Marketing – How To Make It Personal

Over the past 20 years, the business landscape has changed beyond all recognition. Modern businesses now find themselves trying to pitch their products and services to a digital world that didn’t even exist a short time ago. This rapid uptake of the digital age has meant that the rules of ensuring a company succeeds have been rewritten time and again. Often this is without much pause as to the potential ramifications. Old ideas are junked. New ideas are embraced not for their merit, but because they are new, and new must be good.

The end of corporate gifting?

One of the most prevalent victims of this “new is good” trend of the digital age is corporate gifting. In the days gone by, targeted print advertising and corporate gift-giving was used to help build brand awareness. It created a personal link between the business and the recipient of the gift, and increased visibility of the brand. This practice is in danger of falling out of favor, replaced by little more than an endless slew of confusing acronyms (SEO, SEM…).

Realistically, even in the digital age, there’s still a place for effective offline marketing. There is an argument to suggest that business owners have been distracted by the glittering lights of the digital age. As a result, they become convinced that the old techniques no longer have any merit. This simply isn’t the case, and a well-rounded marketing technique will embrace both on- and off-line possibilities.

The new age of corporate gifting

Given the benefits of corporate gifting for brand awareness, visibility, and relationship improvement, it seems unfair to dismiss it as a relic of a bygone era. What’s needed is to try and keep marketing as personal as possible by reintroducing corporate gifting. It can be altered for the modern age.

Corporate gift giving should be retooled to a simpler, more effective, and inclusive strategy. To ensure cost-effectiveness, a company owner should opt for less-expensive gifts. For example, calculators, pens, and presentation folders have all proven popular. These are all low-cost while still offering genuine benefits in terms of visibility and brand awareness. As people have to use calculators and pens on a daily basis, this puts the issuing brand front and center as recipients go about their daily life.

Final thoughts

While corporate gifting may seem to be an old-style marketing method that has no place in modern business, that’s not true. The truth is that corporate gifting and targeted print advertising still very much have their place.

The reason behind this consistent appeal of corporate gifts is simple human nature. After all, everyone likes a gift! As a result, corporate gifts have a personal touch that cannot be replicated by online efforts. They genuinely offer a direct benefit to the company that is impossible to achieve through any other means. Whoever is on the receiving end of these gifts, there’s definitely a place for this classic marketing strategy in a modern business.