At the turn of the century, promotional materials such as pens and those irritating pom-poms with googly eyes were hard to avoid. Seemingly everywhere, business owners and big companies went mad for a few years, throwing money at promotional material with the idea that the more material there is out there with the company name on, the more successful the company would be.
Ten years on, and that has changed somewhat. Marketers and businesses are being more selective with their choice and distribution of promotional material and are instead trying to ensure that their name is remembered by the people who are actually interested. Mass buying promotional material is relatively cheap, but it is very easy to get carried away with buying promotional material, so companies are trying to save money by not going too over the top!
Promotional pens are one form of promotional material which have remained immensely popular over the years. You rarely see the pom-poms these days, but promotional pens are still absolutely everywhere. It is clear that despite many businesses seeing them as a waste of money, the vast majority of people believe that promotional pens can really add value to a company and are good value for money.
Why exactly are promotional pens such good forms of marketing material? If you are anything like me, then you will find that you rarely have to buy a pen. Pens seem to float from person to person and you never seem to hold onto a pen for more than a month or so before you notice you’ve somehow inherited a new one. A recent study found that pens have an average of eight owners in its lifetime. This means that the logo on promotional pens will be seen by eight different people for a very minimal spend. When you times this by the total distribution of all promotional pens, the number of people who can potentially see your brand name is enormous.
The reason that pens are specifically a good investment is because most people will use one at least once in a day. Go over to your desk now and I guarantee you will find a promotional pen! When you give someone a flyer or a pom-pom, it will sit on a desk for a while before eventually being thrown away. A pen, on the other hand, is used until it runs out. This can be a very long time.
Promotional pens must be distributed effectively in order to add some serious value to an advertising campaign, however, and they must also have the correct information on them. You need to decide whether you want to distribute to existing customers or to potential ones. You might want to consider distributing more expensive pens to your existing customers. On the pen itself, it is important to decide what information to include. Try and keep it simple by simply putting down your company’s website, the company name and the logo. This is likely to be enough for people to remember your brand.
Promotional pens have the potential to be a great form of marketing and advertising as pens have a number of users in their lifetime. However, be sure to carefully distribute the pens as they can become an expensive waste of money if not issued to the right audience.