One question that I often get asked is "Should I buy some promotional products for my business?" By this, people mean should they buy pens, car stickers, calendars, t-shirts and so on. The theory behind is that these items will be used by people and will remind people of the business every time they look at them.

My argument on the other hand goes like this. It’s all very well buying these items, but as they can be very expensive, it depends what you’re going to use them for.

For instance, if you’re going to get some t-shirts printed and donate them to the local school football team because parents are your target market, then great. Likewise, if you’re going to use your t-shirts for all your staff to wear while you compete in a charity race and get some publicity too, that could be a wise use of money.

If however, you’re going to spend your money on placing your company’s advert on a wall calendar so that businesses will be aware of your company all year round or send out diaries to all of your contacts, then chances are you’re just wasting your money.

I remember having a wall calendar in our office last year and it had lots of companies around the outside with details of their products and services. Believe me, we didn’t use that calendar for anything else apart from marking up staff holidays and I couldn’t tell you the names of any of the companies around the edge – in fact I don’t think I even looked at them.

Likewise, we currently have small pop up calendars on each of our desks – they’re very useful thank you very much. But, I couldn’t tell you the name of the company who supplied them at all. And having just looked at mine (while writing this article), the name doesn’t actually ring any bells at all.

Same thing goes for pens. I pick up tons of pens when I go to exhibitions etc. Why? Not so I can remember the company’s name – the simple reason is so I don’t have to buy pens.

What I am telling you here?

Yes, by all means buy promotional gadgets and gizmos for your company if you’re going to be smart with how you use it – make sure that you get maximum exposure for your buck ideally with a call to action on there. For instance if you wear t-shirts to your charity race, you could say that for everyone who calls your company mentioning the t-shirts, you’ll donate an extra £1 to the charity.

But if you’re just going to buy things in the hope that someone will remember your company every time they pick up a pen, use a post-it note or look at the wall calendar where your advert is prominently displayed, think again!

Remember the golden rule of marketing – before you do anything, what are you trying to achieve from using that promotional technique and how can you capture people’s contact details? Stick to this rule if you’re thinking about buying some promotional gizmos in your company and you should be fine.