Author Archive: Lee

2010 Holiday Catalogs Have Arrived!

2010 Holiday CatalogsLooking for some great gift ideas for your customers, employees or prospective clients? Well look no further. We’d be happy to send you a copy of The Gift Book 2010. This catalog features hundreds of promotional products and corporate gifts at many price points. Just a few of the products featured include custom wine bottles, holiday gift tins, chocolate boxes, desk accessories, clocks, photo frames, watches and art glass. Fill out and submit the catalog request form to get your copy today!

Turn Employees and Recruits into Advocates

I’ve read several books and articles over the years about transforming employees into advocates. As business owners and managers, one of our greatest challenges is developing comprehensive strategies for recruiting, hiring, developing, rewarding and recognizing our employees. It’s these strategies and your company’s culture that can turn an employee into an advocate.

Turn Employees and Recruits into AdvocatesWhile many companies do a great job of branding and marketing their business to customers, they often overlook branding their business to their greatest asset — their employees. According to Cindy Commander, an analyst for The CMO Group, “Marketers spend significant dollars on a variety of tactics to reach and communicate with customers and promote their brands. However, if employees aren’t aligned with and rallied around that brand, then delivery of that brand promise is broken, leading to suboptimal customer experiences, missed opportunities for true brand differentiation, and customer defection. Organizations often underutilize their employees as a channel to connect and build relationships with customers, leading to fewer endorsements of the brand and the organization to customers and potential future customers.”

It’s our employees who must carry our brand to our customers. Do your employees know what your brand is? Do they know the company mission statement? Can they convey what you do in 30 seconds or less? And as somebody who looks for every opportunity to market our business, there’s no reason that you can’t take advantage of these opportunities to promote your business to potential customers as well.

Employee Recruitment
Companies attend many types of functions to recruit potential employees such as job fairs and campus visits. It’s imperative to sell these recruits on your business. The top recruits will be interviewing you as much as you’re interviewing them. What impression do you want to give them? How will they remember your business? The giveaway you choose to give these recruits will tell them a lot about your business. Your first impression may be your only impression.

Hiring and Interviewing
During the interview process consider giving every interviewee a promotional gift decorated with your logo. It’s a great way to break the ice and introduce the candidate to your brand. Most companies will interview multiple applicants before filling a position. These people can become positive advocates of your business even when they don’t get the job if properly introduced to your company’s brand and culture. These people will move on to work for other businesses — businesses that could be potential customers of YOUR business. You want them to remember you, and remember you fondly. The right promotional giveaway is an excellent way to leave them with a positive impression of your company.

Training
Most applicants will require training once they’ve been hired. Make sure you spend time teaching them about your company’s mission and objectives. Whether it’s a coffee mug with the company’s mission statement printed on it, or a training manual with the company’s logo debossed on the cover, every employee must be included and integrated into the company culture. An employee who doesn’t understand the company’s mission is an opportunity lost.

Awards, Recognition and Incentive Programs
One of the most common frustrations among employees is that they feel unrecognized and under-appreciated. Creating programs for recognizing achievement and service at work is a great way to help develop a positive workplace environment. An employee who truly feels appreciated at work is much more likely to be productive and loyal. One of my favorite programs involves allowing staff to nominate other employees for employee of the month, and then vote on the winner. Nothing makes somebody feel more appreciated than recognition by their peers.

Beyond recognizing your employees, incentives are often a great way to motivate your staff. Have clear objectives and rules of achievement, and reward your top performers with promotional gifts.

Wellness Programs, Safety Programs and Team Building Events
Wellness programs have become a popular strategy for many progressive companies. Rewarding employees for improving their health is good for them, and good for you. Safety programs are another way to recognize desired behavior, and reward those who engage in safe conduct. Team building may sound cliche, but it’s vitally important. Employees must feel engaged by the company as well as their peers to become true advocates for your business. Participating in community events is one way to help solidify your team while building brand awareness. Volunteering time to help non-profit organizations not only helps the community, but instills employee pride in your business.

Living the BrandPromotional Apparel
Many businesses utilize corporate apparel and staff uniforms for employees. But what about businesses that do not require employees to wear company apparel? If your staff likes your company, they’re probably willing to wear corporate apparel whether you require it or not. One strategy is to pick a handful of items such as polos, hoodies and windbreakers, and offer them to your staff at reduced prices. Items like these that can be embroidered can typically be ordered in small quantities, and decorators typically don’t care if you mix and match different types of items if the embroidery is the same. You can limit options and colors that support your company branding, but allow your staff to pick sizes and products that best fit them personally. If they won’t wear it, it doesn’t do you any good.

Employees have a vested interest in the success of your business. But if you don’t actively engage them with your business, and recognize them for their achievements, you’ll never convert them into true advocates. Commander goes on to explain, “Employees who actively live the brand create significant benefits for both the customer and the organization. Customers of organizations with employee brand advocates enjoy better customer service, greater anticipation of and ability to have their needs met, and more attentiveness to their voice and feedback. The organization also enjoys the benefits of word-of-mouth marketing, greater profitability and financial results, and a more differentiated brand.”

ROI and Target Marketing

We belong to one of the local BNI chapters, and this week is Kristin’s turn to give the group presentation. We discussed a number of topics for her presentation and eventually settled on ROI and target marketing. So I thought it would be a good time to touch on these subjects here as well. This is not intended to be an in-depth discussion, but a group of ideas to get your wheels spinning in the right direction.

ROI -- Return On InvestmentReturn on Investment (ROI)
I’m sure most of you are already familiar with this term, but in case you’re not, ROI is the cost of a marketing campaign relative to the profit generated during a certain period of time.

Now ROI doesn’t have to be rocket science, though it’s sometimes a challenge to develop a trackable plan. As a marketing professional, I try to break down the ROI of every marketing opportunity we consider. For our business we start by asking ourselves a few simple questions. How much revenue must we generate to break even on this opportunity? (Though your goal shouldn’t be to break even, it’s important to know where this tipping point is located.) And what is our projected revenue from the marketing investment? If we can’t answer these questions, then it’s probably not the right opportunity for us. Or if we don’t expect revenues to reach certain levels, we look for other opportunities.

If you’re unable to measure the results of your company’s marketing plan, you need to reconsider your plan. You need to develop a plan that is measurable, and you must track the results. Can you be successful shooting from the hip? Sure. We all know business owners without a plan who have enjoyed spurts of success. But that’s a tough way to achieve success, and it’s particularly tough to thrive over the long haul without a good, measurable plan.

Target Audience
Too often have I seen business owners give little thought to their target audience. If you’re a plumber, your target audience for a marketing campaign should not be “anybody with water pipes in their house”. The broader the audience, the more difficult it is to develop an effective marketing campaign. The more you refine your target audience, the more likely you are to succeed with your next promotion.

Your targeted audience should coincide with how you position your company, and the image you want to portray. A plumbing company can do many things. Is your strategy to be the cheapest plumber in town? Is your strategy to be the company that specializes in installing high-end bathrooms? These would be two very different lists of prospective customers, and in turn, would require significantly different marketing campaigns to be successful.

Conversions
This is where we start to combine our trackable plan with our target audience. How many sales must you generate for your plan to be successful? What percentage of your audience can you convert into a sale? The more refined your target audience, the higher the return you should expect from an effective campaign. Having trouble making these predictions? That’s OK. Once again, that’s why it’s so important to track the results. Not every plan will generate the results you expect. And when presented with the same opportunity again, you can make even wiser decisions because you tracked the results the last time around.

Promotional Marketing
One of the reasons promotional items are effective is because they’re typically used to promote to a more refined target audience. Remember, the more refined your audience, the higher your expectations should be to convert prospects into customers. Where a radio spot or TV ad is broadcast (transmitted to a large undefined group), think of promotional marketing as narrowcast.

Good luck, and happy marketing!

Custom Vintage Distressed Embroidery

These are sure to become your favorite sweatshirts! These top-quality Comfort Colors garment-dyed sweatshirts are pre-shrunk and made of super-soft 100% ringspun cotton. The pigment-dyeing process infuses each garment with unique character. They are designed to become more aged and relaxed with each use and after each wash. And best of all, check out the vintage distressed embroidery. Very nice! (Click on the image for more information.)

Custom Vintage Distressed Embroidery

Click here to open the full sales literature (1146kb PDF).

Summer Lovin’ with Summer Promos

Woke up this morning and checked out the forecast. It looks like we’ll be in the ’90s again today. Yikes! Now that we’re officially in summer, we have a few cool products to recommend for your next promotion.

Promotional Beach Towels

Beach Towels
Available in a many great colors, beach towels are appreciated gifts. Your clients will use them for years to come. My favorite beach towels are the 70″ x 40″ heavyweight towels that are decorated with a tone on tone technique. They’re stylish, durable and effective promotional gifts. Very nice indeed.

Promotional BBQ SetBBQ Sets
Ideal for company picnics or just a unique summer promotional gift, BBQ sets are a personal favorite of mine. They come in all shapes and sizes, from a practical 3-piece set wrapped in a nylon bag to this awesome 24-piece Executive BBQ Set which includes a beautiful metal case. Makes my head swim just thinking about this arsenal of BBQ-ing utensils. Or combine a BBQ set with a custom decorated BBQ Apron and you’ll make any grill master flush with excitement.

Promotional Beach BallsBeach Balls
Fun at the beach, the lake, the pool or virtually any outdoor event, promotional beach balls are a cost-effective giveaway and a classic summer favorite. Available in a variety of sizes and color combinations, let your imagination run wild. One of our most popular summer promotional items.

Promotional UmbrellasUmbrellas
Promotional umbrellas can stop the rain or protect you from the sun. And this year in Kansas, we’ve already needed protection from both. Umbrellas come in a variety of sizes, and virtually every color combination imaginable. Mini umbrellas are a fun giveaway and can easily fit in a briefcase or glove box. Standard sized umbrellas are useful fundraisers and can be sold at outdoor events. And if you’re sponsoring a golf tournament this summer, the 60″ golf umbrellas provide a huge imprint area for your logo and promotional message.

Remember that not all umbrellas are created equally. My personal favorites are Stromberg Umbrellas. They’re very well constructed. Are available in many great colors, sizes and styles. And can be decorated with your logo.

Promotional Water Bottles

Sport Bottles
Traditionally used during the summer, promotional sport bottles have become popular year round. And talk about variety — there are tons of options for materials, styles, sizes and colors. Nalgene Bottles and Camelbak Bottles are BPA free and are made from an incredibly durable material called Tritan copolyester. Soft-sided bike bottles have followed the trend towards BPA free materials, and are now typically made from recyclable PET. Aluminum bottles are light weight, competitively priced, and carry a high perceived value. And if you want the cream of the crop, stainless steel water bottles are durable and stylish.

Promotional FlyersFlyers
Custom flyers are among our most popular summer promotional items. They come in several sizes and tons of great colors. The most popular size is the 9″ flyer, but my favorite is the 117 gram 9.625″ Ultimate Flyer. It’s heavier and more durable than other promotional flyers and is available in an eco-friendly option made from 100% home recycled material. Other options include a Dog Safe Ultimate Flyer, Foam Flyers, Glow-in-the-Dark Flyers, Collapsible Flyers and Fling Rings.

Promotional Koozies and Can CoolersCan Coolers
Koozie remains the premier line of can coolers, and the Original Koozie Can Cooler is still our most popular style. Made from high-quality durable foam, the Original Koozie can maintain your beverage can at 40-degrees or below for 35 minutes. Koozie offers a broad line of can coolers including Collapsible Koozies (ideal for mailings), Metallic Reflections Koozies, Koozie Jersey Can Coolers, Metal Koozies and a cool Football Koozie. But we don’t stop there. Another popular style of can cooler is the Neoprene Collapsible Can Cooler. Neoprene is a scuba-like material that insulates well and is very durable.

Promotional Sun ScreenSun Screen
Help your customers protect themselves from the harsh rays of the summer sun with promotional sun screen. One of our most popular styles is the Shady .5 oz. Carabiner Bottle. Your choice of SPF 15 or SPF 30 sun screen, this product is both water-resistant and sweat-resistant. A smart promotional giveaway.

Promotional Insulated Bags and TotesInsulated Bags and Totes
From a simple insulated lunch sack to a rolling insulated cooler with a 34″ extending handle, insulated bags and totes make great promotional gifts. With prices that range from a couple bucks to $50 each, you can find the right style to fit any budget and promotion. One of my favorites is the Koozie Kombo Kooler. This combination backpack and kooler is ideal for sporting and recreational activities. The mesh upper compartment and spacious lower compartment makes this bag very user-friendly. Available in red, blue and black.

Recommended Reading: 12, The Elements of Great Managing

12, The Elements of Great ManagingA couple months ago we recommended First, Break All the Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman. Now we’d like to recommend the follow-up, 12, The Elements of Great Managing by Rodd Wagner and James K. Harter. In the first book, the authors developed the 12 elements of job satisfaction — a group of carefully constructed questions for your employees. The answers to these questions will give you considerable insight into the overall satisfaction of your staff. Where the first book covered a greater swath of information, this book focuses on the 12 elements uncovered in the first book.

“Behind each of these is a fundamental truth about human nature on the job. The correlations between each element and better performance not only draw a roadmap to superior managing; they also reveal fascinating insights in how the human mind — molded by thousands of years of foraging, hunting, and cooperating within a close-knit and stable tribe — reacts in a relatively new, artificial world of cubicles, project timelines, corporate ambiguity, and constantly changing workgroup membership.”

Wagner and Harter do an excellent job of explaining each of the 12 elements in detail. Each chapter is dedicated to one of the elements, along with a real world example to provide context. And keep in mind, this isn’t just theory. These guys work for Gallup, and are utilizing the research from millions of employee and manager interviews to drive their results. The conclusions are based on measurable performance statistics.

If you manage people, and would like to improve your managing skills, I highly recommend reading both of these books. Understanding employee satisfaction is a key element to a successful business.

Sales for Organic Products on the Rise

Organic Economy Tote BagsSales of organic cotton apparel and home textile products increased 35% in 2009 to $4.3 billion, according to a report released this week. Over the past decade, beginning in 2001, the annual average growth rate for organic cotton sales is 40%. “Many people thought the recession would mean an end to all things organic, but the market reacted in quite the opposite way,” said LaRhea Pepper, senior director of the Organic Exchange, which produced the report.

Organic Exchange, which released the 2009 sales data, projects the global organic cotton market will increase an additional 20%-40% in both 2010 and 2011, resulting in an estimated $6 billion market by next year.

While the list of top organic cotton buyers features retail giants like Walmart and Nike, it also includes a few of our favorite promotional products, including the Organic Economy Tote. Made from 100% organic cotton, we liked these totes so much we bought them for our own self promo.

Social Media 101 for Small Business — Content Development

A couple weeks ago we discussed some of the most popular platforms for social media for a small business. (View this post.) The focus was on a company blog, facebook and twitter. This week we’ll dive into strategies for the development of content for these platforms.

Most of us involved with small business have to wear multiple hats and don’t have the luxury of a full time copy writer. Hopefully you have somebody on your staff who can do a little writing. If not, there are some options for you that we’ll explore in a moment.

Be an ExpertStep One: Be an Expert
Give some thought to what type of content would be valuable to your customers and prospective clients. What type of knowledge do you have that they do not? Obviously you don’t want to give away all of your trade secrets. But at the same time, if the content doesn’t have value to your customers, it won’t be effective in grabbing their attention.

Let’s pretend that we’re a garden nursery, and that our primary business model is to sell plants, trees and shrubs. Don’t limit yourself to writing just about your specific products. Your content will be even stronger if you can also write around the periphery of your business — a great technique for not giving away all of your knowledge for free. The content needs to relate to your business, but this will open up the doors to many more ideas than if you limit yourself to only your core business. A few story ideas might be “Know when to fertilize your lawn” or “Grasses that grow well in Kansas”.

Develop a list of potential story ideas. This is a great time for brainstorming ideas. Think about seasonal topics. Broad industry topics. And of course stories that relate to your specific products. Add to this list whenever new story ideas come to mind. Many of them you may never get around to developing into useful content, but the act of brainstorming and developing lists will help develop new ideas to write about.

Step Two: Cross Platform Content Development
So you’ve decided how you can portray yourself as an expert in your field, and have developed a list of potential story ideas. Now give some thought to how you can share your content across different platforms. Do you do a company newsletter, either a print version or an emailed version? If not, this would be a good time to consider doing one. You’re already going to be developing content, and newsletters remain an effective way to promote your business. It’s not social media, but as small business people we must find ways to work efficiently and effectively. And sharing content across multiple marketing and social media platforms is a great use of our limited resources.

So for our nursery we’ve decided we want to write an article on what types of plants thrive in direct sunlight that bloom during the summer months. (Can you tell I was gardening this last weekend?) For our newsletter, we’re going to write an extended version of this content — anywhere from ten to twenty paragraphs of information. This fits well into our company’s printed newsletter as our feature article. Keep the article informational, and not salesy. It’s OK to give it a little personality if you can, but the point is to develop content that is useful for your customers.

After this is done, you can now cannibalize the content for the rest of your media needs. If the content isn’t too long, you can use it on your blog, or condense it to a more blog-friendly length. Use the first few paragraphs in your e-newsletter with a link to the complete article on your website. Post some short quips on your facebook page — you might even be able to pull multiple short quips so that you can post content on facebook on several different occasions from this same story. And finally, you need a few very short quips for tweets.

This is a fine strategy for what I would call your core content. Your feature articles. Spend a couple hours writing an article then use it across all of your promotional platforms. But you’ll also need to develop some shorter content for your social media as well.

Step Three: Quick Hits
You will need to mix in some quickies into your social media. This is the best place to let your personality shine. Where your newsletter needs to be a bit more serious, let your hair hang out a bit with your facebook posts and tweets. Comment on special things that are going on at your business. Maybe you’re excited about a new product and want to share a picture and a quick description. Maybe you want to let people know about a special award you’ve received, or a community project you’re involved in. Or maybe you just want to say TGIF!

Let me give you a quick piece of advice: people like to do business with people they like. Let them get to know you better through your posts and tweets. Let them see some character and some personality.

Help! I Can’t Write!
So you say that you can’t write? And nobody on your staff wants to do it either? There are options. If there’s a college in your area, make friends with somebody in the journalism department. College students need experience, and often come cheap. Look around your community, there are probably a number of freelance writers who work from home. Do you belong to any trade organizations? They may have outlets where you can buy content or hire writers. And there are many online communities of writers where you can post your needs for a freelance writer.

Well what are you waiting for? Get to it. And happy marketing.

Promotional Clogs and Footwear

Sandals, flip flops and clogs make fun promotional gifts. Ideal for travel agencies, resorts, or to promote an upcoming event, promotional footwear will make a unique impression on your customers. And some of them will even make a unique impression in the sand.

Kauai Flip Flops -- Promotional FootwearKauai Flip Flops
The Kauai are high-quality custom leather flip flops. Made with an 18mm EVA/rubber sole, embroidered nubuck leather straps and leather insole with recessed foot bed, arch support, and toe lift. The Kauai is available with the optional die-cut talking “Logo Footprint” that leaves an impression of your logo in the sand. Excellent for President’s Clubs, high achievers, or any customer who wants the very best corporate custom logo flip flop. Similar to Rainbow® brand sandals.

Clogs -- Promotional FootwearClogs
These custom logo clog shoes are made with a lightweight quality EVA foam, and are waterproof and anti-bacterial, similar to Crocs™ brand footwear. Custom printed straps will showcase your name or logo. Comfortable and durable, these clogs also feature non-slip traction sole, perfect for all outdoor activities, and are a unique corporate logo gift, for school fund raising, or for corporate travel. Printed in the USA.

Tourista Flip Flops -- Promotional FootwearTourista Flip Flops
The new domestic custom logo Tourista flip flop sandals are designed for those with limited budgets and high expectations, and blow away other inexpensive flip flops. Utilizing a quality PE rubber non-slip insole and real rubber straps (no pvc!), the comfortable Tourista makes a unique custom corporate gift, for school fund raising, gyms or for other clients wanting to buy bulk budget custom logo flip flops. Printed in the USA.

Just call us for more great ideas in promotional footwear. Your feet will be glad you did.