Discount Promotional Items - How to Save Money   by Cindy Carrera

It takes money to make money is an adage we hear everyday in the business world. So, when it comes to getting promotional items, you've got to budget for it. Or do you?

There are several ways you can save money on your promotional item order. If you are planning to kick off a campaign, create an item to woo existing customers or create an exciting event giveaway there may just be a way to pinch a penny or two.

PUT OUT FOR BID You may have a company that you've always dealt with and if that is the case, you may want to stick with them. However, if you aren't privy to a certain promotional company, then perhaps you will want to put out your order for a bid, and take the lowest price or best deal. If companies know they are being pitted against one another, they may give you a discount or throw in extras for free. This method can help you save money as otherwise, you'd juts be paying standard catalog rates.

BUY IN BULK You may or may not have the budget to do this, but the more items you buy, usually the lesser the cost per item. If you are the type of person to buy a little at a time, in the long run you will be essentially be spending more money. So, look at the rates for higher volume and see how you can save.

SPONSORSHIP This does not work for all types of companies or items, but in the non-profit, education and media sectors, this idea can work great. For event marketing, often times t-shirts are big giveaways. But, t-shirts are also a little bit more costly than an ink pen. So, if you can sell sponsorship on the back of a t-shirt, you can have those shirts paid for while still advertising your event. In addition to selling sponsorship to outside companies, many times the promotional company themselves will kick in part of the money if their logo or name can be on the shirts or other item. Radio stations are known to do this. Aside from items for specific events, you sometimes see this practice done on uniforms, such as little league teams or community sport teams. So, if you have an event coming up or just are planning to create some promotional items, it won't hurt to ask clients or neighboring businesses to help underwrite the costs- after all, the promo item also will promote them.

DO IT YOURSELF Another great way to cut down on the cost of promotional items is to do it yourself. Many times when placing an order, you will have to pay a set-up fee for the printing (usually a one-time fee), then pay for the actual printing and of course the items. But perhaps you can do part of this yourself. If you are working with a local printer, you could possibly provide the items yourself to be printed. For example, if you see a great close-out deal on t-shirts or plain coffee mugs at one of those warehouse stores, you could get a great bargain- much cheaper than buying them from the printer. So, you will only have to pay the printer for the cost of printing and not for the items.

BE LOYAL One of the ideas we listed above was to put promotional companies against one another to drive down your cost. However, staying with the same company can also save you money. Many times there is a one-time set-up cost, especially with making screens for t-shirts. If you keep changing companies, that fee will always be added. As long as your logo stays the same, you will never have to pay that fee again at the same company, which could have you hundreds. In addition, many companies will throw their loyal customers a bone every now and then. Keep that in mind.