Branded merchandise for your glazing business: maximize value

We talk a lot about digital marketing on Smart-Glazier — for good reason. It's a great way to raise the profile of your business without investing huge amounts of advertising money. That being said, there's a time and place for traditional marketing for glazing businesses, particularly if the bulk of your customer base is local.

The good

• Magnets, a trusty classic! They aren't anything new or exciting, but a good magnet is both functional and long lasting. Make it pretty, people are far more likely to display items that are visually pleasing

• Portable coffee cups and drink bottles. File this one under: always useful. Pick a design that is representative of your branding (they come in almost any color nowadays), has your logo clearly visible

• Umbrella. Who doesn't need a spare umbrella? Functional items always come in handy and people (as a general rule) aren't adverse to carrying around your logo in umbrella form, compared to concerns they may have in wearing it on a t-shirt.

The not-so-good

• Calendars are good but only last for a year (or less) depending on when you distribute them
• USB sticks were very trendy promotional items at one stage but beware — the cheap bulk buy ones usually have limited space on them and are prone to breaking. Also with the rise of cloud technology, USBs are far less common than they used to be
• Branded pens aren't bad, they just aren't great. Chances are they'll get chucked in a drawer, will be used at some point but without much attention to details like logos or web addresses. Much like USBs, the cheap branded pens will quickly run out of ink or break and are then bound for the bin

Hopefully this article has given you a couple of ideas for your next promotional items.