Just like every other successful small business, In the Bag is focused on growth. We love finding innovative new ways to give clients The ITB Experience! And despite already being the Treasure Valley’s favorite swag dealer, we know there’s plenty of partnerships to be made—that’s one of many benefits to being based in such a fast-growing city.
But while we’re all about strategically increasing our client base (have we mentioned we’re never too busy for referrals?!), we also realize one of our keys to success has been our approach to nurturing relationships:
We don’t just serve our clients and community, we value them.
By cultivating a culture of gratitude that extends far beyond just saying “thank you,” we’ve built a reputation of integrity, creativity, and world-class customer service. Every move we’ve made stems from that deep appreciation, and in our experience this approach has paid dividends.
So, in the spirit of sharing the love, we’re going to teach you how we maintain already-healthy partnerships, drive consistent growth, and turn casual customers into loyal brand advocates.
Spoiler alert: our strategy involves our favorite thing…SWAG!
The Benefits of Swag Gifting
Before we give specifics on how to leverage promotional items to increase your revenue, we want to talk about why you should.
The answer? Customer preference.
It all boils down to a modern phenomenon called “ad burnout.”
The average American spends more than 10 hours engaging with some form of media every single day. In that time, they’re exposed to hundreds of ads; most of which are all but ignored.
But there’s a workaround!
Did you know 59% of consumers say they’d rather receive a piece of useful promo than be exposed to a traditional advertisement? Or that 83% of people would feel more loyal to a brand they currently do business with if they were given a promo product from that brand?
And since promotional products are considered a favorite form of advertising across all age groups, this creates a unique multi-faceted opportunity for your brand’s swag:
- Fostering that culture of gratitude we talked about (this REALLY WORKS for growth—we promise!) by giving client appreciation gifts people actually want to receive
- Increasing your brand visibility
- Creating a tangible connection between your brand and your clients
Now that we’ve covered why swag is important, let’s talk about why you should be engaging in proactive client appreciation.
The Importance of Customer Retention
Making sure your clients know they’re appreciated might not be the most important strategy for increasing revenues, but it definitely plays a major role.
If you’re like a lot of companies, most of your marketing spend goes towards attracting new customers instead of nurturing the ones you have. And sure, landing new customers is important—but there must be a balance.
The reality is, maintaining a good relationship with current clients is way, way cheaper than signing new ones. Like, five times cheaper.
Additionally:
- Selling to a current client boasts a 60-70% success rate.
- Successful sales to new customers plummets to about 20%.
- 69% of consumers say they’ll spend more money with a company that shows they value their business.
- Increasing customer retention by just 5% can lead to a 25-95% profit increase.
There are a variety of reasons client retention is so good for revenue, but the most important in our opinion: trust.
As a business relationship grows stronger with time, the perceived “risk” of doing business with your company goes down. This leads to larger and more frequent orders without spending extra time and manpower sourcing, wooing, and landing clients. From there, building lasting client relationships only becomes easier (and more profitable).
But promotional client appreciation gifts mean nothing if you don’t have the relationship to back them up…
Focus on Customer Service
The ultimate goal of client appreciation is a more robust business relationship, but if your customer service is less than stellar, sending swag could have the opposite effect. Who wants to keep a visual reminder of a brand they didn’t have a good experience with?
To ensure your client appreciation swag investment lands, you’ll need to make sure your customer service policies are on lock. Statistically, excellent customer service pays off:
- Customers who have a positive experience spend up to 140% more than customers who have a mediocre or bad experience.
- Loyal customers are 5x as likely to repurchase, 5x as likely to forgive, 4x as likely to refer, and 7x as likely to try a new offering.
Once you know your clients are satisfied with your service and feel valued as a true partner to your brand, you can start creating a strategy for your swag client appreciation campaign.
Customer Appreciation Swag Strategy
We’ve covered the fact that retaining customers is an important facet to achieving revenue growing goals, so now let’s focus on the strategy behind using swag for client appreciation.
In our experience, the key to any successful client appreciation swag campaign is simple creativity. This not only means the category of items you choose, but also how you decorate and present them. Choosing items and designs that strike the correct balance between aesthetically pleasing, useful, and desirable takes time and vision, but pays off in the end.
Additionally, creative doesn’t have to mean complicated or overly expensive. If you’re thoughtful with your choices and stick to your vision, there are incredible swag options for most budgets.
Having trouble visualizing how you would execute a client appreciation swag campaign? Take a look at a real-world example we’ve created.
Real-World Strategy Example
The Client: An up-and-coming Real Estate agent.
The Client’s Clients: Mainly first-time homebuyers purchasing a starter home.
The Goal: To create repeat Real Estate clients and gain referrals to their satisfied buyers’ networks. Real Estate representation options are basically unlimited, so their client appreciation gift must make an incredible impression.
The Vision: Useful, quality items clients keep on hand; expertly branded with the Realtor’s name and contact information.
The Budget: $50 per client
The Execution: A fully-branded “Homeowner Essentials” Kit
Mini screwdriver bit set $14.00
Home Maintenance Calendar Fridge Magnet $1.50
Measuring Tape $7.00
Pop-Up Lantern $10.00
House-shaped stress reliever $3.50
Fly Swatter $1.75
Retractable Utility Knife $2.00
Voltage Detector $4.50
5-Gallon Bucket (unbranded) to hold everything $5.00
Branding Sticker: $.50
Grand Total: $49.75
Still feeling like client appreciation swag strategy is outside of your wheelhouse? No problem—it’s our specialty. Book some time with your Brand Ambassador to get started.
Examples of Client Appreciation Swag
Now let’s get to the fun part: tangible examples of ways we’ve personally used swag in our client appreciation initiatives, plus ways to guarantee your client appreciation gifts are appreciated.
Make it a Party!
The annual ITB Client Appreciation bash is always an event to be remembered. In 2023, we went with an Oktoberfest theme, complete with German catering, plenty of beer, and piles of fun branded swag:
-Totes
-Stickers
-Tumblers
-Hats
Our next party is coming up before we know it, and this one is sure to shiver some timbers!
Build Community
Sometimes showing appreciation to your clients doesn’t mean sending gifts, it means supporting your clients’ events and initiatives.
In September of 2024, we were honored to support our client partner Idaho AGC at The Big Dig: Construction vs. Childhood Cancer. It was a fantastic day engaging with our community and you better believe we showed up with swag to commemorate the occasion!
Always Have Something On Hand
You never know when the opportunity to brighten a client’s day with a little swag will strike. Investing in evergreen swag to keep on hand for any situation empowers off-the-cuff gift giving and increases your reputation for generosity.
Examples:
- Something fun and unexpected like custom-branded socks
- Office supplies like nice pens or stationery
- Useful items like lip balm or hand sanitizer
- Often-forgotten items like fly swatters, chip clips, or jar openers
Custom Kits
It’s hard to choose just one item that properly communicates the sentiment of appreciation. Enter: branded kits.
- Fully Customizable: You set the theme and the budget, but from there…the sky’s the limit. If you have an idea, there’s a promotional item to fit.
- Curated Content: Kits give you the opportunity to increase your brand’s reputation by sourcing based on your brand values.
- Easily Personalized: Because you control the contents, you can add and take away items at will. No one-size-fits-all options here!
Listen and Respond
We love when clients come experience our showroom on the beautiful Boise Bench. Not only does it brighten our day to interact in person, we also enjoy finding out what swag they personally love but might not get the chance to purchase themselves.
This gives us the opportunity to surprise our clients with meaningful gifts we already know they’ll want and appreciate.
All it takes is a simple conversation! Have a client who compliments your branded sunglasses, wants to keep your Koozie pen, or loves the logo embroidered on your trucker cap? Wrap one up, include a personalized hand-written note, send it off, and cement your status as their exclusive business partner.
Make It Heartfelt
We’d be remiss if we didn’t list one of the simplest client appreciation strategies of all: taking the time to write, or say, a heartfelt “thank you.” You might be surprised how often this can make a genuine impact on your client relationship!
Looking for an easy client appreciation gift you can do with items you should have on hand? Take a branded pen and sticky note pad, write a personalized note on the top page, and send as an easy and inexpensive thank you package!
Don’t Underestimate Swag for Client Appreciation
If you’ve read all the way through, congrats! You’re well on your way to becoming an expert at leveraging promotional marketing items to show your clients you care.
And when you’re ready to put your ideas into action, give us a call! We’d love to give you a tour of our showroom and help you build the client appreciation strategy your incredible clients deserve.