Buying and using giveaway promotional gifts can be an excellent way of marketing a small business. Even work from home businesses can be easily advertiser in this way and it doesn’t need to cost much, nor is it really complicated to give the items away to potential customers.

Take the bog standard printed pen as a great demonstration of one of the many promotional gifts on the market. These are really great – they don’t need to cost much, can easily be bought in bulk and are simple to distributeto potential customers. So go out and get a small batch of these items printed up with your contact details and name. For a choice of contact details, you should be able to comfortably fit on a telephone number and an email address or website URL , as long as they aren’t too unusually lengthy. Now, carry some of these with you at all timesin your bag, pocket of car.

For exampleof an unusual method, recently I was on a family holiday and we had met up with another family of similar ages and become friendly. When it was time for us to go home, we wanted a way of swapping contact details so that we could get in touch when both back home. This is pretty much the same as what many people do on holidays and nothing unusual. The other family passed us over their details written quickly on the back of a convenient beer mat. This, unfortunately, is an excellent way of loosing the details, which we have been guilty of before. As luck would have it, I was able to use the local internet to email him from the hotel, so that we both had each other’s emails. But a better idea would be to get a batch of pens printed and just give the family a couple of our own promotional pens. Not only have they got your contact details, but you are making sure that you are telling them your business and as luck would have it, he might now become a new customer of mine.

Of course, these passing acquaintances aren’t reliable enough for distributing enough promotional items to make a batch worth while, at least not enough to make a large return. But if you are taking part in work from home activities such as distributing catalogues, then why not add a pen to the catalogue? By putting it into the clear envelope that the catalogues are protected in, there’s an added incentive for the recipient to open the envelope, take the pen and maybe they will be more likely to order from your catalogue.

Promotional items are also great to leave as a calling card when you have been to see new or prospective customers. Leave them a gift, as well as or instead of a card, and they are more likely to be able to find your contact number when they have decided to buy from you. There’s load of uses for promotional items, no matter how big your business, even if it is a home business.

Read how to write a grant proposal – business can get a grant, and grant money is money better than loan money.