Are you ubiquitous?

Hoxton and the folks at Newton Manufacturing helped a bank put together a direct mail-promotional product campaign aimed at small-business owners. The bank sends invitations to a seminar via direct mail. Included with the invitation was the sheath for a multi-tool. The message said something like, “You need the right tools to do the job.” Business owners who attended the seminar received the multi-tool that went with the sheath.
“No matter the price point, it comes down to application,” Hoxton says.

Application involves making sure the promotional products are tied to a larger plan of action. For a look at what makes promotional campaigns successful, see sidebar below.

Gain referrals
Clients don’t just refer their friends and family to someone because they’re working with him at that particular moment. Advisors know that gaining referrals is about earning trust and making a connection. Seniors can go anywhere for their insurance and investment products, so it’s the experience they have with an advisor that makes the difference — imprinted products help.

“Promotional products are the most personal and permanent form of advertising,” Hoxton says. “And in insurance, it is that personal relationship that has to be sold.”

Promotional products — items with no strings attached — are essentially gifts from advisors to clients. They are ways of saying thank you that continue to work for the advisor long after they leave the office. When someone is asked who his financial advisor is, he can tell his friend the advisor’s name and show him the imprinted pen or the keychain or the golf ball.

Advisors whose referral campaigns include appeal letters to established clients — it could work in print and electronic newsletters, too — would do well to offer promotional product incentives, according to PPAI research conducted in 2005. PPAI found that appeal letters plus an offer of a promotional product incentive resulted in five times as many referrals as the appeal letter alone: 4.8 percent of responses vs. 0.8 percent. Offering an incentive — the promise of a free product — worked far more effectively than sending the promotional product out with the letter, too.

If imprinted products are done well, clients are going to offer up referrals to their advisors, and they are going to be walking advertisements every time they take out a pen to write or pull their keys out of their pocket or toss a tee to a forgetful golf partner.

Advisors need to think beyond their client base, too, Hoxton says. Advisors are missing out on opportunities if they don’t have their logoed products on hand at all times. Leave a pen at a restaurant and see how many other diners see your name.

To really make an impression and land some strong referrals, Felber says advisors can use promotional products to reward long-time clients. Usually, the show of appreciation is returned.

“Give your best clients a nice clock or something along those lines,” Felber says. “That’s something they’ll remember more.”

And it can be a conversation starter. “Your advisor gave you that? Mine just gives me reminders to send him names and phone numbers.”Promotional products are everywhere and they are used by companies and individuals in every industry. Big corporations have long realized how valuable an imprinted pen or golf ball can be. But with relatively low price points and relatively long returns on investment, even independent financial advisors can get into the act. Generating leads through better direct mail and garnering more referrals are just two of the ways senior advisors can put promotional products to use — two they can identify and relate to immediately. The key, it seems, is to remain visible even when the client or prospect doesn’t know he needs advice and guidance.

“It’s not easy to predict when a buying decision will be made,” Hoxton says. “You want to be there when it is.”