2009 Promotional Products Purchase Strategies

As 2008 draws to a close and a looming recession on the horizon effective use of your marketing budget has never been more important. As we all shift our focus to 2009 with hopeful optimism I offer you these few tips to help maximize your promotional products purchasing. Some of which will make sense and others may seem a bit counter intuitive.

1. If you all ready know what your 2009 budget is now is honestly the best time to be purchasing the old standards like pens, calendars, note pads, etc. Why you ask because many of the suppliers to you promotional products distributor are offering year end blow outs. I have a calendar supplier that is offering 2009 saddle stitched calendars for $0.79 each with a minimum order of 200. These same calendars were a $1.49 each for the same quantity three months ago.
2. You all ready know which trade shows you plan on attending so why wait until the last minute to make your purchases. This only adds stress to you and your distributors lives that doesn't need to be there. Sit down now or right after the New Year and brainstorm ideas and themes for these events. Don't go overboard, come up with one to three items for general distribution and a special gift for top tier clients. The best example of this I saw was a Pharmacy Buyers event in Las Vegas. One vendor had nothing but a nice duffel on rollers and it was the most popular item at the show. It was essentially used to put all the other vendors' swag in for the plane ride home. On top of that you had to provide your contact info to get it, now that's smart lead generation.
3. Start looking at creating a merchandising program for your business whether you have a retail environment or not. You can easily create an online store and some distributor's will even manage the back end and fulfillment for you. Be sure to ask them about inventory requirements, warehousing charges, and revenue distribution. This is a great idea if you own a real estate brokerage to put a level of control on your agents, if you own a fitness business, coffee or tea shop, or a restaurant in a tourist destination. Really just about any business where you want to increase revenue and allow employees and customers alike to show their loyalty to you.

I hope that you have found these little tips helpful and I look forward to your comments. Please tell me what has worked well for you in the past. I love sharing success stories with everyone.