You might be thinking that giving a gift basket would make for a great corporate gift.
Afterall, you can fill it with a hodge podget of items that will appeal to everyone. You can fill it with food, gift cards, maybe a bottle of wine.
And they seem like they’re perfect for every occasion – Christmas, anniversaries, birthdays, thank you’s and so much more.
They sound perfect, right?
After reading this article, we hope that you’ll find that there are far better ways to spend your marketing dollars than on a gift basket.
Benefits of Corporate Gifting
Before I share the reasons why gift baskets make a bad corporate gifts, 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 gift basket that contains food the person is allergic to, or a gift card to a store the person doesn’t shop at, 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 Corporate Gift Baskets are a Bad Idea
Practicality
A gift basket is usually filled with consumable items, including gift cards, chocolate or other types of foods, and alcohol.
Remember, we want to make sure that your gift is used by your recipient 3-5 times per week for as long as possible.
So once the gift card is spent, or the food is eaten, then the person will no longer be able to use it – and remember you.
Now, let’s contrast this with something like a beautifully designed glassware set.
This is something that your recipient can use every single time they get a drink of water, sit down to eat dinner with their family, or have a glass of wine with friends.
It’s a gift that can last forever AND be used multiple times per day – let alone per week.
And every single time the person uses the glassware, they will think fondly of you and your business.
Best in Class
Speaking of lasting forever, a gift basket is not going to be something that your recipient’s grandkids are going to be arguing over in 20 years.
Not because the gift basket you get isn’t nice – i’m sure it is. Not because you didn’t spend a small fortune on it – I’m sure you did.
But think about it: how many gift baskets do you have in your house right now? None.
The reason is because as soon as you take the gift basket home, you disassemble it. You sort it by the items that you like, and the items you’re going to give away (or throw away).
Then you eat the food, use your gift cards, and *poof* the gift basket is gone in a week.
So think about that, and then think about a nice piece of luxury luggage.
That’s something that will stick around forever. It’s something that you’re going to give to your grandkids one day.
Continuity
One of the great benefits to gifting as a marketing strategy is that you build an inherent excuse to follow up with someone.
Let’s get back to the luggage set.
There’s a VIP prospect – CEO of a fortune 1,000 company. You’re trying to get in touch with them because your business would be PERFECTLY aligned with theirs.
The first time you reach out, you send them a nice overhead bag. Your relationship begins.
Next, you have a meeting with them and you bring the second piece of the set – the under-the-seat bag.
Finally, you close the deal. And as a way of saying thank you, you gift them the last piece of the set – the big check in bag.
Each piece of the luggage set builds on top of the other.
But with a gift basket, there’s not a lot of room to do continuity. You gift them a basket, and then what? There’s no next logical step.
Continuity and the inherent follow up is the key to successfully landing VIP style clients. Afterall, one touch point is never enough.
Final words…
Unfortunately, gift baskets 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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