You’re trying to land a new client and you want to make a great first impression.
So you decide you want to send a gift. Something that will break the ice and help you stand out from the rest of the people trying to get your prospects attention.
What do you send?
There’s a thousand different options. But one of them seems to be peaking your interest more and more.
Candy.
Afterall, who DOESN’T like candy?
There’s something that can please everyone.
And it comes in all different price ranges – so you can definitely find something that will meet your budget.
But after reading this article, we hope that you realize that there are far better options for your marketing dollars than candy.
Benefits of Corporate Gifting
Before I share the reasons why candy makes a bad corporate gift, I want to share the reason why you’ll want to send a corporate gift in the first place.
Helps You Build Relationships
A strategic corporate gift will help you build and solidify relationships with people who are going to move the needle in your business.
For instance, they may be prospective clients who are going to sign million-dollar annual contracts, or they are star employees who you want to make sure know how much they mean to you.
But this can only work IF the gift is used.
For instance, if you send a candy that contains that your recipient is allergic to, then the gift will go to waste – and they will eventually forget about the gift you gave them.
High ROR
We don’t use the term ROI as much as we use ROR, Return on Relationship.
Here’s why.
A solid ROI requires a return as quickly as possible. If you put $1 into a marketing campaign, you need to see $3 right away.
With a ROR, we are looking to build relationships over time. When we put $1 into a relationship campaign, we are going to see hundreds of dollars paid out over the course of years!
The 7 Keys to a Great Corporate Gift
1. Practical
Make sure your gift is beneficial to the recipient. A gift that can be used daily (or at least 3-5 times a week) is unquestionably more valuable than a fancy item that practically has no use.
2. Personalized
To stand out from the crowd, create some personalization in your gift. This can be done with an origin story for the gift or by giving it some sort of personalized branding.
3. Best-in-class
You absolutely can not compromise the quality in any way. So, try getting a product of the highest quality within your budget. Longevity should be your topmost priority in this case. You want to make sure their grandchildren are able to use the gift.
4. Luxury
To find an appropriate gift for customers, browse their social accounts to determine their interests and hobbies. Perhaps get them something they wouldn’t buy for themselves but would appreciate a lot if given to them.
5. Handwritten Notes
Don’t underestimate the value of personalizing your message by hand-delivering it or penning a handwritten note clarifying your intentions. Notes are always a way to add a special touch to anything.
6. Including Inner Circle
Another point to remember when you’re giving a gift is how you can make it useful for the recipient’s family.
We can’t tell you how many clients’s have come to us and said “my wife is your biggest sales advocate. She absolutely loves the gift that you sent us!”
7. Create 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 the customers.
3 Reasons Why Candy Corporate Gifts are a Bad Idea
Best in Class
At GIFTOLOGY, best in class means that the gift will last forever. Not necessarily the gift that costs the most.
You can spend quite a bit of money on candy, and get something VERY high quality. But will it last?
Of course not.
By it’s very nature, candy is a consumable and not meant to last. Your recipient’s great grandkids aren’t going to want to inherit candy 40 years from now – at least I hope not!
But compare that to a beautifully designed glassware set – one that will last forever. Your recipient will have a great heirloom to leave to their family for generations to come.
Something that they can use to remember your recipient, and their legacy by.
Practicality
Once candy is consumed, it’s gone for good. Obviously.
And that’s the second reason why it doesn’t make great corporate gift. Remember, you want to make sure that your recipient uses your gift 3-5 times per week.
This is CRITICAL for a successful gift.
Here’s why: every single time that your recipient uses your gift, they are going to think about you, and your business – and eventually the relationship that you have together.
Which is the entire point of gift giving.
Unlike a cold email, or some sort of postcard that comes in the mail, a really great corporate gift sells you and your company for you LONG after the recipient receives the gift.
For instance, we’ve had clients tell us that 6 months after gifting their recipient a luxury cutlery set, they finally signed a deal to work together.
The main driver (outside the fact that our clients have good businesses) is that the recipient was using the cutlery set every single day.
And every single day they used it, they would think of our clients.
Continuity
Having a continuity themed gift gives you an inherent reason to follow up with your recipient.
Let’s say you gift someone a glassware set in order to “break the ice”.
The next gift you send them can be the matching decanter.
And the third gift that you send can be the matching wine stop.
And so on.
After a few rounds of gifting, every part of their table setting will be gifted by you. And they won’t be able to eat a meal without thinking of you and your business.
Final words…
Unfortunately, candy can seem like great corporate gifts, but after further analysis, I hope that you can see that you wouldn’t want to waste your money.
But if you’re looking for a fulfillment service that has ALL that and more, get in touch with us, and we’ll help you craft a gifting service that caters to your business needs.
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