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4 Corporate Gifting Strategies That Will Propel Your Company’s Growth

Corporate gifting is a task that most leaders aren’t sure about.

On one hand, the benefits a well-timed gift can offer are hard to ignore. It can help ensure continuity with current customers, help close deals with prospects, and even improve employee loyalty and retention.

4 Corporate Gifting Strategies That Will Propel Your Company’s Growth

However, at the same time, navigating the rules and best practices of getting a corporate gift is something that can be confusing and downright scary.

The good news is that with a few practical strategies, you won’t have to be in the dark about how to best approach corporate gifting and can be much more confident about the fact that the gift you selected has the maximum positive impact every time.

With that in mind, let’s look at a few of the most important strategies you should consider.

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Start with the Motivation Behind the Gift

Just like any business endeavor, corporate gifting requires thorough planning and establishing a clear goal that you want to achieve. After all, if you don’t perform the necessary work up front, you may end up getting the wrong gift, messing up the timing, or even insulting the client or partner without realizing you did it.

One of the first things you should think about is the timing of the gift. For instance, if you want to get a gift because it’s the holiday season, think about how this will be perceived and whether you’ll have to continue this tradition from now on.

Setting a precedent might not mean anything in most situations, but if you have a long-lasting relationship with a client, they might start expecting these types of perks regularly. To avoid that, make sure you attach the gift to a specific meaning so that you aren’t obliged to continue sending them.

Sometimes, you may want it to be a surprise for someone you want to think about your brand or make a favorable decision. In this case, it’s still a good idea to think of a reason for the gift and not just do it completely at random. Celebrating a milestone with a client might be a good reason to get them something you know they’ll enjoy while also cementing your relationship even more.

Consider Showcasing Your Brand

There are countless scenarios where you could use gifts to help achieve business goals and give partners or employees a bit more personal attention. And in most cases, you can also use the present as an opportunity to showcase your brand.

Using branding may not be ideal for every scenario, but using gifts with logos can help form a stronger positive association with your company while also acting as a reminder that you are ready to help should they need what you provide.

You can add a logo on basically any gift, including chargers, headphones, hats, apparel, or even water bottles. The key when choosing a gift is to make it useful, as you want the person to have your branded gift on them or with them often.

This way, you not only get to keep your brand on the mind of the person receiving the gift but will also get it in front of more people that will see the item as it is being used or worn.

Branded gifts are ideal in scenarios when you want to show appreciation for interacting with your brand. For instance, you may give out branded gifts to people who attend your brand’s event, as that will make them feel more appreciative and more likely to want to work with your brand in the future.

How Much Can You Spend?

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The budget you are willing to work with will play a vital role in the type of gift you can get. And there are multiple considerations that go into how much you should spend, which is why this is an integral part of the corporate gifting process.

Sometimes, you may be willing to spend a significant account to get through to a high-end client, but other times you may want to produce branded gifts to hundreds of people, which is when you will need to be very deliberate about each dollar that goes towards the present.

As a general rule, the longer a high-value client has been with your company, the more valuable the gift should be. If you want to commemorate the tenth anniversary of working with a client that’s generated a lot of revenue for your company, you should spend time carefully thinking about what would be the perfect gift and not skimping on the budget if you want it to be impactful and not insulting.

However, if you are trying to woo a prospective client, you will have to carefully evaluate not just if an expensive gift makes sense but also how the client will perceive it. Nudging them towards signing with you is great, but you also don’t want to make the gift seem like a bribe, so carefully evaluate each situation and the relationship you have with the person before deciding whether a gift is a right move.

Make the Gift Meaningful

In some scenarios, you can gain a lot by connecting the gift with the services you provide. The meaning behind the gift could form stronger associations with your brand, what you represent, and the products you offer, which can help keep your brand on the mind of the person receiving the gift and lead to more sales.

The best corporate gift examples find ways for the gift to tell a story. If you can build a narrative around your brand and form connections in your customer’s minds, making them trust you and believe the claims you make will become much easier as well.

For a tech company, that might mean an exciting tech gadget that has a useful purpose and is exciting to use. Novelty items always leave an impression, even if they are relatively simple and inexpensive.

If you can come up with a more creative gift, the budget might not even be a concern anymore. In most cases, it’s much more about the thought and the symbolic value behind the gift than the price tag, at least when the purpose of the gift is to build relationships and not bribe people into using your products.

Final Words

Finding the perfect gift for a client or business partner isn’t easy. And sometimes, the wrong gift can send the wrong message and even have a negative effect on your relationship.

But with a bit of planning and a willingness to be creative, you can maximize your chances of the gift having an impact and helping you grow your business in the process.

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