Tuesday, September 7, 2010

How A Customized Promotional Item Can Travel The World

In today's age there are websites and companies that are going online daily. Many of these websites that are going live are new entrepreneurs that have the idea of owning their own online business. As more and more of these entrepreneurs get online they are in need of the same thing as everyone else...traffic! Just like a traditional business needs foot traffic or customers walking through them, an online business needs traffic as well.  While I have been an online entrepreneur and do much marketing online that we are all familiar with like article marketing, video marketing and PPC, this is not one of those types of marketing strategies; this is one outside the internet arena.
What I consider one of the most powerful promotional imprinted products you could invest in is one that gets stolen all the time. It is something that you always need many times a day and most people have hundreds of them around the office or home. It is a pen! A pen is an item that many people borrow but never give back, and it could potentially travel the world within a week or two. I really think that would be an interesting documentary. What if a tracking device was installed in a pen to see where it went? Think of the last time you lent a pen out and never got it back. Think if that pen had advertising on it for your business, how powerful could that be and how far could it go?

Where Could It End Up?
Now if you have the mindset like I do and also many other entrepreneurs, we think BIG. You always have to think BIG or otherwise you will get left behind. Okay, follow me here...
You buy three hundred ball point pens for $120, and you find a way to leave six in public reach for thirty days. You now have 180 traveling silent advertisers for your business, and what did you do...not much. Your pens have the potential to be in hundreds of different people's hands in a month. This still leaves you with just under half of your order to distribute or do other things with.

Can You Follow The Pen?
Where does it go? Ok, say you are taking your spouse out to dinner at Applebee's in Kansas City, MO.
At the end of the dinner your waitress brings you the bill and a pen. You could accidently switch her pen with one of your business pens or leave her both. You leave after signing the bill and then the rest of the night other patron's are using your pen. Let's say one patron is a school teacher that takes the pen and then takes it to work with her the next day. Then she accidently leaves it in the teachers' lounge. The pen is used by a few other teachers and one picks it up with his papers and takes it to his night class. He just happens to sit next to someone who forgot their pen and it is passed off as a "favor".

This Is Where It Gets Fun...
The fellow student who borrowed the pen as a "favor" takes it home and lays it on the counter at night. The next morning the fellow student's spouse takes it to work at their car rental business. The spouse rents a car to a traveling business man from Hawaii. This business man "borrows" the pen only to slide it into his pocket; never to be returned. He gets back to his hotel for the night and looks at the pen, and then goes to your website. After being on the run for 14 hours he is tired and throws your pen in his briefcase. The next day he hops back on a plane to Hawaii to meet up with one of his business partners in Maui. It happens that his business partner is originally from Japan and travels home once every two months to see his mother. During the quick 30 minute meeting at the airport, his business partner "borrows" the pen and is off to Japan.

So What Did It Cost You?
Following the pen through about ten different people: the pen cost you .40 and ten different people wrote with it. If you know human nature like I do, they read the writing - we are all very inquisitive. Ok, I agree it cost you a dinner with your spouse, but you needed to do that anyway. So breaking this equation down into getting your business in front of people could be as low as .04 a person.

What Am I Doing?
I am reaching out to a great friend of mine, Ronni Sherman, who owns Creative Images or actually Cre8iveimages. I will tell you first of all, Ronni is a high class lady who considers customer service her top priority and goes the extra ten miles for every client. With Ronni's business, she not only offers pens but also:
*Bags
*Breath Mints
*Adhesive Notes
*Caps, T-Shirts and other apparel
*Calendars
*Golf Balls
*Badges
*Luggage Tags
*Computer Items
*Drink Ware
*Executive Gifts
*And so much more!!!

So what I am trying to tell you is quite simple. A great way to get your company name out in the world at a low cost is with promotional custom products.
Wishing you everlasting success,
Your friend and mentor,
Robert David Strong
Written by guest author, Robert David Strong

Let your pen be the one that travels the world. Thank you, Robert!
IT'S YOUR COMPANY......SHOW IT OFF!!!
Ronni Sherman

2 comments:

  1. Hi Ronni,

    Thank you so much for allowing me to be a guest author on your blog, it was not only a privledge to be a guest but to also write the story. You take your business to the next level with the passion that you have for your clients. I look forward to hearing more from you and as always, stay inspired!

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  2. Hi Ronni,

    I read this post a while back and it was an incredibly great post. I will most definitely take this into consideration. Thanks for sharing

    Sherman

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