Customized Business Items: How to Customize, What to Give, and When

Giving branded corporate gifts can be a great way to spread brand awareness, improve employee morale, make customers feel appreciated, among many other branding benefits .

But, if you’re reading this and have never done it before, where do you start?

This short guide should help.

General Best Practices with Corporate Gifting

• Know your audience. Give them something they can use. Cheap promotional items from no-name brands might seem cost-effective but are more likely to be thrown out than kept and used.
• Keep the products relevant. If you’re a part of an outdoor company, consider giving customized business items like Carhartt or Patagonia If you know your clients love golf, customize best-selling Titleist golf balls. A tech company? Give out customized Skullcandy headphones, power banks, or Popsockets for your customers’ phones.
• Be generous. You want the recipient, whether a customer, a lead at a trade show, or even an employee, to feel like you took the time to consider what to give them.

The Best Customizations to Make

In considering customized business items for gifting, there are lots of ways to “customize.”

The two most important are customizing the gift to the individual, and customizing the actual, physical gift itself.

The other is by customizing the actual product. We offer full color printing, debossing, laser engraving, and embroidery services, depending on the material of the surface of the product.

Imprinting with a company logo is a great way to customize a corporate gift (no matter the recipient), but our products can be customized with basically any artwork you like – you just have to send it to us and we’ll do the rest (you always have final approval before production).

What Customized Business Items Make Good Gifts?

Any customized business item could in theory make a good gift, but in practice, it depends on the recipient, as well as what your intended goal is.

• Customized apparel can also make great gifts, and if you give high-quality, retail brand apparel, the recipient will become like a free walking billboard if they wear it. Consider high-quality branded tees or hoodies from Nike or Gildan, hats or jackets from Carhartt, or pullovers from Eddie Bauer. We can even customize footwear from brands like Converse, Allbirds, or Vans. If giving a gift to an individual into fitness, a customized gift from Under Armour can make a great option, too.
• Customized water bottles and travel mugs from brands like Hydro Flask and Stanley make thoughtful gifts that pretty anyone can use, at any time of year.
• Branded bags also make good gifts because they are practical to pretty much any user. The lack of specialization is the appeal here. Consider giving branded bags from a brand like JanSport.
• Tech and tech-related gifts are also very thoughtful and pretty much anyone can use them. Consider giving customized gifts from JBL, Apple, Skullcandy, Amazon, Beats, Bose, and many others make thoughtful gifts, especially for high-profile events like Birthdays or the Holidays. Check out our entire collection of technology gifts at the previous link.
• Everyone that has a pet loves him or her as a part of the family. Pet gifts, like dog bowls, toys, and leashes can make very thoughtful gifts, provided you give them out selectively. These don’t make the best gifts for trade shows or company-wide gifting, but they do make great gifts for birthdays or to recognize employee achievements – if the recipient has a pet!

• Who doesn’t love food, wine, and spirits? We make it easy to give a completely personalized gift of fine wine, gourmet food, coffee, tea, or even candy for those with a sweet tooth. Shop our collection via the previous link.
• Another great idea for employee recognition is to curate a set of gifts that can be given together. We’ve done some of the heavy lifting for you – check out our BRAGBox Collection. Customizable according to theme/need, gifting a BRAGBox will take some of the hard work out of shopping for and customizing business items as gifts, providing you with an all-in-one solution for corporate gifting.

This just scratches the surface of all the unique brands and gift ideas that we can customize for your business. Take a look through our full brand collection via the previous link.

How and When to Use Customized Business Items

The calendar is full of opportunities to show appreciation for business partners, customers, and employees without customized gifts. Here are just a few occasions with merit:

• Employee birthdays
• Important holidays throughout the year, like Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, Labor Day, Veterans’ Day, and Halloween
• To recognize other important dates in an employee’s calendar (such as the birth of a new child, an anniversary, etc.)
• Promotions and other big individual accomplishments
• To thank customers for their continued business
• To spread brand awareness at trade shows and conventions through custom promotional products
• To show appreciation for service providers and business partners, such as facilities managers, receptionists, etc.
• To thank suppliers for their service to your business

These are only a few of the ways in which you can make a difference in employee, client, and partner relationships through thoughtful corporate gifting, but there are many others.

Get Started Here!

At iPromo, we make it easy to give customized business items as gifts. Here are some ways we can streamline the process:

• Tight on time? Check out last minute gift
• Need to meet a strict budget? You can shop by budget here, too.
• Not sure what to get? Try our most popular
• Love to buy American? Check out our Made in USA
• Supporting corporate responsibility? Take a look through our Environmentally/Socially Responsible

These are only a few of the ways in which iPromo makes it a cinch to give customized business items as gifts. If you need any help choosing the right gifts or have questions about the brands we sell and how we can customize them, feel free to get in touch with us at 888-994-7766.