Inside Small Business | Small Business & Home Business Marketing

Logo Promotional Products Are The Long-Term Solution for Marketing Your Brand

Nick Friedel, Clayton Kendall, Inc

It’s quite amazing how many small businesses are willing to spend money on advertising but are unwilling to consider logo promotional products. There are many excuses, some of which you have probably been telling yourself:

“promotional products don’t work”?
“promotional products are too gimmicky”?
“logo promotional products cost too much”?
“promotional products are too much work”?

All of these statements are untrue. In fact, promotional products do exactly what most small businesses need from a marketing plan: they get your brand name and  logo into customer’s homes permanently.  When you pay for an advertisement,  your brand name and logo only stay in the public eye for a short time.  Once your ad run is over and the newspaper is thrown away or the banner ad is taken down, that’s it.  You need to pay more to keep your brand before customers.

Now let’s say that you take than advertising money and invest in promotional t-shirts, pens, paper clips or other products instead. The difference is that these products are useful “customers will keep them and will therefore keep your company name and logo in their homes.  Maybe they will wear that promotional t-shirt from time to time. Each time they do, they will be reminded of your company.  Quality products last a long time and each time someone looks at your logo, you are promoting your brand.With something like promotional t-shirts or stickers, every time your customer uses the product, he or she is effectively marketing your product to every person they meet. If your customer wears your t-shirt jogging, each person they pass on the trails may notice your logo.  For small businesses, promotional products can be very inexpensive but they provide lots of long-term marketing power.  Many companies offering these products have screening and printing technologies that make imprinting your logo an easy and relatively affordable process.

Nick Friedel is a social media and search engine marketing specialist with Clayton Kendall, Inc and RushImprint.com, leading providers of customized promotional products and advertising specialties. Nick has over 7 years of media planning and search engine marketing experience for clients in health care, automotive, IT, education, sports and retail.  A graduate of the York University of Toronto, Nick earned his BA degree in Marketing Communications.  As most of his compatriots, Nick is chained to his skates and country-skis and will quite often be seen all year round on the rink playing the all-Canadian frenzy, ice-hockey. He is also quite skilled at bass guitar which he has played since the age of 16.

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Starting an Online Business - Attitude is Crucial!

Nathan Moller, Moller Marketing

Why is having a positive attitude crucial to your business success?
Is a positive attitude enough?
Where can “fear of failure” take you?

If you are considering starting an online business, it’s important to address these questions. So many businesses come and go, the question is “Why?” Is it that their attitude was negative? Were they afraid of failing, which ultimately caused their business failure?

Read this short case study of a new business owner:

Nate,

I just went out and got 6 local businesses to let me look at their websites and make recommendations…Nate when I started I was shaking in my shoes! By the end of my trip down main street with my 6 yes and 2 no’s, I was singing!! I gave out my business cards to everyone and I now remember how good all this feels!!

Thanks again, I’ll keep you posted!

What can we learn from this example? How can it relate to YOUR BUSINESS?

In order to see success in any endeavor, you have to learn to not let fear hold you back. “Fear is the antithesis of faith.” Faith is confidence; confidence is key. The only way to gain confidence is by making a few mistakes, learning from them, making adjustments, and then taking the “bull by the horns” and making it happen.

Think about Michael Jordan - if he would have given up after being cut as a sophomore basketball player, where would he be now? When Tiger Wood’s doesn’t win a golf championship, does he give up and quit? Failure will come to everyone - it’s how we choose to deal with the failure that sets successful people apart.

Think about these quotes:
“Ones best success comes after their greatest disappointments.” Henry Ward Beecher
“Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.” William Feather

As you can see by the case study, the new business owner was “shaking in her shoes”. Like all of us when we do something new, she was nervous - afraid of the unknown. What were people going to think? What if they said no? My answer to those questions…WHO CARES! Nike’s “Just Do It!” slogan is so fitting for online business owners. You just have to step out, take a risk, and EXPECT SUCCESS! Having a positive attitude, in and of itself, will not pay the bills - you have to TAKE ACTION and DO!

Nathan Moller has helped hundreds of people start an online business and market it effectively online.  He has seen first hand how attitude and confidence can help take people to places they never even dreamed of.     Visit Nathan’s business blog today at http://MollerMarketing.com.

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