Adding Value: Giveaways

You may be thinking, 'Giveaways? Those are expensive! How can I possibly afford to give something away for free, especially in this economy?' The truth is, giveaway items can become a cost effective means of promoting your business and helping your clients improve theirs in the meantime. But before you go ahead and print 1,000 coffee cups displaying your company logo and distribute them, read on.

"Giveaway items are about promoting what you can do, at the same time educating your clients about how they can attract and retain customers of their own," explained Roger Buck, a 40-year printing industry veteran who recently started Emerging Solutions Now LLC, a consulting and equipment supplies company, in Pittsburg, Kan. He previously worked for Appleton Papers and Ward/Kraft.

"Going back to printers, the best thing they can give away would be something printed with his or her customer's company name on it, so that the customer can mail it to their customers. People have to look at the best way to add value," he said.

A digital printer who does variable data printing can contact its top accounts and test the giveaway method to see how well it works.

"To test response rates, a variable data printer can offer the top 10 or 20 accounts 500 digital postcards. The clients (accounts) have to supply the names of 500 prospects and the printer would supply the VDP image for the postcards. Clients pay the postage costs. The response would be then tracked and the 500 cards can get on average a 7 percent response rate," explained Buck.

The Thought Behind the Gift

"I'm currently putting a flyer in the Chamber of Commerce New Member kit. The flyer will be info on my company, a free one hour consultation to help the new members learn how to promote their business. This offer will also be promoted in their prospecting messages. So I could get a reply from the prospecting without giving up the free consulting," he continued.

He went on to explain, "When I was the national sales manager with a PSDA manufacturer, we gave out calendar magnets which we produced to promote our company and the product. I've used pressure seal mailers in a direct mail tactic to promote to distributors that they should be selling the product. We gave out gift cards for money off their first order of plastic cards."

This marketing not only gives printers a chance to practice their craft, but an opportunity to teach their customers how to market themselves and attract frequent buyers.

Also, the more personalization used when creating the pieces, the better. What you personalize isn't as critical as how you personalize it. One of the most sought after marketing objectives is customer growth and retention.

"Sit down and form a plan and target audience," Buck advised. "A lot of printers make the mistake of jumping right in by printing postcards. Yes, they're cheap, but they may not be the best way to go. One local city used an AM country radio station as a form of marketing communications, but it was effective because the target was farmers on tractors who listened to the station. Use the ideal media depending on the clientele," he said.

When it comes to digital media, it's also important to analyze target markets. "During my 40 years in the business, I've found that printed coffee cups are useless unless you're selling actual coffee cups. One too many times I've seen trash cans full of useless pens and coffee cups," he commented.

"Unless you can show value at the same time, it can get expensive with little ROI. I was given a "kit" by a printer last year which has three different sizes of note pads, customer Post It note pad, calendar, and a rack card listing their capabilities. The kit was polywrapped and was probably a few dollars in cost/prep. I'd like to think what his ROI would be on that at the end of the year especially with no tracking means."

Promoting Business

Folder Express in Omaha, Neb. specializes in print for the trade.

"As such we consider the primary sales tool for us, and then by extension the distributor, our sales kit," said Mardra Sikora, director of sales, Folder Express.

"Our kit is an extensive investment that includes distributor and retail catalogs, samples of many styles and print options, a swatchbook of more than 150 sheets we carry on the floor (as well as coating and foil options), and a marketing packet that includes everything from key vertical market information to discerning profit margins. All of this is enclosed in a handled box for easy visibility and transport," she explained.

She further noted, "I feel that the Free Sample Kit is critical to enabling distributors to choose us as their primary presentation folder printer. The feedback I receive from each reseller is that this is a critical tool for their selling capacity as well. Humans are more inclined to put a value to what they can see and touch. We (humans) also like to see what the "other guy" has done. This inspires us to join the pack, lead the pack, or create a new pack. A well chosen sample fits these needs, and consequently makes the sale."

Hotcards.com, based in Cleveland, has also used print giveaways. Because so much of its business is generated online, visibility on the Web is very important to the company. Hotcards.com has offices throughout Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

According to Hotcards.com, one of the best ways to gain visibility is through getting high-quality links back to its site. A high-quality link from a great source can be worth $50 to $100 in the link buying world. So what the company does is design and print a small package of samples for Web sites. Hotcards sends companies ideas for what their business card might look like, or promotional stickers, or any other print piece they can use to advertise or just around the office. Hotcards introduces itself, and asks the companies if they would consider linking back to Hotcards from their Web site.

According to Hotcards, "The response has been great! People love free stuff. And in general, the cost of the link is considerably less than $50."

"We have always given away printed pads while making sales calls. I enjoy making cold calls and find it helps to give them something for stopping by unannounced. We try to make our pads much nicer than the ones the other printers hand out," said Matt Henderson, owner of Henderson Printing, Richmond, Va.
"One particular pad landed us a great account which we kept until they went bust. Instead of the typical printers logo and boring lines, we decided to make it a work of art by fading out a Mary Cass painting in very light blue ink in the back ground," he explained.

"For VistaPrint, printed giveaways have been extremely successful to our business, to say the least," commented Trynka Shineman, chief marketing officer for North America, VistaPrint.

"To date, we have given away more than four billion business cards, and that has helped us achieve a number of things. First, it has helped raise awareness of our company and brand, something that is important to any business. On the back of every free business card that we give away is a small message that says 'Business cards are FREE at VistaPrint.com.' When they are passed out, they obviously help generate awareness for our company and hopefully encourage others to go to our site and see what we're offering. They can even get their own set of free business cards," she added.

In terms of how VistaPrint's promotions work, it's fairly simple. Customers can go to the Web site and look at the free products tab to see what the company is offering (business cards are always free).

From there, they can make their own modifications using a design studio, and they go through the checkout process. Customers choose their shipping speed, pay for just the shipping and processing, and their product will arrive in the time specified.

When talking about giveaways during a recession, "essentially, giving people free samples or a chance to try products or services for little or no money is a tried and true marketing tactic that has been around for many, many years," she further noted.

"If you think about all the ways that people use free or heavily discounted offers to gain first time customers, you can come up with many examples. It's stood the test of time because it all boils down to getting customers in the door, or to your site to buy your products," Shineman explained.

"Free offers or giveaways are a great way to accomplish that goal, so when you have the ability to do so, it can act as a very effective acquisition tool.

Especially in tough economic times, people are on the lookout for deals and giveaways, and may be more receptive to trying them out," she concluded.