Advertising exposure disguised as a free gift? Genius! Why wouldn’t you want to advertise in a way that makes customers feel like they got the better deal?
But now, after printing your company name on bucket-loads of promotional pens, you notice a kink in your plan: pens are pretty boring. With such a wide variety of promotional gadgets and gizmos to advertise your company on, why pens?
Well, they’re effective! They’re a free, useful gift for them and ridiculously cheap, advertising for you. Everyone wins!
But how do you make giving pens interesting? Not by being normal!
That’s why we’ve compiled a list of quirky, original ways to make promotional pen distributing so sneaky, you’ll feel like the James Bond of advertising. Use these methods to boost brand awareness in fun ways your employees will actually want to engage in.
Exceed Expectations
The most popular method of distributing promotional pens is giving them away at events. This is a great way to promote brand awareness because hundreds of people will see your company name whenever they use those pens. But if you impress them with a light-up stylus pen, they’ll have a pen to remember you and a positive memory of that nice company who gave them an awesome light-up thingy.
Use promotional pens to exceed expectations. If you give more than people expect, you’ll stand out in their mind.
The other side to exceeding expectations is giving the cheap pens when nothing is expected. Simple, plastic pens given as customer loyalty rewards are a great unexpected gift. Or tape them to comment cards and hand them to customers when you conclude a business transaction.
Look for ways to give pens that people won’t expect.
Only Use Promotional Pens
Never buy regular pens again. In your home and office, only use promotional pens. Then, any pen that finds its way out of your home or office, as pens do, is advertising for your company.
Tell your employees to steal them (within reason). Actually, you can’t steal a promotional pen because it’s supposed to be taken. Thus, office pen theft is now an intentional advertising investment.
Besides, using pens with your brand name on it looks really professional.
Forget Your Pen
Carry about 1000 promo pens with you all the time and “accidentally” leave them everywhere you go. Any time you sign a receipt, hand your pen back with it. If your customer is signing something, don’t ask for the pen back. Leave your pen on the table at restaurants.
Inception
Even more fun, look for places pens might normally be and put yours there. Plop one in that little cup full of pens at the doctor’s office. Set them by notepads or in your hotel room drawer.
Keep Score
Keep score of those last two methods to see how many pens you can give away without people noticing. Bonus points if you actually hand it to them without them noticing it’s yours.
This is a fun way to get your employees involved, too. Keep a tally in your office. See who can get the highest score each week. Give the winner one of those fancy metallic pens.
Pen Party Favors
Use any party as an excuse to hand out promo pens as party favors. Even add them to any gifts you give (if it’s appropriate).
Donate Pens to Schools
This one is nice because schools are in constant need of supplies. They’ll be very grateful for your contribution and you’ll get free advertising, positive recognition and warm fuzzy feelings inside. That’s a win, win, win, win situation!
Schools aren’t the only ones in need, either. There’s also college students, smaller businesses, hospitals and many more.
Bottom Line
Get creative, give when people least expect it, make it fun!
Browse our huge selection of pens and other promotional products in our catalog! Also, feel free to check out these amazing examples of our work!