Picking the correct gift to your corporate clients and associates is highly important to impress them and to foster good business relations. Gift selected has to be in line with company standards and the amount of regard that is had towards the recipient. How then should one select corporate gifts that will be appropriate, useful, and well received given the importance of the aforementioned? Every aspect is described in this guide such as choice of recipient, occasions, branding technique and setting up for the budget.
Know Your Recipients
The first and potentially the biggest is identifying the target audience. Is the gift for attracting new clients, or maintaining the relationship with the clients that have been with you for several years or even decades? Or will it be for groups of employees? What they are like, where they are at, and what they like and dislike. In other words, what you have to look for are gifts that will be appreciated based on the personalities of the recipients. This extra effort will make your recipients understand that you are aware of their preference and that the existence of your relationship matters.
In the event that one is purchasing gifts for a few significant C-suite officers at a new client, then one should consider getting gifts that will remind the recipients of their elevated positions. Corporate gifts such as fine glasses, quality leather items, or custom-stationery or corporate organizational items could be appropriate. If there are a lot of associates in the group to choose gifts and if there are those who do not share the same hobbies and responsibilities, generalized gift categories such as food, entertainment, and experience gifts are better.
Consider the Occasion
Is the gift intended to be given only during the holidays to special people in the office? Is it going to be distributed during regional business meeting or tradeshow? What is its purpose – is it an advertisement saying thank you for the loyalty of our regular clients? Or is it an organizational way of thanking speakers for meetings or events? To further refine the what type of gifts is permissible, identify the precise time that can help in making the decision. Consider whether you want to have your branding highly visible or not and to what extent the gift is going to be personalized.
Products which are not personalized such as mugs, pens and notepads can be more effective for a tradeshow and events where there are many customers and merchants to serve. Although engaging gifts such as coolest high-tech gadget, luxury products, and customized gifts are appropriate corporate gifts for one-to-one occasion for the top executives. This is true since gift baskets can be made suitable for all events as you can prepare the food and other small pleasantries depending on the people who will be receiving the baskets. Just make sure to include your business logo and/ or message alongside so that the recipient associates the good feeling with your business.
Gift baskets are wonderful because they present many choices.
Talking about gift baskets, they are the perfect example of the corporate gifts because they are essentially all about options and opportunities. In fact, you can come up with gift baskets that meet any of the considerations and criteria expounded in this guide. Their strengths include:
- Can provide the option to blend other office needs such as stationery, breakroom foods, personal care products, computer peripherals depending on who will be receiving them.
- Basket can be made in various styles and types of packaging that range from the sustainably sourced crates to luxurious boxes that make any items placed inside of it even more special.
- The variation of the baskets available for the preparations can be offered in the price range of $25, up to $200. Use to stock up more products, or to store additional items or luxury products.
- Able to accommodate many branding options, even down to using tissue paper to wrapping hampers and using customized ribbons and labels.
But in case if you are overwhelmed with the idea of choosing a particular gift item, the idea of a gift basket enables you to place small items considering recipient character, business, relation of the occasion and the cost factor. It is just to compile a range that would be possible for the scenario.
This is why it is important to add meaning to the learning process by personalizing it.
It is the kind of feeling that makes any gift more meaningful, be it a typed note with the name of the recipient, the company, or a memorable date at the inscription. There are many possibilities as to how a product can be personalized, this can range from monogramming, engraved items, custom labels or even adding a handwritten note card to the product. This personalized touch makes them believe that they are significant to you, and you had the time and effort to pick a gift especially for them.
The emphasis should be placed on the fact that even the small things such as custom M&M’s imprinted with the company’s name/trademark as an attendee gift for a tradeshow can work wonders. Or a pretty calendar that has photographs from one of the customer projects that the two of you completed. Personalization benefits can be seen in the sense that you show your partner you care about your business deal on a more individualized level.
Incorporate Branding
As much as you wish to create an inspiring and unique gift with messages and symbols for the recipient, you should also not forget to include or add branding messages as well. The gift, the wrapping paper and all the additional cards or stickers that can be attached should have your company’s logo, slogan/branding color and general design set. This visibility keeps them reminded of your business and helps to create a positive feeling with your brand as they partake on the gift.
Some clever ways to brand gifts include:Some clever ways to brand gifts include:
- Products include customized packaging papers or gift boxes and bags with YOUR company logo
- Offer items that can be adopted within business environment such as mugs, accessories, or other utensils with imprints of your logo.
- Use ribbons and decoration accessories of the company’s brand color to decorate the gift baskets or bottles of wine
- Add other gadgets such as a pen, a notepad or stickers with the company’s logo in addition to the gift.
- Employ the services of hanger tag, label or even a brand thank you card to highlight your company name and its logo.
Set a Budget
Business gift giving can be as low budget or as high as the purchasing organization may want it to be. To some firms it is regarded as a strategic promotional expense while for others they have to balance on their expenditure. Since giving gifts is part of branding, establish reasonable gift quantities in terms of branding objectives, the target audiences, and limitations.
Here are a few spending guideposts:
- Small gifts for tradeshow visitors: 5 It should be possible to obtain a government grant of between $10 – $25.
- Appreciation gifts for event speakers: Low price range is $25-$50
- Gift basket or luggage tag for new connections: which ranges from $50-$100
- Nice accessory or tech gift for important clients/partners: _$100 – $250
- Luxury good or experience gift for executives/VIPs: You must earn more than $250 per year.
As it satisfies you, corporate gifting budgets may be significantly different. These are the realities of the gifting world: What matters most is defining concrete dollar ranges one can afford to spend and then not spending more than that. It is quite acceptable to have a lot of nice branded notepads to give to a lot of event attendees or to have a couple of good bottles of wine to give to your best clients. Scale based on priority.
Follow Up Post-Gift
As much as you invest time and effort in selecting and wrapping that perfect gift, your efforts should not stop there. The fact that a company or an individual follows up afterwards also serve to further cultivate that client relationship. Or simply shoot them an email or a hand-written note after the gift has been chosen to know if they liked it. By saying ‘thank you’ to them once more for the opportunity to partner with them gives them a chance to give a positive response on whether they have received the gift.
This check-in assigns a relationship between the gift giving gesture and actual conversations so that one can assess the effects of the gesture. They also show your focus and care in the aspects of timely delivery and relationship management. While that gift is a great way to further deepen your connection with your client, don’t let it be the last. Continue engaging post-gift giving.
These are some thorough guidelines on how you can assess the recipients, occasions, personalization, branding, and budgets – all that you need to get started and choose some brilliant corporate gifts. But the greatest thing to consider is that they know how to apply intention and effort to ensure that their gifts create a mark. Do not be too hasty in providing your clients with things such as mugs and pens imprinted with your company logo. Personalize gifts depending on the levels of contact and increase the magnitude of the gifts for VIP connectedness.
Custom gift baskets can always be used as the default option because it offers versatility and the opportunity to be as creative as possible regardless of the amount of money one has to spend. Just populate them with items appropriate for the targeted recipients of the carefully crafted basket. Gift giving is supposed to be a way of establishing goodwill and healthy business relations between your organization and other key business players. Consequently, it is important to pay attention to the recipients’ preferences and only add some branding elements on top of that. With the help of this ultimate guide, you will be able to become an expert in corporate gifting very soon!
