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Every company hands out promotional items as part of a larger marketing strategy, but what if your advertising budget is too small to give everybody a new Blackberry? A stack of promotional gifts to hand out at traffic lights can easily break the bank for many small businesses and if your campaign does not go well the bad investment could very well sink your business. Fortunately there are many items out there that can be bought for as little as a dollar each and will create huge returns on your marketing investment.

A good example is to have packs of cards printed with your logo done in a pattern on the back. These generally cost around a dollar each to have made, but you might be able to negotiate a special deal with the company making them if you order over one thousand units. Remember to always design the backs of the cards so that your logo is simply a repeated pattern. Most gamers will not play with a deck whose cards look different depending on which way they are held upside down - and the idea is to get people to use your cards and be exposed to your logo.

Promo pens are an excellent way to promote your business, provided that your product is used in an office environment. This makes distribution of your promotional items a lot easier, because all you have to do is ship boxes of pens to various companies, give them time to filter through to all employees and then wait for the phones to start ringing. Medical products and insurance can also be effectively marketed by using low-cost pens.

One idea that is often not considered is promo items that can be used on the beach. Beach balls, hand-kites, Frisbees or volleyballs are all relatively inexpensive and have the potential to be seen by thousands of people in a day. Even if only one or two people are actually given one of the items, a lot of people will see the item, use it and enjoy themselves. They will then form a positive association between that time and your logo - and then your work as a marketer is done!

When the holidays season rolls around, too many people are trying to sell Christmas decorations to the market instead of realizing that they can be powerful marketing tools. If you have a box of tree decorations made with your logo printed on them and hand them out to shoppers at the mall they will be grateful that they did not have to spend more money on decorations. Then year after year your brand will be in their living room, forming connections between your company and one of the most potent marketing forces of all: holiday spirit.

It might not be what you want to hear, but Christmas sells. You can use that to your advantage by handing out free promo items that take the burden off of shopping for the holiday season. This is a great way to gain the trust and appreciation of your target market.

Samantha Fellows is one of the top authors in the promotional merchandise industry. She is an important part of ClickPromoGifts and is sharing her extensive knowledge of trends and success in gifting promotional items, promotional gifts and promotional products.