It is very important for business owners to remember his/her employees during the holidays. Likewise, businesses should also take care to remember clients and referral sources during the holidays. Whether your client celebrates Christmas, Kwanza, Hanukkah or other December holiday, you can do something to thank them for their support, business and/or their loyalty. This can also be done during the Thanksgiving and New Year’s holiday time
Recently, a few small business people have asked me “What should I send out for the holidays?” They explained that they either send calendars or King’s (basketball team) magnets. Those are great items, so continue to send them if your business does well sending them. However, if you gave a little more thought, you and/or a few friends could identify something that is a lot more creative and that may not cost any more to do.
Where do you go to look for new ideas and items?
9 places to get ideas to make your business stand out from your competitors:
1. Call and/or visit your local promotional products companies. You can find them in the local chamber, leads group or phone book.
2. Consider using gift basket companies. You can be much more creative with a gift basket that you used to be with the help of one of these companies.
3. Try your hand at making your own personalized gift baskets with items from your business, food and wine from the local gourmet food store, or other items your clients would like receiving. Be careful thought; this route can be more costly if you are not careful where you make your purchases.
4. Search online with your favorite search engine with keyword “gifts”. There are many different companies that will show up in your search results. There will be a variety, which will help you find a gift within your budget and style.
5. Consider working with local gift incentive companies. You provide them with the amount that you wish to spend and they will send the recipient a catalog of items in that price range. This allows the recipient to choose the gift that they want.
6. Purchase a gift card from a store like Sam’s Club or Wal-Mart. They offer gift cards in any denomination and will upload your company logo or any photo you want to the front of it. Then you can send gift cards valid for Sam’s and Wal-Mart branded with your company logo/photo on it.
7. Consider co-promoting. I talk about this a lot. Arrange for a local service business such as a car wash, massage therapist or any other retail business to provide you with free gift certificates to their business that you can send to your database. The company gets exposure to your entire database (free marketing) and you get to “give” a free gift to your contacts.
8. Give gift cards that are pertinent to each recipient. For example, give cards to Starbucks for the caffeine freaks, Jamba Juice for the health nuts, REI for the sports enthusiasts and Bath & Body Works for the divas.
9. By sending hand-made gifts and/or thank you cards, you can make a huge impression and save some money in doing so.
© Copyright 2008 K. Sawa MarketingWANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Katrina Sawa is known as The JumpStart Your Biz Coach because she literally kicks her clients and their businesses into high gear. She works with highly motivated women entrepreneurs that want to maximize and fast-track their business to make more money and enjoy more free time. Katrina uses online and offline Relationship Marketing Systems & Strategies to leverage your resources, contacts and your expertise; plus she kicks you in the butt to implement it all too! Get her Free Tips, Free Audio & Free Report online at http://www.jumpstartyourmarketing.com/
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