Promotional pens are a great promotional gift to give out to just about anything. They’re cheap, widely available and universally appreciated by any you give them to. There are a lot of variations on the theme of pens bearing a logo or a message, and the ones you choose to use as part of your marketing campaign will vary depending on which markets you are attempting to attract and what kind of products or services you are promoting. Here are a few ideas that might make your promotional gift campaign more successful.

Impressions Last

The golden rule when giving out promotional pens is to never go with the same old pens you bought everybody last year. Always be on the lookout for new designs and new ideas. People might pretend to be very businesslike, but they all enjoy brightly colored pens with wacky designs – even if they only keep them in a pen holder on their desk. Gimmicky pens and pens that are slightly more interesting than your standard plastic pens might be more expensive, but people are far more likely to hang onto them for longer.

Gadget Pens

Gadgets of all descriptions are built into pens to be used as executive gifts or promotional pens. You can find pens with built in gadgets like a calculator, compass, LED light, laser pointer, MP3 player with FM radio or a voice recorder. Some of these gadget pens cost less than $20 each if you buy in batch of 100 or more, and they have huge impressing power. These make excellent gifts for your own staff, valued clients or high profile potential corporate clients.

These pens are based on the idea that if you give somebody something that they have never seen before, they will be greatly impressed with everything about it. Isaac Newton said, "any new sufficiently new technology is indistinguishable from magic" – and to an executive who is still not entirely familiar with their mobile phone, these pens have a definite charm and ability to impress.

Personalized Pens

One sure fire way to impress any executive or client is to give them a high quality stainless steel pen with their name engraved either on the pen or on an equally high quality pen case. These types of promotional pens are the kind you keep forever, so if you really want to ensure repeat business from important clients, don’t be afraid to spend a little money.

You can easily spend a few hundred dollars on promotional pens like these, but if you are dealing with a large corporate client it is well worth it to give these pens to dozens of their staff. It might not make them pick up the phone and order your products right away, but the long term effect of improving their perception of your company is something that very few other types of gift can buy. The bottom line is that if you spend money on a person’s gift, they will be more predisposed to choose your company if they need your products in the future.