Considering that virtually all businesses own at least one computer, it’s not surprising that promotional mouse mats have become very popular promotional items. Distributing your mats might seem like a difficult task—they’re not quite as easy to give away as promotional pens are, since your client has no need of a mouse mat to sign a contract or a check. However, there are still plenty of ways you can give out mouse mats without making the gift seem forced or unnatural.

•Use your own Mats

Use your mouse mats yourself—and give them to your staff, too. Any member of your staff should use promotional products such as these, even if they don’t often interact with the public. Branded company items promote a feeling of loyalty and make your staff feel like they belong to a team, and that increases both morale and productivity. There’s another advantage to using your own promotional items. When you’re interacting with clients, you have an easy opportunity to give away the mats any time a client expresses some interest in the item. Make your mouse mats particularly colorful or unusual-looking, and clients will be more likely to notice and ask about them!

•Company Events

Make your next company part or sporting event an affair to remember—literally! Appoint a staff member to be a roving photographer and take pictures of everyone who attends the event. Pop each picture inside a photo mouse mat—a mouse mat with a clear plastic insert that can hold a photograph—then distribute each picture and mat combo to the person in the photograph. This provides your staff with a new mouse mat, and at the same time gives them a way of remembering a fun event—a great morale booster as well as a novel way of distributing promotional items to your staff.

•Purchase Incentives

Offering free items is a very effective way of inducing people to spend more money. If you run an online store or catalog, consider offering a free mouse mat with purchases over a certain amount. There are lots of attractive mouse mats available, as well as many mats with added functions such as integrated calculators or clocks. Printed most mats are fairly inexpensive, with many varieties available for between £0.50 and £1.00.

•Trade Show and Conference Give-aways

Mouse mats in bright, vivid colors make great “bait" items for trade show booths. Bait items are the ones that you display prominently in your booth to entice people to come visit you. The best bait items are colorful or have moving parts that grab the attention. There are some vibrantly colorful mouse mats available, including some with a metallic luster and others that include colored liquids inside a specially-created pocket within the mat itself. These are definitely colorful enough to grab people’s attention at busy events. Mouse mats are also ideal for conference give-aways. They’re inexpensive enough to add a mouse mat to every promotional package, and take up very little space when stored flat or rolled up into a cylinder. Pop a mouse mat into each promotional conference bag and there’s still plenty of room for other goodies.