Business gifts offer some unique opportunities to promote your company. When you choose the right business gifts to promote your products, you can make an indelible impression on the minds of your customers and target market. Whether you give away business gifts with a sale or send them out to announce a new product, your customers will be far more likely to use your products or services ? research has proven that business gifts not only increase your company's positive image and make your firm more memorable to recipients, it makes them more likely to buy your products or use your services. Here are five ways that you can use business gifts to promote your company.

Give away business gifts as incentives to buy

a product or use your service

This is one of the most common uses of business gifts. The two most common variations on incentive gifts are:

Redemption (send in three box top for this neat business gift!)

Redemption schemes are a very common way to give away business gifts as incentives. Any time that the customer must make a purchase and send in proof of their purchase in order to receive their product/promotional items, it is a redemption scheme.

Inclusions (there's a neat toy inside this box!)

The second most common way to give away business gifts as incentives to buy is with an inclusions scheme. Whenever you buy something and the free gift is included in the package or attached to the package, it is an inclusion business gifts scheme.

Containers (in our special commemorative tin!)

Another variation on inclusion schemes is to make your business gifts the container for your product. Special commemorative biscuit tins and printed coffee mugs filled with coffee are examples of this kind of business gifts scheme.

Discounted with purchase

Not all business gifts are outright giveaways. Another popular promotional scheme is to discount a related product when customers buy a specific other product. An example would be to offer a high quality promotional laptop bag for half the usual price when a customer buys a laptop from your store.

Conditions for giving away business gifts

In addition to the various ways that business gifts are given away, there are several different methods that are used for determining whether someone qualifies to receive free business gifts in a promotional scheme. All of the above require the purchase of a specific item, which is one of the most popular methods of qualifying customers for business gifts. Other methods that may be used include:

Contests and sweepstakes

One very popular way of giving away business gifts is by running contests or sweepstakes. The major difference between the two is in the requirements for qualifying for a prize. In a sweepstakes, the only requirement is submitting an entry. In a contest, there is some sort of game that one most win in order to qualify for a prize. While the grand prize is the most important aim for most entrants, the real prize for the advertiser (your company!) is in all the sub-level prizes distributed with your name or logo on them, and all the publicity that you get for running the contest.

Attendance business gifts

If you're running an event ? including a sale or special promotional event ? you may choose to use business gifts as attendance thank yous. These can range from very inexpensive novelty items like plastic visors imprinted with your business name to high quality and expensive items like USB drives given to major contributors or important customers who attend a new product launch.