NIU

business gifts

Posted by Stacy on Tuesday, September 02, 2008 8:45 AM

Business gifts and promotional items can make such a big difference in promoting a business. For years I really tried all kinds of advertising for my office and got little to no results at all. I constantly had people coming into my office to help me with new advertising strategies, and each time I would think that this would be it, and I would put the money down on the table to do some ad in a magazine or some radio spot, just to find that most people did not pick a dentist off the radio. The magazine ad did get me a few new patients and so did the direct mailer, but for the amount of money they were costing me it was just hopeless. I was barely making any money back from the patients that were coming in. Then I was at my kids school and there were a few kids walking around with t-shirts that they had obviously gotten from local businesses. There was one kid wearing a Mickey's Auto Repair shirt and another wearing a spine shirt from a local chiropractor's office. Well, I thought this was a great idea. I went home and immediately began looking up promotional advertising and the companies that carried these types of items and found that there were a large number of companies that specialized in just these types of items.

I couldn't believe how may different items there were to choose from. They included items such as sports bottles and t-shirts and even coffee mugs and travel bags. I was so impressed and sat down to try to think of a cute slogan to put on these items. I couldn't really come up with something so I contacted the company that I liked and they were able to help me come up with a catchy slogan and they helped me pick products like they were my own personal adviser. I was so impressed not only with the products and prices but also with the incredible customer service. I loved the products so much that I even decided to give sports bottles to all the high school ball teams in the area, and they have been advertising for me ever since. Now my business name is all over town and the families are coming in at the rate of 1 to 2 new families a week. At this rate, I won't be able to take any new patients soon unless I add an associate or something, but overall this is a good problem to have.