3 Realistic Ways to Stay on Budget When Buying Branded Marketing Items
There are all kinds of articles around touting 'fantastic ways' for your large business, small business or start up company to save money when buying marketing items. There are places to save money and there are places to spend your marketing dollars.
Know your budget, know your brand.
1. Don't wait until the last minute to purchase your branded marketing materials. Rush factory charges and express shipping charges don't put more promotional pens or custom cups on your event table.
We know. There are times rush is unavoidable but don't make it a habit. Plan ahead. When you can't plan ahead, ask a trusted promotional products adviser: "what are the best in stock promotional items in my budget?" You'll save yourself hours of googling. Time is money after all.
2. Buy your promotional products in bulk. The more promotional power banks you buy, the better the price. Obviously, this only works if you have storage space.
If you have 4 events annually and use basics like custom post-it notes, inexpensive giveaway pens and custom mint tins--order for all four events, not just one. You will save money and as a bonus, have less scrambling around at the last minute.
3. Partner with a promotional products professional who really knows the space.
Why will this save you money? Some examples:
PROBLEM: New customer needed customized glass water bottles for an event in less than 2 weeks. They had pricing from an online promotional products company. We knew the bottle was from a west coast factory and the event was in Boston. Shipping time ground service: 5 days.
We asked if the price they had included shipping. No. Shipping cost for those promotional water bottles was as much as the bottles themselves. Why? Express shipping was necessary to get them to the event in time. Ouch.
SOLUTION: We suggested a similar promotional glass bottle from an east coast factory. Even with standard production time and ground shipment, there was still a day to spare. That's always a good thing!
PROBLEM: Prospect called to see if we had cheap mobile chargers (their words, not ours!) that could be printed with their company logo. They had found online pricing on plastic mobile chargers. I asked what the mAh was. 1800 mAh. They thought that promotional charger would fully charge their sales force's tablets. Nope.
SOLUTION: From the correct custom iPad case (one size doesn't necessarily fit all) to enough juice to charge a tablet, get the right item for the job. You need a whole lot more mAh to charge a tablet than a phone. Showing this client the custom charger that would actually charge their tablets saved money and kept their sales force connected while on the road.
PROBLEM: New customer called inquiring about custom iPad cases to fit iPad Air tablets. I asked which model iPad Air. No clue she said but went on to tell me how upset they were because they had ordered 500 personalized iPad Air cases with their company logo from another promotional products company and none of them fit their iPads. She told me the other company refused to take them back as they weren't defective and nothing was wrong with the imprint of their logo. Expensive lesson.
SOLUTION: If you are ordering from an online promotional products company, the information may or may not be reliable or accurate. In this industry, we are all resellers. Most take the word of the factory as gospel. PROMOrx does not. We ask questions or get samples if there's any question.
We sent this new customer a sample of the iPad case we recommended in their (newly reduced) budget knowing it would work for their model iPad. They ordered 500 with their company logo debossed for an upscale look.
Know your budget. Know your brand.
Partner with a professional promotional products specialist like PROMOrx.
Blogger: Vickie MacFadden, the PROMOrx.com owner. I'm a tell it like it is Southerner who loves tech and is insatiably curious. I'm the author of the infamous 5.5 Ways to Know if Your Company Swag Sucks Vickie at PROMOrx dot com
Need a professional promotional products partner? Contact us. 888.553.9569
