Danger...Danger

This is a dangerous business. You wouldn’t think so, but danger lurks all around a promotional products order. Sooo many things can go wrong…wrong Item Number, wrong quantity, wrong artwork, wrong shipping address, wrong imprint color …sooo many things…no inventory in stock, wrong stock in the bin, wrong sizes pulled, wrong product color, wrong need-by date. Those are just some of the avoidable mistakes. There are always things that cannot be planned against. Things like boxes lost in transit, shipments damaged or destroyed, hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, labor strikes, US customs delays or even theft. Now throw on top of that RUSH requirements and the whole order looks extremely risky. How I sleep at night is beyond me. Wait…I don’t sleep some nights.

How do you mitigate the risk?

First, of course, know who you are dealing with. Work with someone you trust, especially if they have experience in the matter.

Second, order early. There is usually no need to wait to the last minute to place your order. “Proper prior planning prevents poor performance”, right? Waiting will cost you both in money and in worry. Rush orders often involve a substantial Rush Charge and expedited shipping. Rush charges are necessary because we are asking someone to put in extra hours, ie work overtime, to get your job done and to us by the event. The shipping cost for 1000 Magnetic Business Card Pro Football Schedules (the kind that you add your business card to) UPS ground to me, usually a 3-4 day trip, is about $29. Shipping the same quantity UPS 2nd Day Freight is about $110. Next Day Super Saver will cost you around $242.

Third, require a written acknowledgment or confirmation of your order as well as a proof of the artwork. There is almost always time to make sure. My father, a printer by trade, always warned “If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?” Make sure the item number and description, quantity, colors, shipping address, in-hand date and art are all correct. Those are the things you can control. If you receive the acknowledgment and proof, but then don’t check them, any mistakes in production are rightfully yours.

Steve Raggo
www.raggo.com

Choosing The Right Promotional Product (Step 4)

Here is a list of the questions we must answer when choosing the perfect promotional item for your campaign:

1. What do we want to happen?
2. How will we measure success?
3. What is our target demographic?
4. How will we deliver the item?
5. How much can we spend?
6. How quickly do we need the product delivered?

Delivery method is a very important consideration when choosing an ad specialty for your campaign. Promotional products are most commonly handed out at sales calls, trade shows or expos or at the front counters of offices or retail establishments. Other delivery options include direct mail or through third pardies - like donation them to non-profits or business organizations for their golf tournament or other event.

The delivery method helps determine the size, shape, weight and fragility of the advertising item we will choose. A customer once decided that they wanted to send champagne flutes out to all of their customers as a thank you on their business’ anniversary. Flashing red lights started going off in my head as we talked this out on the phone. While an attractive gift with a lot of perceived value and promotional endurance, wine glasses and champagne flutes are bulky and highly breakable, especially when we are ’sending them out.’ When I asked how they were going to deliver 2000 champagne flutes to their customers the only response was…”Oh, wow.” We decided to send out a brass key tag with their anniversary logo instead, along with a post card invitation to their Anniversary Celebration directing the customer to bring the card (filled out with their contact information) into their nearest branch on that day for a free anniversary flute.

Steve Raggo
www.raggo.com

Choosing the Right Promotional Product (Step 3)

Here is our list of questions we must answer when choosing the perfect promotional item:

1) What do we want to happen?

2) How will we measure success or failure?

3) What is our target demographic?

4) How will we deliver the item?

5) How much can we spend?

6) How quickly do we need the product delivered?

Taking Aim

We have discussed what we want to happen as a result of our promotional campaign and how we will determine if we are successful. Now a little bit on the target. In many cases, the people receiving the promotional products and the products' targets are not the same. Banks, police and fire departments, medical providers and most non-profit organizations have become quite adept at this sort of indirect approach. Advertising balloons or coloring books featuring a popular theme with the organization logo prominently displayed are generally not handed out with the hope of the child opening a bank account or making a donation, but can help influence the parent to do so.

If you are giving an anti-drug presentation to a classroom of pre-teens or you are participating in a "Career Day" at the local high school, your promotional products can be handed to the student who will carry them home and end up influencing the parent later that day.

You know your prospects better than we do. Imagine where your prospect is when he or she realizes that they need your product or service. Are they at their desk, in their kitchen, in their car or are they somewhere else? The most effective product we can offer to them - the one that will have an impact on them in that place at that time - is one that is in their vision at that moment.

Say, for example, you own a pizza place and want to increase deliveries to a neighborhood nearby. The neighborhood is made up mostly of young commuters who arrive home in the evening hungry and tired from their work and commute. They open the refrigerator and think to themselves, “There is nothing here I want to go to the trouble of cooking” They close the refrigerator and see the magnet from Donato’s Pizza holding up their To Do List, and Donato's Delivers! No looking through the phone book. No need to go online to find a restaurant. No need to find the newspaper to see who has a special. No need to cook or to drive! Just call Donato's.

One of the strengths of promotional products is their endurance. Check out your refrigerator. I still have a magnet given to me by a real estate agent with a 1999 calendar on it!

Steve Raggo

www.raggo.com

Choosing the Right Promotional Product (2)

Here is our list of questions we must answer when choosing the perfect promotional item:

1) What do we want to happen?

2) How will we measure success or failure?

3) What is our target demographic?

4) How will we deliver the item?

5) How much can we spend?

6) How quickly do we need the product delivered?

Measuring Success

For us, measuring success is an automatic result of deciding to accomplish something. We didn’t open our business just for the sake of opening it. We do not buy printing and postage and Sticky Notes so that we can spend the money. We buy them to make the phone ring or to make the cash register beep or to keep our employees on the job. We make sure that those things happen by keeping track of the phone calls or the daily cash register totals or retention rates. By keeping track we can determine if the promotion was a success. If it is, then we will do it again. If it is not, we will need to make it better by changing the item, the target or the delivery.

There are many ways to keep track. Simple log books and spreadsheets work fine for most goal tracking. In other cases we may need to conduct surveys or send out questionnaires. Let’s say that your goal is to:

“Increase traffic at our trade show booth by 10%”

The plan then might be to send out invitations with flower seed embedded paper (maybe adding "We will help you GROW your business" to the invite text to tie it in) to all of the prospects that you would like to meet. In order to generate excitement, you might choose to offer an MP3 player as door prize, but everyone who stops by your booth will receive a pre-paid music download card in return for their business card. Tell them about the prize in the invitation. Draw your door prize winner from the business cards you collect. The number of cards will tell you if you have met your goal.


Steve
www.raggo.com