The other day I had a good client message me a picture of a rotisserie beef roast because I had inspired him to up his BBQ game using my Instagram. I gave him a few tips but mostly just enjoyed the fact that I was sharing some mutual passion with someone who loves bbq and swag almost as much as I do. When I ran into him the next day he told me he was sad to inform me that he had overcooked the roast, It was a perfect moment for me because I ran to the back of our show room and grabbed him a portable branded BBQ thermometer so he would never over cook a roast again. This is perfect because he already thinks about me when he’s BBQing but now that thermometer becomes a conversation piece! I can’t imagine in a world where there are a million options of where to buy your swag from that he’s going to go anywhere else anytime soon.
Some of the little things like that can also be the most fun to give away to your customers. It’s not that my business necessarily has anything to do with BBQ, but people often try to come up with fun promo items that fit into someone’s kitchen or is associated with their summer adventures or deck time (ie. Happy times!). We do tonnes of custom BBQ sauce and BBQ thermometers BBQ flippers and more at The Promo Addict, the real magic in giving these away is in how you do it, it’s not a good tradeshow giveaway in my opinion, unless you’re at the home show where people are already thinking about backyard BBQing.
One of our most successful giveaways we ever did for You Need a BBQ was a BBQ Rib Flavoured Lip Balm! (Just kidding it’s vanilla). We have given away hundreds of these great vanilla flavoured lip balms with a picture of my pork ribs on them, nobody ever reads the fine print so it really grabs their attention! Since then we have had clients do all kids of fake flavoured lip balm like: compost flavoured lip balm, motor oil flavoured lip balm, potato flavoured lip balm and more. It’s a great chance to have a fun conversation with people and give you something to remember you by even if it’s a little bit cheeky.
One of the things about BBQ thermometers and BBQ flavoured lip balm that I am the most proud of, in fact I have it framed in my office is the article about me in Advantages Magazine. It’s a promotional products industry magazine published by ASI and I was featured in a whole page article in July 2017 for these 2 self promotional pieces! https://www.asicentral.com/news/web-exclusive/july-2017/case-study-turn-up-the-heat/ This was my first time being featured in any of these international publications because since then I or my company have been featured no less than 5 times (have I mentioned I love promotional items and this industry!?)
So regardless of what industry you work in or play in, it’s always fun to find where the 2 meet and see if you can bring them together. My passion and my pleasure both revolve around BBQ and swag and in this regard, I have found an amazing way to take advantage of both and bring them together in a way that has made BBQing more fun and brought me some closer business relationships along the way.