Giveaways for Personal Marketing

If you want prospects to remember you and think of you more fondly, give them a gift. Research shows it works: A 2003 study by Georgia Southern University found that promotional gifts given to attendees at trade shows increased the likelihood that the customers would remember the company’s name and hold a more positive image of it. For a giveaway, you can put your name on anything. But beyond the standard magnets, calendars, and pens, how can you stand out more with your promotional gifts? Here are a few tokens of appreciation or everyday items that will help keep you in consumers’ minds.

From Your Friends
Pricing: Starting at 59 cents per postcard (minimum of 25 postcards per month)

Give your clients an offer they can’t refuse. From Your Friends is a direct-mail program that can keep you in contact with your prospects by offering them small gifts on a monthly basis that come in the form of colorful coupon postcards. From Your Friends partners with local restaurants, entertainment and sporting venues, and merchants to create a special offer for you to share. Each month, your prospects will receive a postcard that features the offer as well as your name and photo.

Promotional House Flyswatter
Price: 74 cents each for 250 minimum order

Try this giveaway for the warmer months: A fly swatter for keeping those pests away. This house-shaped swatter can be customized with your company’s name and logo. The 16-inch swatter comes in a range of colors, such as red, yellow, blue, and orange. While they’re flying into action, your name will be what they see. This giveaway that can make you memorable, without making you the pest!

Hand Sanitizer Gel 0.5 oz With Carry Strap
Price: 77 cents each for 150-249 quantity, plus $35 set-up fee for up to 4 colors with company logo

During flu season, who isn’t reaching for the hand soap to keep the bad germs away? This 0.5 ounce travel hand sanitizer can be attached to a purse, backpack, pocket, or keychain via a carry strap that comes attached to each bottle. Choose one of 10 colors for the strap. Customize the hand-sanitizer bottle with your colorful logo or company’s information.

Lowe’s REALTOR Benefits® Program
Price: Free

Here’s another way to keep your name in front of prospects: Lowe’s participation in the REALTOR Benefits® Program provides a free service where you can send a customized real estate e-newsletter as well as a 10 percent off e-coupon for Lowe’s merchandise. Use it to keep in touch with those you meet at open houses, over social media, or via other encounters. Choose from four e-mail templates geared to possible buyers or sellers. The e-newsletters will include your photo and contact information, along with home improvement tips, coupon savings, and more.

MagniCard
Price: $1.19 each for 100 minimum order

Bring your company into focus to more prospects with the MagniCard. It’s the size of a business card, and allows you to magnify words and objects three times their size. You can display your promotional information in color along the outside of it. Broker–sales associate Anne McDonald with Coldwell Banker Real Estate in Marco Island, Fla., says she started using MagniCards as a giveaway for older adult consumers. She adds it’s a card her prospects are carrying in their wallets and purses and using on a regular basis.

House Tape Measure
Price: $1.40 each for 300 minimum order

Help prospects plot out the measurements of a new home. They’ll be grateful for this portable tape measure that can even attach to a keychain. It’s shaped like a house and can extend up to six feet in length. Promote your company by adding your name, logo, and message along the outside of it.

Phone Stand
Price: $1.89 each for 100 minimum order

Allow prospects to prop up their mobile phone using this phone stand. In doing so, they also might be propping up your company name and contact information for all passersby to see. The plastic stand has a colorful, non-lip pad to keep a phone in place. Prospects can use this easel stand to make their phone clearly visible on their desks for storage, to read e-mails, or watch videos or even use it on a nightstand as an alarm clock. They’ll find plenty of everyday uses for it. It folds flat so it’s easy to take wherever they go.

Document Bag
Price: $3.49 each for 100 minimum order; $40 per color set-up charge

Help your customers keep all those brochures, property descriptions, and helpful buyer and seller tip sheets organized with this colorful, lightweight document bag. This 11-by-16-inch bag includes a padded handle to easily grasp. It includes an inner pocket to hold keys or spare change and loops to attach pens. Its full-width opening can store folders and documents. A one-color imprint is available on the front to promote your company’s information. Additional colors are available at an extra charge.

Stainless Deal Tumbler
Price: $3.68 each for 48 minimum order (sales price); plus $50 set-up fee

Who couldn’t use an extra mug? And the bonus of a tumbler is that your prospects will likely take it with them while on-the-go, possibly exposing your name and logo to even more people. Choose your color for your 13 oz. stainless steel tumbler mug and have it include your name and company logo on the side. This tumbler is fully insulated to keep hot items hot and cold items cold. It’s topped off with a leak-resistant lid.

Promotional Die-Cast Delivery Truck
Price: $6.33 each for 100 minimum order, plus $45 set-up charge

Offer up a toy car to your prospects’ children and you’ll keep the kids entertained while you talk business with the parents. You can add your name, Web site, or slogan to each side of these die-cast metal toy vans. As an added bonus: These trucks resemble a moving van so it’ll help get kids in moving mode as they make believe they’re moving into their new home.