Promotional Pens

There are thousands of pen imprinters on Google. But I think you would be better off spending your money on real marketing.

A show of hands, has anyone ever bought from someone because they were given a promotional pen?

On the other hand, I buy them by the gross, because I like the feel of them, and they are good pans. I also let people have them. But I never think of it as marketing, just me being a nice guy.

The difference is you paid for the pen and the pen to be shipped to you.

The shoe seller added the entire cost in with the shoes you bought, even If that's only one or two dollars. You still paid for the promotion expense while your own traffic won't pay for the pen or shipping the pen.

What you need to figure out is how you can get your traffic to pay for a pen + shipping while they think they're getting something for free.

The trick with promotional items is the same as with any other kind of marketing: know your target audience
know your goals,
etc.

If I'm looking for shoes and get a promotional item from a shoe seller the day I've decided to buy shoes (but before I buy), I might consider them, depending on a bunch of variables.

If I get a gift for buying something, I'm going to feel better about the purchase (less likely to return/get a refund, maybe I'll even recommend them, just because of the gift).

Etc.

So, before you give away anything, what is it you want the gift to accomplish?

I mean, pens are cheap, individually, but give away a few hundred and you're talking real money.

People think that pens are best suited because they can cost next to nothing and are used a lot. But you cannot put all that much info on a pen.

Since you're selling hosting, if you're going to go with promo stuff, you can send something right after they buy, with a nice thank you note... And one 2 months before it's time to renew, along with a note reminding them how much they enjoyed being with your hosting company, then another one a couple of weeks before their hosting expired, with another great note.

Gets more expensive, doesn't it?

But I'd bet real money it would reduce the number of departures... Will it do that enough to be worthwhile? Depends on implementation.

Speaking like someone who's had more than one hosting account for more than a bunch of years: I bought hosting because they had good reviews and promised to do things I want a hosting company to do. I renewed for as long as I felt they were keeping the original promise. I require no gift. A gift would do nothing for me.

In other words, test small... Just because the idea sounds good to you doesn't mean it sounds good to your targeted audience.

If you've already made the sale, why send a pen?

If you just want to send a little thank you gift, then by all means. But if it's for marketing purposes, spend the money elsewhere where you can acquire new customers.

I give away free pens with each product shipped, I expect them to float around the house and then maybe they will visit my website one day in the future, or possibly someone might pocket the pen and look up the website at some point out of curiosity. I figure it's a good way to get stuck in people's minds for a while. We have more repeat buyers than fresh buyers these days, not sure exactly how much that is due to pens but I will keep tossing one in each package.
We pay about .30 cents per pen. strait from the manufacturer.

How about stress balls ? or maybe not...every time they're stressed they'll think of you

We buy our promotional pens at Nationalpen.com They keep sending me free pens, and their prices are pretty good. Every once in a while I order a gross from them. It isn't much more expensive to have our company name and contact information imprinted on the pen, so we do that.

Everyone ALWAYS needs a pen.

pEn is alway is useful to all people. You thought is nice. Keep it up.

i need a pen right now tho seriously

While promotional pens is certainly not a new idea I think there is still merit to giving them to customers. I personally love getting a pen from a merchant I've purchased something from and have used it as a quick way to remind me of the exact business name and/or URL rather than looking for a bookmark on my computer or trying to locate the invoice from the purchase. I prefer click style pens over stick pens with the removable tops.