Years ago, I worked as the administrative assistant to a busy CEO who was often plied with the little trinkets that salesmen use as promotional items. After one visit by a salesman, my boss stopped by and carelessly dropped a cardboard shipping box of about a dozen pens on my desk. ?Take these home to your kids,? he told me. The pens inside were of decent quality, and each was imprinted with the name of a local company that serviced office machines. We found them very useful at home ? but since I have no office machines at home, the promotional gifts did the salesman and his company little good.

Not long after, a salesperson from another company stopped in to make an appointment with my boss. He pulled a pen out of his pocket to jot down the appointment time, then held it up for inspection. ?Like these?? he asked my boss. ?We just got them in. Here, why don't you keep it? I've got another in the car.?

THAT pen got tucked into the CEO's pen tub on his desk where he used it often. When another colleague stopped by and needed to sign a document, my boss pulled it out of the tub. When the colleague commented on how nicely it wrote, my boss told him, ?Keep it. I'll get another the next time Bob stops in.?

Here's the rub ? the second pen was identical to the carton that my boss sent home to my kids. What made the difference? The answer is obvious ? the presentation made all the difference.

The first salesman devalued the company's gift by handing over a whole box of them, still in the shipping carton. The message in that was ?we have these by the dozen. There's nothing special about them.? By contrast, the second salesman treated the promo pen as something with some value. It was an item that he thought enough of to use himself, and to compliment. When he handed it over, he didn't make it sound like a throwaway freebie. His attitude said, ?Let me give you something that I like.?

When you're designing a promotional gifts campaign or choosing marketing gifts, keep the two salesmen in mind. It's not enough to choose the right item. It's also important to consider how it's presented. Use your presentation as a way to say ?We think highly of your business?. That may take the form of individual packaging for your direct mail marketing items, or in personally handing each gift to its recipient at a trade show. Even if you're giving away thousands of the identical item, take care to make each one personal in some way, and you'll see far better returns on your investment.

If you're looking for ideas for promotional items, you'll find many companies online that specialize in unique and unusual promotional and marketing items. Take advantage of their expertise to help you choose just the right items for your marketing campaign.