Practice What You Preach

offer you a discounted price for self-promos. Once you’ve made the commitment and placed your order, follow these tips for increasing business:

Tag Along. Include a self-promo with every sample or order you ship to a customer. They are paying the freight charge, and your name and contact information are left behind. Make sure to keep fresh products with different slogans on hand so you are always sharing new ideas with your clients.

Celebrate. Take advantage of the holidays. Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Flag Day, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Halloween and Thanksgiving are wonderful opportunities to give self-promos to current and potential clients. Customers want to know that you love and appreciate their business. Plus, holidays lend themselves to great catch phrases. Try, “No tricks. Just treats from ...” for Halloween, “We Love Your Business” around Valentine’s Day or “We are thankful for your business” on Thanksgiving. If you time it right, you can mail these to arrive on the actual holiday.

Mmm, Chocolate. Promote your business using self-promo chocolates. Put together a box of chocolates, candy bars or truffles printed with your name and contact information. Then, leave them behind when you drop in. Visiting clients just before the lunch hour or late in the day is a great time to give out your personal chocolates.

Lumpy Mailings. Continue to send lumpy mailings. Despite higher postal rates, this type of mailing is worth it for the attention it gets. Using different shapes and sizes of envelopes works well, too. Create a preferential list of your top 25 customers, and, on a quarterly basis, send them three to five self-promos, a few catalogs and a personalized letter. This will give them ideas to build their businesses, which will ultimately increase your revenue, too. This is a win-win situation, and it works!

Family First. Use pictures of important activities, such as your grandchildren’s or children’s birthdays and celebrations. Put a digital picture on a candy tin or plastic tub of jelly beans, and maximize the celebration. For most people, family comes first, and they’ll want to know what’s going on in your family life.

Business Tools. Whenever you send catalogs to customers, always include a few products that will promote their business. Useful items, such as sticky notes, pens, magnets, letter openers, highlighters and rulers are wonderful products to complement your mailing.

Travel Companions. Carry a box of exciting self-promos in your car. In our business, everyone is a potential customer. Develop a great elevator speech, and give out your samples whenever you are out and about.

I have found self-promos to be tremendously successful with my clients. We are always trying to encourage our customers with ways to market their business using promotional products. Thanking them and giving away samples of what we sell to our customers will bring a smile to their faces and yours. n

Brad Shuman is a corporate sales executive at Pro Specialties Group in San Diego. His 25 years experience in the promotion business has enabled him to secure customers and clientele nationwide. He can be reached at 800.544.5646, extension 104 or brad@psginc.com.