Giving out promotional items can be very expensive, so why not get the recipients to pay? Better still, why not get them wanting to come back for more and really increase your sales?

Rather than distributing inexpensive promotional items that your recipients don’t really want and aren’t likely to keep, why not add some perceived value to the item and get them paying for each one that they receive?

Better still, why not use the promotional item to encourage them back in the future to buy more?

Sounds too good to be true? Have you ever noticed fast food chains entice children back into their restaurants by offering a different toy each week? Come back next week and you get another new toy. What’s more, these toys are paid for (as part of the meal) and are always branded so everyone knows where they are from. Maybe not a huge branding, but you know by looking at them where they are from.

What can we learn from this clever marketing strategy? Well, if you are a shop, put a little thought into some promotional items. Select items with a theme that can be developed over weeks. Maybe a different coloured item each week, a different variety or a series of characters.

Get posters printed and advertise the arrival of this new promotional item. It doesn’t matter too much what it is. Then sell it to the customers (or their children) for a small amount. Be sneaky even – ‘Get this wonderful toy for just