I normally write about new marketing products, marketing ideas and other business related advice on this blog. However… Today I’m writing about a product that I’ve loved for years because I use it every day and feel naked when I don’t have it. I do a lot of talking on my cell phone to clients and vendors all day long. I’ve used a variety of different bluetooth headsets over the years and was never quite happy with them. Either customers would complain that they couldn’t hear me very well or I’d be the one struggling to hear them. When you dump good money into a Bluetooth headset you expect it to, at the very least, allow you to hear the person on the other side of the phone and for them, of course, to hear you. I tried a variety of these Bluetooth headsets and it seemed that the more compact and sleek looking they were– the more worse the quality got. Some years ago I decided to try out the Voyager 520 Bluetooth Headset by Plantronics. It was a little longer than some of the more compact Motorola headsets, but this design made sense because it would closer to the mouth. At that time the retail on these were around $80. I was surprised to see how much the price has dropped since then. You can now buy them for under $35. I’m the kind of person that, when I find a product that I love and can’t live without, will buy the items in bulk to make sure I’ll never run out of them. Ask my friends about my beloved BTC PS2 keyboard (yes… I shipped in an entire case from overseas because I couldn’t find them anymore in the United States– and I’m still using them). When I find a great product that I use every day it becomes an extension of me. I’ve never had one person complain that they were having problems hearing me, that I sounded far away, or that there was a lot of static on the line. This headset has made communications with my customers and vendors easy and convenient. I highly recommend this product: Voyager 520 Bluetooth Headset by Plantronics
Promotional Product Ideas for Marketing in the New Year
Not sure what type of promotional product you should pick this year? With hundreds of thousands of logo imprinted promotional items available in today’s market, finding the right one for your business or organization can be daunting. I’ve listed a couple of hot categories to consider for branding your company this year as well as information that could help you narrow down your choices.
Apparel: If ever there was one promotional product category that was universally accepted and good for any financial climate, it’d be the category of Apparel. Free t-shirts, golf shirts, baseball caps & jackets are always gladly accepted and always in demand (even if it’s branded with your logo and contact information).
The benefits of logo imprinted apparel is that people will wear it and wear it with pride and all while branding your company. There are tens of thousands of different promotional clothing items that can be silk screened, embroidered or heat transferred with your company logo and slogan. Promotional apparel can also make a wonderful addition to your employee moral packages as well as employee incentive program rewards. Too many times, in my adolescence, did I see my peers do humiliating feats just to obtain a single solitary t-shirt that sported a local radio station logo. Apparel can go a long way when it comes to building your brand.
Even if you don’t have the budget to hand out hundreds of logo imprinted t-shirts and hats, you should most definitely have your company logo embroidered on your shirts. Branding all of your company attire can help your small business look bigger than it actually is.
Pens: Never take for granted the mighty pen when it comes to promotional marketing. Everyone, in business, uses a pen on a daily basis so why not take advantage of this fact? Branding a nice pen with your company name and contact information insures that it will be in view ever time that the user picks it up to write with. There are thousands of different pens in almost every shape, size and color imaginable. There’s bound to be a pen that will compliment your brand.
When picking a promotional product for your business, you want to pick one that is going to provide you the most exposure. If your promotional item is not getting a lot of exposure, then it is not working to help you build your company brand. Pens and any other desktop tools are perfect promotional products because they are used on a very regular basis– thus giving your logo and contact information great exposure.
Don’t skimp on your promotional pen selection. Consider this one very important fact before going for the cheapest pen that you can find… People can almost become “married” to a pen that they like. Have you ever had someone not want to let you borrow their pen because that was their “favorite pen”? In almost every case, that pen that they protect with such pride and purpose is not a cheap pen that would have run out of ink a few weeks after first use. No… The pens that people cherish the most are usually the pens that have a some weight to them, are easy to use, have a refillable ink cartridge and write very smoothly. If you want to invest in a promotional pen– You want one that is going to be not only cherished, but also coveted!
Bags: Branding a shopping bag with your store logo, web address, physical address and phone number is one of those things that is simply a “no brainer” for any storefront business. Whether you’re a big department store, grocery store, pharmacy or small family owned store, you should always take advantage of branding your shopping bags with your company logo and contact information. For both disposable plastic shopping bags and reusable cloth shopping bags the same rule applies– Always take advantage of any opportunity to improve your company brand recognition. Almost every person leaving your store, leaves with a bag that you either gave them or they brought with them and when they leave that customer should leave with bags that have your logo on them letting people know where they just spent their money and where they should also be spending their money.
Plastic bags are not the best for the environment… There’s no disputing that fact, but until every consumer in the world gets bit by the “green” bug, those plastic bags are a necessary evil. One great thing that can be said about them, however, is that all too often they are reused for lunch bags. So not only is your customer branding your business with these bags after they leave their store and unloading those bags from their vehicle in plain site of their neighbors– Some people will be continuing to help promote your brand by reusing these handy little plastic bags to carry their lunch to work or school.
Environmentally speaking– you always want to go the route of a reusable cloth shopping bag when branding your business and even more so– a reusable shopping bag made of recycled materials. Not only will you get a lot more exposure out of the life of your shopping bags, you’ll also get a longer life out of that bag. The really funny thing about these logo imprinted reusable bags is that (and I’ve seen this happen on so many occasions) if you went with a nice quality bag, that bag will be used for all kinds of shopping– so you’ll see your bags being used in every store that customer visits. I’ve seen reusable bags branded with a popular grocery store being filled up at a bed & bath store. It tickled me to see this. The branding opportunities with reusable bags are never ending.
Drinkware: Who doesn’t like a free coffee mug, plastic cup or sports bottle? My voice can me heard in that resounding “I DO!”. I remember attending health insurance fairs in my younger years of non-self employment and jumping all over the opportunity to obtain a free piece of logo imprinted drink wear and being disappointed when I was beaten to the treasure because they’d jut ran out before I was able to get to the table that had them. My fellow coworkers were almost ready to engage into mortal combat over gaining ownership of the very last Humana imprinted sipper cup. I’d see those coveted cups used for years after the health fair– so they were definitely the promotional gift that kept on giving (giving back to the company that branded it).
With so many choices in drinkwear, you’re bound to find the perfect cup, mug, sipper or bottle to best suite your brand. They come in a variety of shapes, sizes and color and materials. There’s even drinkwear that’s made of recycled materials, drink wear that IS recyclable and even biodegradable (completely and safely dissolving in a landfill after just 9 months).
Mouse Pads: Mouse pads are another great way to keep your company brand and contact information in front of your customers. Mouse pads are always on the desktop where people work on their computers every day. Branded properly and with close consideration placed on mouse placement– A properly designed custom mouse pad can offer your more branding opportunities than most desktop promotional items. There’s a lot of advertising real estate on a mouse pad and everyone loves to get a free mouse pad. You can list your products and services and even provide images of those products and service in vivid full color. Mouse pads come in a variety of shapes and sizes and custom shapes can be made to fit the design of your brand. Advertising mouse pads are very affordable and have a long term branding potential. Here’s some of our most popular mouse pads.
Hand Sanitizers: With all of the viral scares of late, a perfect way of branding your business is to imprint your logo and contact information on hand sanitizer bottles and sprays. We live in a time where people are finding themselves without health insurance. Getting sick and missing time from work is probably no longer an option for most. With the fear of getting sick, having to pay money out of pocket for a doctor’s visit and/or missing out on a much needed paycheck– hand sanitizer sales are at an all time high. With the right kind of hand sanitizer branded with your company brand and information, you’ll not only be showing your customers and potential customers that you care for their health– You’ll also be branding your business every time the bottle is used. Favorite picks for hand sanitizers
And More and More and More: There are so many affordable ways of branding your business via promotional products. Always keep in mind that people love to receive FREE stuff and if it’s good FREE stuff that they can use and use often– the rewards of having your company logo printed on that FREE stuff goes without mentioning.
More Promotional Giveaway Ideas Include:
Stress Relievers (balls, animal shapes, fruit shapes, character shapes, etc.)
If you are looking for the perfect promotional product, but don’t know where to start. JH Studios is happy to help. We have over 800,000 different promotional items and will help you pick one that will be perfect for you!
I’ve recently stumbled upon a great marketing tool for grocery stores that is so helpful to shoppers that it’s sure to be a hit! Introducing the One Trip Grip Multi Shopping Bag Handle!
One Trip Grip
It comes imprinted so your logo will always be present every time a shopper uses this tool to when having too many plastic shopping bags to carry (which can cut off the circulation in their fingers and wrists). This very clever tool is made of incredibly strong ABS plastic and is designed to carry many shopping bags, linking them all together much like keys on a key ring. The shopper will be able to carry all of those bags with the greatest of ease and your grocery store logo will be right on the grip. Think this is the kind of promotional product that you’ll need to giveaway? Think again. This is such a handy shopping tool, that once people start seeing them in action, they’ll pay up to $10 a piece to get their hands on them! You’ll not only make money off of selling this product, you’ll also be advertising your business by imprinting it with your logo. Need I say more? Buy them here and be one of the first grocery chains to start selling this long lasting shopping (marketing) tool today!
Stress relievers are a fun and inexpensive way to keep your business name in someone’s face. They are cute, funny, useful and people really like them. They come in all kinds of shapes, including characters, body parts, food items, tools, light bulbs, even Albert Einstein (who is so popular he is sold out at the moment). There are literally hundreds of different shapes to meet any marketing requirements. They are the ultimate customizable promotional item. If you have a specific niche that your business caters to, and there isn’t a readily available stress reliever, we can actually have a mold custom made and create your very own product. They can be used any number of ways, from customer appreciation and trade shows, to holiday gifts. People love to sit them on their computers which is good, because their primary purpose (other than promoting your business name) is to stretch and relax the muscles of the wrist, hand and forearm, which can become stiff and irritated from extended computer use. Stress relievers are one of the most popular promotional products in America. Based on the design and quantity ordered they can range anywhere from 80 cents a piece to 3-4 dollars, making them a fun and cost effective way to market your business. Check out JH Studio’s website, where we have literally hundreds of these fun promotional products pictured. If you don’t find one that’s perfect for your business, call us and we will be happy to help you design your own. Follow this link to see some of our great Stress Relievers.
When choosing a promotional product you, of course, want one that is going to be used and not just end up in someone’s junk pile. Logo imprinted pizza cutters are very practical commonly used promotional products that will continue for many years to promote your brand. My first experience with a promotional pizza cutter was about 5 years ago when I attended a local tradeshow. The pizza cutter was made completely of plastic– I thought that was a little odd since every pizza cutter I’ve ever seen had a metal blade. I really didn’t expect the product to work. So the next time I made a pizza (which wasn’t very long because I eat them probably more than I should), I decided to use my plastic pizza cutter and to my amazement it worked and worked perfectly! It was easy to clean because the plastic blade popped out of the grip guard. I also liked that I couldn’t cut myself trying to clean it– which is easy to do with metallic pizza cutters. I used that plastic pizza cutter for 5 years before having to replace it. Five years for a promotional product is an exceptionally long time and I must have eaten a few hundred pizzas (shamefully) during that time . I also used the pizza cutter to cut naan bread and quesadilla.
If you’re looking for a logo imprinted promotional product that will have a long lifespan and get a lot of use, I recommend giving pizza cutters a try. The one that I mentioned above can be found here: plastic pizza cutters. Mention this blog article when ordering Pizza Cutter Item# 1325 and get $20 off your order. Imprinted product only.
If you have more time than you have money, there are things that you can personally do to improve the Search Engine ranking of your web site. If you’ve designed your own website or have an existing website that isn’t getting the traffic that you need, there is hope. Below you’ll find tools that will allow you to do your own Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and allow you to stretch your internet advertising dollar. Read More About Self SEO.
Has this happened to you? You get a letter in the mail letting you know that your domain name is up for renewal. The notice came delivered in an official looking envelope (usually with a logo in the return address that has a patriotic theme). Has it really been a year?”, you probably thought. It most likely has not been a year and it is probably a SCAM! If you carefully read the entire renewal notice, you’ll probably find (among all of the legalese looking text) some small comment that says something like “This is not a bill”. Although these companies appear to be billing you for the renewal of your domain name, you’re really signing up with some bogus Search Engine submission service. They won’t even tell you what the service entails.
Wait—It gets worse! Some of these letters are not just designed to trick you into buying a bogus service—some of these letters are actually tricks to get you to switch your domain name over to a completely other domain name company.
How to Protect Yourself:
• Read the fine print on any letters that you get regarding your domain name via the U.S. Postal Service. It is very uncommon that your domain name registrar will send you a renewal notification in snail mail (U.S. Mail).
• Remember that these letters usually have a logo, in the return address area, that is patriotic themed (red, white & blue) and usually have an icon that is also patriotic. Keep in mind, that this may not always be the case so again—Always read the fine print.
• If you buy/bought your own domain name, get whois privacy protection. This is an extra annual service that you buy with your registrar (like Godaddy.com) that makes your contact information private. This will not only protect you from getting letters like I mentioned, it’ll also prevent a lot of SPAM that you might get via U.S. Mail and, of course, your email.
If you’re a JH Studios customer and you had us purchase a domain name on your behalf, you have nothing to worry about. Our information is put in place of yours (and protected as stated in your web design contract), so you won’t have to deal with issues like this. If you came to JH Studios with your own domain name or chose to purchase your own domain name after becoming a JH Studios customer, you can still help to protect yourself by subscribing the domain name privacy program that your registrar (should) offer.
One more SCAM out there that I’d like to make you aware of is an email that may come to you letting you know that a possible trademark problem may be occurring in . To protect your brand/trademark/copyright of your existing domain name, you need to contact this (overseas) company immediately to prevent another (fictitious) company from getting your domain name (in let’s use China as an example) with the extension .com.cn instead of just .com. For one thing… This is, of course, a scam, but secondly… Why would you care if someone on the other side of the world is using your name? Is there anything that you can do about it? Are you going to buy your domain name for each of the 195 someod countries in the world? No. Probably not…
Be careful. The internet is full of scam artists. Always read the fine print and if you’re still not sure if it’s a scam—always feel free to ask your JH Studios rep. We are here to help our clients succeed online and be safe in the process.
How many times has this happen ed to you? You come across this great website that is packed full of information about your favorite hobby or other area of interest. The owners of the site promise they will be adding fresh web content regularly, so you are led to believe that the regular web site updates will keep flowing, providing you with an endless stream of useful information. You add the site to your favorites list, thinking that you will be a frequent visitor. You take comfort in knowing that the valuable resource for which you have been searching for is only a mouse click away.
A week later, you pay your next visit to that web site, only to find out that the fresh web page content you were anticipating turns out to be stale. In fact, a closer inspection reveals that no updates have been done at all. You’re disappointed, but you decide to try back a couple of days later, only to finally realize that regular content updates probably aren’t going to happen any time soon, if ever… Sadly, you remove the site from your favorites list and resume your Google search for the relevant information you crave. This little illustration serves to demonstrate the importance of adding fresh content regularly to your web site to keep people coming back more often. Lets face it… Many Internet surfers have short attention spans. If they come back to your site and don’t find anything new and captivating, they are immediately off to the next site– leaving your web site to be forgotten forever. Search Engine spiders are equally important as site visitors. Frequent spider visits are critical to obtaining optimal search engine rankings and they are more likely to come back regularly if there’s fresh content and new pages for them to index. With so many web sites out there competing for attention, not to mention the spending dollars of millions of web surfers, you need to give people and search engine spiders plenty of reasons to keep coming back. You can vastly improve your chances of increasing traffic by not only updating your existing content regularly, but by also adding targeted content pages (also called “landing pages”). Have you heard of the concept of niche marketing? Of course you have… Niche marketing involves gearing your web marketing efforts to attract specific demographic characteristics that best fit your products or services. By niche marketing with niche specific web pages, you’ll be able to get more visits to your web site. Just like fishing– The more lines you cast into the water, the better your chances are of catching more fish. By adding new targeted pages to your website, you will be attracting more quality visitors. This makes it even more important to add regular website updates, as these quality visitors are the ones who are more likely to become your customers.
If you are looking to update web site content are wish to add new niche specific landing pages, call us today for a no cost consultation!
During this time of environmental awareness, more and more individuals and businesses are grasping the concept of “going green“. There’s a vast range of ways that companies can strive to be more environmentally conscious. Many public places have installed motion-sensitive lights to save energy when people are not in a room. Solar panels, better insulation and skylights are all implementable concepts that are eco friendly. There is another very beneficial way for businesses to go green and that is by using recycled, reusable, or biodegradable materials in their promotional products. Does it sound complicated? Not at all… It is actually one of the simplest things you can do to both market your business and remain environmentally conscious at the same time.
Every prominent company utilizes the idea of promotional giveaway items. One thing an Eco-Friendly company needs to do is make those giveaways reusable. This is popularly utilized in grocery store bags that can be bought, or more commonly given away with a purchase of some such amount of merchandise, that can be reused to reduce the consumption of plastic bags. These reusable bags are used as marketing materials by having the name of the store that distributed them printed on the outside.
Another popular way to utilize eco-friendly promotional items is to distribute products that are either recycled or biodegradable. Recycled products help reduce waste and biodegradable merchandise eliminates the concern of littering. Promotional items are popularly found in the form of recycled cardboard. There is a much wider range of logo imprinted recycled products that can be sold, however, from recycled paper to recycled circuit boards and more. Marketing materials found in the form of bookmarks and custom signs come in the form of biodegradable plastic & papers.
The reason companies are going green is ultimately to reduce their environmental carbon footprint. Investing in the use of recycled, reusable or biodegradable promotional products is a simple way of helping the environment as well as your company’s image. Since the idea of going green is very popular with many people today, business promotions can be used to not only tell the world how environmentally conscious your company has become, but to also get your name out there on promotional items that your clients and potential clients will use on a daily basis. From biodegradable water bottles and pens made out of corn to reusable mint tins and candy tins, the eco friendly marketing materials you are looking for are within your reach!
JH Studios, Inc. offers thousands of Environmentally Conscious promotional products
that you can imprint with your company information. For a no cost consultation on what products would be best
suited for your business or organization. Give us a call at 1-877-893-1741.
Going Green while marketing your business is a Win-Win situation!
More and more we are seeing what plastic grocery bags are doing to the planet and the creatures that live here. We need to get more people away from using the free plastic bags that grocery stores give out. This is the PERFECT opportunity for your company to support this effort and give your customers the tools they need to get rid of the plastic. The reusable grocery tote is the perfect marketing tool for your company and it shows that your company cares about the environment. So let your customers shop till they drop while displaying your company’s logo. Help the environment and your business all at the same time.
More and more we are seeing what plastic grocery bags are doing to the planet and the creatures that live here. We need to get more people away from using the free plastic bags that grocery stores give out. This is the PERFECT opportunity for your company to support this effort and give your customers the tools they need to get rid of the plastic. The 
JH Studios is Tampa's Premier website, graphic, print and promotional design firm. "If you can see it, we can do it!"
