A Review of 7 Gifting Services to Help Manage Your Corporate Gifting Campaign

Gifting is such a powerful marketing strategy that we’ve created an entire gifting service around the concept.

But so many people seem to get it wrong. They think gifting is just buying a gift, sending it to a recipient, and then magically they’ll become a client.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that.

Just like any other marketing effort, you need to be strategic with your gifting campaign. (More on that when we talk about GIFTOLOGY’s service.)

In the meantime, we want to share 7 key ingredients to a great gift so that you’re not wasting your marketing dollars.

And no matter which gifting service you decide to go with, you’ll be able to find the perfect gift for your recipient.

The 7 Key Ingredients to a Great Gift

We’ve spent several years running gifting campaigns for new employees and clients alike. We’ve distilled a successful gift into seven key ingredients.

Practical

If you give your employee a gift that they aren’t going to use, are they really going to feel appreciated? Or are they going to feel like a box you had to check off? A great gift is one that is going to be used at least 3-5 times per week.

Personalized

If you’re giving everyone the same generic Amazon gift card, then your sentiment is going to get lost in a sea of sameness.

A personalized gift will show your recipients that you truly value their contribution to the business.

Best in Class

You do not want to compromise on quality in any way. Our test for best-in-class is this: Will your recipient’s grandkids be able to use the gift you’ve given them?

Luxury

The best gifts are those that your recipient will really want but probably won’t buy for themselves. For instance, I once received a virtual cooking class gift. I’d never buy this for myself, but my wife and I had a blast attending the class and learning how to cook new foods.

Handwritten Notes

Add an extra touch of personalization with a handwritten note telling your recipient exactly what you mean to them.

Include Inner Circle

A great gift includes the recipient’s significant other, assistant, kids, etc. We can’t tell you how many times we’ve signed up a client because their wife/husband loves the gift we sent them. .

Continuity

Try to create a theme or pattern with your gifts. In this way, you can make sure that the customers are looking forward to getting your gift. Multiple gifts can snowball an emotional impact on your recipients.

GIFTOLOGY

We are a full-service corporate gifting agency that delivers results for our clients.

For instance:

When people hire us onto their team, we execute a relationship campaign within 60 days.

The goal of this campaign is to:

Go DEEP with our client’s most important, top-of-mind, relationships
Show our clients value with quick relational wins
Demonstrate how to best utilize us and get into a rhythm

That’s what happens in the first campaign/first quarter of our partnership. But the REAL MAGIC starts brewing in quarter 2…

This is when we execute (what we call) a HORIZON CAMPAIGN.

If campaign #1 is DEEP, the Horizon Campaign is WIDE. It’s about expanding focus to the (often ignored) middle-third of the relationship list. Those important humans nestled between the “couldn’t live withouts” and the “newly honeymooned.”

(It’s strange how new relationships often get our best attention and effort, isn’t it? I’ll explain why in a moment.)

Here are three DOs and DON’Ts we’ve learned from executing HORIZON CAMPAIGNS for clients.

For those of you that partner with us, we’ll handle all these details.
For those of you executing on your own – ignore these rules at your own peril.

Thing 1: What you should spend

DO: maintain $100-$200 average investment.
DO NOT: dilute the artifact quality to include more people.

Better to make a powerful statement with fewer than a so-so gesture with many. Yes, this means you’ll be excluding some people. Yes, that makes the initiative more meaningful.

And no, you should NOT worry about recipients speaking with non-recipients. If it happens, it happens. But if it happens (and ruins relationships) then we haven’t heard about it.

What you should worry about, however? Taking that middle third of relationships for granted.

And the ROR (return on relationship) never manifests because the potential was never unlocked.

Thing 2: Who should be on the list

DO: take cross-sections of different relational categories.
DO NOT: turn this into a ‘from the company’ gesture.

The HORIZON CAMPAIGN list should include middle-tier clients. But not JUST middle-tier clients. It should also include:

Talent in the employee pipeline – two or three levels below the owner.
Lower tier, but long-term customers – the good ones, not the needy ones.
Legacy employees – don’t wait for retirement to celebrate decades of loyalty
Potential cross-sell/up-sell targets for any new products / upcoming launches

The most important piece of the messaging: every gift should come from a PERSON, not ‘the company.’ Yes, gifting increases employee engagement, and strengthens commitment.

But it’s the quality of the boss relationship, not the brand relationship.

Thing 3: Reward past performance (even if it’s ‘been awhile’)

DO: review the last three years of referral activity – and add accordingly.
DO NOT: suck-up to high potential relationships with zero history.

Leaders have tremendous recency bias. We overvalue new relationships and undervalue old relationships.

But the most productive, high ROR relationships are the ones you already have.

We also have active imaginations. Ie, ‘if I could just get BALLER XYZ on my side, imagine what he could do for me!’ This is, of course, the wrong mindset. And why you need a partner to guide you.

A great relationship system removes impetuous, emotional decision-making.

We treat relationships like watering a garden. Not like going to the supermarket. If your system isn’t accumulating, snowballing, and compounding relationships like precious assets… then your system either (1) isn’t good or (2) isn’t a system at all.

We can solve all these things for you.

We can run campaigns on your behalf – while safekeeping every detail.
We can do it in the background – you get all the benefit, and we do all the work.
We can ensure the quality (and quantity) of your VIP relationship list.

So grows your relationships, so grows the business. Period.

Sugarwish

Sugarwish is a unique site in that it lets the recipient choose their favorite gift. As you can tell from their name, they specialize in sending snacks for gifts.

Things like popcorn, cookies, candy, chocolates, and even dog treats.

We actually think that sending food of any kind is a bad idea for corporate gifting. The problem with sending food is that you can’t compensate for the dietary needs of each of your recipients.

Who is allergic to nuts? Who doesn’t eat popcorn? Who doesn’t eat candy? Who’s lactose intolerant?

So if you send food as a gift, you run the risk of excluding certain people in your organization or certai VIP’s you wish to court as clients.

Giftagram

Giftagram is a corporate gifting platform that will allow you to choose from thousands of corporate gifts.

Like many of the platforms that we’re going to discuss in this group, it integrates with your CRM. And you can personalize your gifts to your recipients. We’re huge fans of personalization.

But where we differ from Giftagram is that we’ll offer an end-to-end strategy and take full responsibility for the success of your campaign.

Unfortunately, gifting isn’t just about sending gifts. It’s about identifying targets, and choosing gifts that are part of a continuity theme.

These are the types of gifts that are going to win the hearts and minds of prospects, help you build relationships, and ultimately win you more contracts.

Handwrytten

Handwrytten allows you to send handwritten notes at scale.

Anyone can write an email. But let’s face it, inboxes are so cluttered and so impersonal, is anyone really going to look at your “thank you email” and think “I feel really appreciated today”?

Probably not.

But with Handwrytten, you can send everyone a handwritten email as simple as typing an email.

You type your note, submit it to the app, and then a robot hand writes out the note in the handwriting style of your choice.

Sendoso

Sendoso is a platform that will help you manage your gifting program. You’ll easily be able to deliver gift cards, branded swag, virtual experiences, and other direct mailer gifts.

Sendoso will handle the entire process from storage to selection, preparation, and shipping, so you don’t have to do much manual work.

The problem with this type of platform is that it is very hard to send personalized gifts.

“But what’s wrong with Swag?” You ask.

The problem with Swag is that your prospects and your clients don’t want to be walking billboards for your company.

They want gifts that are about themselves, not you.

We find swag to be one of the biggest wastes of money not only in gifting, but in a marketing campaign. It just doesn’t build the kind of relationship you want it to.

Gyft

Gyft is a service that allows you to send gift cards to your clients, prospects, and employees from any device.

You can choose from over 200 retailers to send from like Panera, Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, and Ulta.

The problem with sending gift cards is that they’re so impersonal.

When someone receives a gift card, you’re appreciative, but you know there was no thought put into it.

It feels like someone checked a box to send a gift, or they forgot to pick something up so this was the best they could do at the last minute.

The other thing is, when you send a gift, you want the person to use it and think of you. This is how you win over their hearts and minds. But with a gift card, they simply add it to their balance, and in a day or two forget all about it.

Snappy

Snappy is another platform that allows admins to send on-off gifts or create an automated long term gifting campaign.

Here’s how it works.

You send an email to your recipient as a digital gift.
They open their digital gift with a scratch and reveal experience.
Then they get to pick the gift they want from a curated set of products.

Sure, you got them a gift. And in the end, they’re going to be appreciative.

But was there really any thought put into it? Will they actually remember you? You’re making them do work to get the gift!

Final Words

The above gifting services are all fine services.

And if you do decide to go with a service that isn’t GIFTOLOGY, make sure that your’e sending gifts that will give you the most bang for your buck.

Click here to schedule a 1 on 1 free consultation with us to make sure that we can maximize the ROI of your gifting campaign.