpace and Facebook.

Here is a list of more alternative advertising ideas from Kaboom Advertising:

- Street teams

- Street Stunts

- Pop-up lounge

- Guerilla Signage

- Promotional Materials

(more…)

A couple of days ago the president of Absorbent, Ink. talked to Small Business Trends Radio about how to get the most out of giving gifts to clients. They were nice enough to post the interview on their website.

Click here to listen to the interview

Since it’s not quite a “white paper” we’re calling it a “white note”…

We’ve provided some ways to market your business and position yourself as an expert in your industry by using LinkedIn. Feel free to download the pdf below and distribute to friends. As always, comments are welcomed!

Are you LinkedIn?

Also, Seth Godin has a quick list on things you need to have a successful small business.

Hi there! I own a small business and would like to give my employees a holiday gift to show them how much I appreciate their work. Do you have any unique ideas? Thanks – Bobby

Hello Bobby,

Thanks for the question! It is difficult to think of unique gifts to give all your employees. Luckily, I have some ideas that will help initiate the gift giving thought process.

I want to first ask you what kind of business you own. If it is an internet company, you could give employees a new optical mouse for their computer with a personalized mouse pad. If you own a small restaurant, you could give employees imprinted cookware or glassware to use at home or at work. You do not have to give employees gifts that are themed around your business, but gifts like this are guaranteed to be used.

(more…)

It looks like folks in the Netherlands are recycling their wood! I doubt you’ll be able to get these usb drives with a custom imprint, but you could always buy one and carve your company name in it. Er, something like that. It seems kind of awkward-looking have a branch stick out of your computer.