Reward Your Best Affiliates

Consider thanking your top affiliates by giving them a promotional product. This shows them that you truly appreciate fact that they promote your products. You can send gifts to your affiliate partners when they reach a certain goal, or you can give gifts to your top affiliates during holidays. By rewarding your affiliates, you build a stronger relationship with them. They will thank you by continuing to promote your business.

Thank Your Loyal Customers

Just like thanking your top affiliates, you should also consider thanking loyal customers. You can express gratitude to customers that repeatedly by your products, customers who buy your high-ticket items, or both! Promotional items remind your clients that relationship you share with them is important to you.

Create a Competitive Advantage

Because of increased competition, it's getting tougher than ever to compete online. You can use promotional items as a way to show your customers that you are different than your competitors. Instead of appearing as “just another company”, you can demonstrate that you are unique. When someone receives a promotional item from you they are more likely to remember you over your competition.

Promote a New Product

If you are launching a new product, you can capture your audience attention and publicize it by using promotional items. At very least, you should send a promotional item to your top customers when a new product comes out. You might also want to consider sending items to your top affiliates too if you have a new product they can promote for you.

My goal is to get you to think of new ways to use promotional products. I hope you will implement some of ideas I have laid out here and also brain storm different ways to use them. If used correctly, these little trinkets can help you say ahead of your competitors!

The reality is, if they are professionals in truest sense of word, they will be more than willing to take much of paperwork burden off of you by handling it. After all, more value an account rep creates for their clients greater chance for an ongoing business.

Co-op dollars are not limited to retail businesses. Often, there are hidden dollars for non-profits. There are city and state funds that are set aside to help various organizations increase their visibility and reach.

One nice thing about using co-op dollars from a large manufacturer is that brand names do attract customers to your business—that's why you offer them. Advertising specific well known brands will increase your foot traffic. Harley Davidson has an amazing co-op program they offer to their retailers. It is a primary reason they have done so well. They encourage advertising based on specific guidelines.

It is to advantage of an advertiser to utilize these dollars. Manufacturers in virtually every industry want to help with advertising costs. They are very aware that when you correctly advertise their brand name product you will probably sell more of it, thus increasing your orders.

The disadvantage of co-op advertising can be restrictions set by manufacturer. Often, they have such rigid guidelines about how to design ad that you may lose all control of creative expression. For example, their logo may have to be positioned in an exact location in order for them to co-op campaign.

If you are working with someone who claims to be an expert at advertising and they know nothing about co-op dollars they are not expert they claim to be. Be aware.

Areas that you need to be educated on are program terms and reimbursement schedules. In some cases it can take months to receive reimbursement for a co-op campaign. In other cases, company you are cooping with will send money directly to media source. Be sure to check this information out in order not to run into a cash flow problem.

Advantages of co-op advertising - Extra money to advertise - Account executive can do paperwork - More frequency

Disadvantages of co-op advertising - Restrictions by manufacturer - No guarantee it will work - Limited creativity in ad copy

Before making a final decision, research your options on co-op advertising. You may be pleasantly surprised with what you discover.