Cartoons For Your Promotional Products
One of the best forms of advertising is probably product giveaways. When you give away
promotional products such as t shirts, coffee mugs, sweatshirts, mousepads and
calendars, consider the long term benefits versus the cost. Although it costs more to
give away 1000 t shirts than it does to run a newspaper ad which will be read by
1000 readers, within a day or two the newspaper ad is forgotten. However
the promotional product keeps on advertising. Let me give you a great example.
Today in the mail I received a free coffee mug from a website I frequently visit.
The cup includes their name and logo and every time I use that cup I will be reminded
of this company. I drink coffee every day and will undoubtedly use their mug several
times a week, even though I own several other coffee mugs. It keeps their name in
front of me for as long as I own the mug and encourages my repeat business. Some of
the mugs I own I have had for ten years or more. You can see how this type of
advertising can keep working for a company over a long period of time.
|
|
|
|
Rather than just giving away products another really great idea is to use promotional
items as prizes in a contest. The contest helps you to develop a mailing list and
you give away as many prizes as you can afford as future advertising. Your business
wins both ways.
This is effective advertising but let's take a look at some of the ways we can keep
the costs down.
Consider first how many products you want to give away. If your business is small
and you currently only have a handful of important clients, you will probably want
to utilize the services of an on-demand printer such as cafepress.com or zazzle.com.
With companies such as these you can print a very small quantity, even a single
piece, which keeps your overall printing costs down to just what you need. The
drawback is the cost per item is relatively high. For example, it would cost you
about $15 to print a single t shirt at cafepress.com.
If, on the other hand if you have a large number of prospective customers and you
need to give out lots of t shirts, you're better off going to a screen printer to
take advantage of a much lower quantity discount. If you print 100 t shirts, for
example, your cost per t shirt will be more in the neighborhood of $5.00 per shirt,
almost a third of the price you'd pay for on-demand printing.
The primary reason for the difference is set-up costs. Whether you print one
t shirt or 100, the printer still has to go through certain steps to set up
the presses. By spreading that cost over 100 shirts, the cost per shirt is much
lower than it is for only a few shirts.
If you hire an artist to design the t shirts, a similar thing happens. The
artist will charge a fee, partially based on how much time and work he has to
put in, and partially on the use of the artwork. If you spread that cost over
the number of t shirts you are printing, you will generally pay a lot less per
shirt if you print a larger quantity.
There are other products you can give away which are probably just as effective
as t shirts, but less costly. For example, coffee mugs and mousepads cost
probably 30 to 40 percent less than shirts. Pens and magnets are even less expensive.
Your design will want to incorporate your name, logo, and maybe your address
or email address but you'll also want the design to have something more
appealing to the viewer. A cartoon can be very effective, for example.
Funny cartoon drawings are hard to resist and people love them. They create
an atmosphere of fun which can add to the prospect's receptive mood. Other
possibilities for your product design are scenic photos, pictures of pets or
kids, or just about anything else which makes the viewer want to take a look
at your product.
|
Websites by Ron Coleman:
|
