Take Part in Small Business Saturday

Mark your calendars! Small Business Saturday is around the corner! An American shopping day held on the Saturday after Thanksgiving (after Black Friday and before Cyber Monday), this annual event encourages shoppers to do their holiday shopping at small and local businesses — like yours!

Small Business Saturday is anything but small and all about community. It was founded by American Express in 2010 as a way to celebrate and promote the local businesses that make America’s neighborhoods so great. Due to the big response, in 2011 it became recognized as an official shopping holiday.

This year Small Business Saturday falls on November 29^th.

No matter what type of business you are in, it pays to participate! Take advantage of this unique opportunity to promote your business and boost sales for your business.

Encourage your customers to Shop Small®.

Encourage your customers to shop your business by creating memorable marketing materials that promote your business and invite customers to Shop Small®.

1.    Extend an invitation. Create an in-store event to attract new and old customers to come to your business. Send out simple customized invitations. You can also promote online by creating an event on Facebook.

2.    Let it fly. Put up a flyer in your store window that reminds shoppers of the date and encourages them to shop local. Not only is it a great way to support your community, but it is also a great way to boost your brand image.

3.    Gear up on giveaways. Plan a special giveaway that reminds your customers to shop at your establishment all year long. Customized 2015 calendars, personalized pens, and custom-printed t-shirts are all great, functional gifts your customers can use every day of the year.

4.    Create special offers. Increase the incentives with special one-day discounts and promotions that will improve foot traffic into your store location. Giving away gift certificates  for every $XXX spent is a smart way to encourage repeat business.

5.    Give them something to smile about. Create even more excitement for your local small business by doing something unique to generate attention. Have a DJ play music in the store. Hire a magician or clown. Serve free coffee in the morning. Display balloons outside your store and give away free cake.

6.    Be social. Social media played a critical role to the first Small Business Saturday’s success. Be sure to follow the movement on Facebook and hashtag #SmallBusinessSaturday on Twitter.

Regardless of whether you are a retail store or restaurant, a beauty salon or a bakery, Small Business Saturday is a fantastic opportunity to reach out and show your community that small businesses matter. The only “wrong” way to participate is to not participate at all.

Be sure, too, to check out the free materials American Express provides to assist you in promoting this fantastic and meaningful event.

Thing big. Shop small.

Have you celebrated Small Business Saturday in the past? Are you planning to participate this year? We want to know! Please tell us your story below.   

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Your Customers Are Looking Online. Can They Find You?

Every day people use their smart phone to look for everything from local movie times and dining options to car repair services, pet supply stores, beauty salons, and more.  Is your company one of them?

According to The New York Times, nearly half of all mobile searches — also known as “googling” performed on a smartphone — have a local intent. This means that the person who is doing the searching is looking for local information. This number is up from 40% last year and translates to literally billions of local searches taking place on mobile phones.

To better understand people’s local search behaviors, Google recently partnered with Ipsos MediaCT and Purchased to research the behaviors of more than 5,000 American smartphone users. Their study revealed:

• Searches with local intent are more likely to lead to store visits and sales within a day
• 1 in 3 searches on smartphones occur right before a consumer’s visit to a store
•    50% of mobile users are most likely to visit after conducting a local search — compared to 34 percent of consumers who are using tablets or computers to research the same information.
• Mobile searchers are typically ready to buy once they are in a store.
• 18% of local searches lead to sales, compared to 7 percent for non-local searches.
•  Consumers search for a variety of information, the most popular being:
• Business hours
• Directions to a local store
• Local store address

Despite the huge volume of local queries in mobile, a majority of small businesses and brands still don’t have mobile-optimized websites. If your company happens to be one of them, Cordial Greetings can help. 

The Benefits of Mobility
Given the growing trend in mobile device use, it’s more important than ever to ensure that your business can be found quickly and easily — and using the devices your customers rely on the most.

We’ve all been in situations in which we wanted to find something nearby — the closest gas station to the airport, a local yoga studio, or simply a place to go to dinner. We also search for services that don’t necessarily have a prominent store front — a landscaping business, a trucking company, a dentist, a plumber, and more. Mobile content helps to ensure that your business is found and allows people to pass your name along effortlessly!

Get Your Business Moving
Dedicated to helping small businesses succeed, Cordial Greetings now offers Mobile Landing Pages. Choose one of eight attractive and professional template themes, including automobile, construction, landscaping, general business, towing, plumbing and more. Each one is designed to make it easy for your customers to access your business information on their mobile device.

Getting Started – Three Simple Steps

1. Provide us with your company and contact information
2. We will create a Mobile Landing Page for your business and provide you with a QR code image via email
3. Add your QR code to any promotional product or printed media

With Cordial Greetings a mobile website isn’t only easy, it’s also affordable— just $49.99 for an entire year! Your Mobile Landing Page will be active for 12 months from the date of purchase and can easily be renewed - allowing your business to benefit for as few or as many years as you choose.

Take the Next Step

Get started today!

Promotional Ideas to “Fall” in Love With

We hate to be a buzz kill, but the summer months are drawing to a close. Goodbye sun and fun, hello autumn! Soon the temperatures will start to fall — and so will the leaves.

For many of us, the “back to school” season also means “back to business.” The time is now to start thinking about new and innovative ways to promote and market your company. To help get you started, consider some of the following Cordial Greetings autumn themed promotional products:

Thanksgiving Cards – Why wait until the winter holidays to express appreciation and gratitude? Cordial Greetings offers a wide selection of attractive Thanksgiving cards that make it easy to say thanks to customers, partners, and prospects.  

Personalized Tear Off Calendar Cards — Make a date with the Carving Thanks Perfed Calendar Card.  Personalized, perfed calendar cards are a calendar and card in one! They are a perfect way to say you care and give a promotional gift your customers can use every day of the year.

Promotional Pens — Write it off! Promotional pens are perfect for Fall. Did you know that Cordial Greetings offers 13 different types of customizable promotional pens? Choose from a wide range of styles, shapes, colors, and imprints.

Customizable Coffee Mug— As the days grow cooler, give your favorite customers a gift they can warm up to. Our customizable, classic coffee mug is an affordable and functional promotional gift that’s brimming with potential!

Promotional Notebooks — Take note! Our new line of promotional notebooks are a fun, contemporary way to get you company noticed. The Orange Chevron Reporter Style Notebook and the Colorful Circles Journal Style Notebook are two perfect options for Fall and ideal for the office, home or school. Customize the back cover with your company name and contact information. 

Count on Cordial Greetings

While we can’t make summer last forever, count on Cordial Greetings to help make a lasting impression this Fall. From key chains and coloring books to can coolers and coffee mugs, we offer a wide variety of unique and affordable promotional products that are perfect for your business or organization.

Have a great idea for a fall promotion? Let us know! Tell us how you plan to use promotional products to market your business this autumn by posting your story below. We’d love to hear about it!

SWAG: The Power of Promotional Products

Sealed With A Gift? More sales. More customers. More profits. What are we talking about? The power of promotional products. Research shows that customers who receive promotional products return sooner and reorder more quickly — and frequently — than those who don’t.

According to a study conducted by Relevant Insights:

• Eight in 10 consumers own between one and 10 promotional products
• Six in 10 consumers keep them for up to two years
• More than half (53%) of these consumers use a promotional product at least once a week or more

Is yours one of them?

If promotional products aren't currently part of your marketing mix, perhaps it’s time to explore how to put this form of advertising to work for your company. Not only can promotional products be used to help generate more business, they can be a great way to motivate your staff, encourage customer referrals, thank regular customers for their loyalty, increase visibility at a trade show, launch a new product and/or demonstrate support for your community. 

Plus, promotional products can be one of the most cost-effective forms of advertising. According to the Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI), the cost-per-impression of a promotional product is just $.005 — less than prime time TV advertising, national magazine advertising and newspaper ads.

When considering promotional products for YOUR company, consider the following tips:

1.    Choose promotional products that your audience will actually use. When promotional products are useful to and appreciated by the recipients, they are retained and used longer, ultimately communicating the imprinted message over and over—without added cost to your business. Some of the most popular and successful promotional items include pens and writing instruments, desk calendars, water bottles, coffee mugs and apparel — such as t-shirts and hats.

2.    Avoid a short shelf life. Select items that will be around for a long time. While imprinted sticky notes are certainly useful, a customized note holder can be used repeatedly.

3.    Choose quality over quantity. Think of the promotional products you purchase as “gifts for family and friends.” Cheaper is not always better. One well-considered promotional gift can have a far greater impact than a hundred smaller ones.

4.    Make it memorable. Don’t be afraid to get creative. Promotional products are a $19.83 billion industry. Every year, thousands of new products come to market. Keep an eye out for new and exciting ways to put them to work promoting your business.

Cordial Greetings Can Help

From key chains and coloring books to can coolers and coffee mugs, count on Cordial Greetings for a wide variety of unique and best-selling promotional products. All of our items are easy to customize and economical — and guaranteed to please.

Want to share your experience?  Tell us how you’ve used promotional products to expand YOUR business by posting your story below. We’d love to hear about it!

Picture This: Personalized Photo Business Cards & Calendars

As a company that specializes in quality personalized promotional print products, Cordial Greetings embraces opportunities to help small businesses build relationships and brand recognition.

“Should I put my personal photograph on my business card — or any other promotional products, for that matter?” — it’s a question we get asked all of the time. Our answer? Yes!

Whether you are a real estate agent, an attorney, an insurance broker, a home repair persona, or a hair stylist — if you operate as an independent contractor or a small business, you are your business! Personalized photo promotional items are a great way to be memorable and set you apart in the marketplace.

Put Your Best Face Forward

Cordial Greetings now offers a variety of customizable photo business cards and photo personalized economy calendars that make it easy and affordable to put your best face forward and:

• Be memorable.
  Visual recognition can be a powerful tool. How many times have you heard somebody say, “I don’t remember names, but I do remember faces?” Photo business cards and promotional items are great tools that can help jog a person’s memory— long after you meet face to face.

• Build brand awareness.

You put your picture on your website, your Facebook page, your LinkedIn profiles, Google + profiles, your Twitter feeds — and quite possibly your brochures. Including your photo on your business card is a smart way to reinforce the connection and build brand awareness.

• Make it personal.

People do business with those they know, connect with, and trust. If you are in the business of building relationships and want to be remembered, photo personalized promotional products are a great way to create an emotional appeal and establish a personal connection.

• Build credibility.

A picture says a thousand words. If you are in the business of building relationships and want to be known as a trusted expert in your industry, a photo business card or calendar is a simple way to build recognition and help people associate your face with your business.

• Stand out in a crowd.
  Consider all the business cards you collect — whether it’s attending networking events, conducting business day-to-day, giving or receiving a referral, etc. If you’re like most of us, you probably have quite a stack. How many of those business cards are truly memorable? Can you recall or visualize who each of those individuals are?  Photo business cards are a smart way to stand out from the pack and be unique.

Smile for the Camera!

According to Dan Crowther, an online marketing consultant in Racine, Wisconsin, putting your picture on your business card is his number one piece of advice for making your card stand out.  But that’s not to say that any old photo will do. Make sure the photo you choose is professional and matches the image you wish to communicate — a pleasant, friendly smile works wonders, too!

What do you think?  Do you use a photo on your business card already?  How has it been received? Let us know by posting your experience below. 

The Write Stuff: The Power of Promotional Pens

Even in our digitally connected world of smart phones and keyboards, texts and emails, writing instruments are still considered to be the #1 most popular promotional product. Why? Simply put, people use them! We rely on pens and pencils regularly— at home, in the office, and on the go — to leave notes, write reminders, sign documents, and mark boxes. Their uses are endless!

According to a 2012 study published by Promotional Products Association International (PPAI), people in the United States use a pen 5-10 times a day. Seventy-three percent of people in the United States carry a pen with them at all times.

When it comes to promotional pens, the PPAI study also reported that of those who have received a promotional pen:

• 79 percent reported that they use promotional pens they receive
• 40 percent reported they use them at least 1-5 times a day
• 60 percent could recall the name of the advertiser who gave them the pen
• More than 50 percent of them could remember the product or service
• Almost half of the people surveyed said they often pass on the pens to another person

Five Benefits of Promotional Pens

Aside from statistics, here are five more reasons that customized promotional pens have all of the components of the “perfect” promotional product:

1. Customized promotional pens are used all of the time.

Perhaps one of the greatest benefits of customized pens is that promotional pens are used on a daily basis — by people of all ages and in every industry.  

2. Customized promotional pens are often shared.

Like money, pens often move from hand to hand. Statistics show that the average pen has seven different users in a lifetime. While a promotional pen may start with an original customer, quite often it will wind up in the hands of someone else. Every time the pen changes hands, the company’s name and identity spreads.

3. Customized promotional pens are easy to distribute.

Customized pens are small, portable and convenient to pass around — at trade shows and special events — as well as within your place of business. Recipients can carry them anywhere they go — quite often they may pick up a promotional pen without even realizing it.

4. Customized promotional pens are inexpensive to produce.

Promotional pens are one of the least expensive forms of advertising and ideal for companies with lean marketing budgets. They provide maximum brand exposure at a surprisingly affordable price. Cordial Greetings offers a wide range of options — some cost as little as .49 cents a piece!

5. Customized promotional pens come in all shapes and styles.

There’s blue ones and black ones, red ones and green ones – even pink and purple. The list of types and styles of promo pens are endless. Cordial Greetings’ own selection of promotional pens range from basic ballpoint pens to more sophisticated designs — such as our new Stylus Click Pen that offers both the functionality of a pen, as well as a stylus.

What are people’s favorites?

The PPAI study also revealed people’s preferences for promotional writing instruments. The top five user favorites were:

1. Ballpoint pen
2. Roller ball pen
3. Gel pen
4. Highlighter
5. Permanent marker

Get to the “point.”

If you are looking for an easy, inexpensive way to market your company and build brand awareness, a customized promotional pen can be a smart addition to your marketing mix. Ready to get started?