The 10 Best Promotional Gift Items For Small Business Success

If you own or run a small business, you know that generating brand recognition and interest is vital for your company’s success. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, around 50% of businesses fail within their first five years. So, you must get your brand name out there quickly to survive and thrive in the competitive business world.

Fortunately, there are many ways to promote your company while gaining brand exposure and customer loyalty without relying solely on digital marketing.

Using corporate promotional gifts at grand openings, trade shows, conferences, and other events can effectively increase brand recall and customer engagement. They help you show your gratitude and appreciation for your customers and clients while winning their loyalty and love.

You can also hand out employee appreciation gifts in bulk to your staff to reward them for their hard work while growing satisfaction, retention, and loyalty.

The best part is that promotional gifts don’t have to break the bank to draw more customers to your fold. You certainly don’t have to be a big guy with deep pockets to use swag to your advantage. If you wish to leverage promo products for your brand on a budget, here are the 10 best promotional gift items for 2023 to help you drive growth.

1. Lanyard With Swivel Hook and Breakaway Clip

What are the best promotional items for small businesses? Our top recommendation is this lanyard with a metal swivel hook and a breakaway neck clip. Customized lanyards are great gifts for employees and customers to use at work. They can use these practical gifts to secure their identification badges, keys, and other essential items.

Screen printing your brand name and logo on the center of both straps of this lanyard helps you promote your brand on the go. People wear lanyards frequently at workplaces, allowing them to become marketers for your brand and spread brand awareness. You can get your company’s name out there with this practical and attractive giveaway.

This polyester lanyard also has a detachable plastic clip for the user’s convenience and is available in a range of attractive colors. You can also get clear PVC badge holders with it to maximize its usefulness.

2. Folding Polyester Grocery Tote With Clip

Reusable shopping totes are another popular, functional, and low-cost promotional item for small businesses. Their usefulness goes beyond the grocery store as your customers can use them when visiting the gym, library, or beach. Also, giving your customers customized grocery totes helps you create free walking billboards while boosting brand visibility.

Our reusable multi-purpose tote is an excellent substitute for plastic shopping bags. It is crafted from sturdy 190T polyester, making it great for eco-friendly shoppers who wish to reduce their plastic use. They can use it for years, which will help them remember your brand whenever they see your screen-printed logo across the front.

Available in six charming colors, this tote is designed for over-the-shoulder carrying.

It also folds easily into a matching pouch that comes with it. So, you can conveniently and neatly keep it in your bag, pocket, or glove compartment when not in use without carrying it around in your hand. The pouch has a black snap closure and a black mini plastic snap hook to ensure the tote’s safe storage.

3. Cardboard Sticky Notes in Hardbound Booklets

Sticky notes are a fantastic promotional gift as almost everyone needs them in their office and home stationery arsenal. People often use them for taking notes in meetings, doodling, or writing to-dos, shopping lists, ideas, and contact details.

So, you can be sure that your customers will use them or give them to someone who needs them instead of tossing them away.

Our sticky notes come in three different sizes in a durable cardstock-bound notebook. It helps the notes stay organized and tucked neatly into place. The professional-looking notebook also features page marker strips in five neon colors, making it a multi-purpose promotional gift.

You can screen print your logo on the notebook cover, so its users and other people will see it and learn about your business. This gives you unlimited promotions for a minimal expense. Moreover, the large area of the cover offers a lot of space for printing your business name and logo, which highlights it better and instantly catches the eye.

You can also choose from a wide array of colors for the cover to go with your brand colors for greater customization.

4. Souvenir® Merlin Light-up Pen With Grip

Personalized pens are one of the best small business promotional items as people use them every day. People also share them with others, which increases brand impressions and helps businesses reach wider audiences. Moreover, pens are compact, lightweight, and portable so users can bring them everywhere.

Available at affordable prices, you can easily promote your brand on a budget with this handy giveaway. High-quality pens also convey your brand’s professionalism and help you come across as reliable and trustworthy.

Our Souvenir® Merlin Light-Up Pen With Grip is an amazing choice for a promotional pen. You can imprint your brand on your customers’ minds by laser engraving your business name and logo on its barrel. You can also pick from four different colors to match your brand colors.

Also, when you click the pen, its plunger-action mechanism will light up in a color that matches its barrel while highlighting your branding.

5. Push Pop Fidget Game – Square

This square Push Pop Fidget Game makes for an exciting and fun desk toy that people can keep around as they work at home or at the office. Suitable for anyone over the age of three years old, it improves focus and reduces stress and boredom. This makes it a cool self-soothing promotional gift item.

People with anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), attention disorders, and other mental disorders can use it as a fun stress reliever. Users simply make patterns by pressing down on bubbles or pressing any bubble for fun without making patterns.

You can screen print your brand logo on the front towards the top and give away the toy to a few lucky winners. You can also get it in six colors which will brighten up your customers’ and employees’ desks with its pops of color.

This quirky promotional desk toy helps users relax and calm down, making it excellent to have around. Also, when they attend Zoom meetings or talk to people at their desks, it increases brand impressions.

The toy is made of plastic and silicone, helping it last longer and making it a worthy investment for your brand promotions.

6. Twist USB Flash Drive

You can’t go wrong with customized USB flash drives when it comes to functional and low-cost swag products. People use them to store data, including documents, photographs, music files, and more. So, they will surely appreciate these promotional items and be impressed by your thoughtful gesture.

Our best-selling capless Twist USB Flash Drive comes in various data capacities and colors that you can choose from to suit your promotional needs. You can screen print or engrave your company name or logo on both sides and enjoy better brand exposure and recognition. Its large imprint area offers improved visibility for your branding and helps people see it right away.

Plus, this USB flash drive also has a cool swivel feature that enables its metal frame to rotate 360 degrees.

7. 10 ML Hand Sanitizer Spray Pen

Branded hand sanitizers are fantastic promotional gifts, especially for small businesses in the fitness, wellness, and healthcare industries. They are a simple yet effective way to show your customers, clients, and employees that you care about them.

Hand sanitizers are also affordable, compact, and portable, making them great for handing out at trade shows and other business events. You can also put them in small gift bags or boxes with other swag products and create a well-rounded corporate gift hamper.

This FDA-approved 10-ml hand sanitizer spray pen has a handy carabiner clip and is convenient to use and carry around. You can print your brand name and logo in full color on its label and promote your business to a bigger audience.

It is also available in nine colors, so you can pick one that accents your brand for that extra touch.

8. Business Card Magnet

Personalized business card magnets are perfect promotional items for small businesses. They are inexpensive, long-lasting, lightweight, easy to store and carry, and allow potential customers and clients to easily contact you.

Also, as your business card is attached to a magnet, customers can keep it on their fridges or cupboards as a decorative accent. It ensures that your business stays on their radars for a long time, increasing brand recall.

Moreover, when guests visit them and see your business card magnet, they will also learn about your brand. It increases brand impressions and awareness, helping you market your business at a low cost.

Our business card magnets are excellent promotional tools that help you show off your creative side with their eye-catching designs. You can print your business name, contact details, and logo in full color across the wide printable surface on the front, helping you enjoy improved brand visibility.

9. Stock Shape Stick-Up Calendar – 13 Month

Despite the popularity of smartphones and shared digital calendars, printed stick-up calendars still occupy high-visibility places in most homes and offices. People still use them to check dates or plan events, making them useful small business promotional gifts. So, giving them away will help you win brownie points from your customers and clients while enjoying year-round advertising.

Our Stock Shape Stick-Up Calendar spans 13 months, so your customers won’t throw it away as soon as the year ends. You can get your brand logo, name, and message hot-stamped on its durable vinyl mount for long-lasting branding.

The compact calendar is adhesive-backed, so your customers can stick it onto their vehicles, refrigerators, file cabinets, and other surfaces. It will constantly remind them of your brand and serve as a silent marketing tool for your business when others see it. It is also available in 22 mount shapes and many beautiful colors, helping you showcase your style.

The calendar also has an SFI® label, which means that its materials were responsibly sourced.

10. SPF 30 Lip Balm in Plastic Tube

Lip balms are a popular business promotional item as many people of all genders use them to protect and care for their lips. They are budget-friendly, compact, and practical, making them suitable for promoting various small businesses, especially those in the beauty and wellness industries.

This SPF 30 lip balm has shea butter, aloe vera, and Vitamin E that condition and nourish the lips. It also offers SPF 30 sun protection, keeping the lips safe from the harsh sun.

Manufactured at an FDA-approved facility in the United States, it comes in a plastic tube for portability and ease of use. You can print your branding in full color on its tamper-proof laminated decal and enjoy long-lasting visibility. You can also customize its flavor to suit your specific needs.

Conclusion

Promotional merchandise is as relevant as ever in today’s digital age. It’s practical for the receiver and the company handing it out.

The best promotional items for small businesses are low-cost forms of advertising that help you take your business to the next level. Use any or a mix of the ideas we shared to connect with customers better and build your brand identity.

You can also check out our other customizable promotional products on our site or call us at 888-994-7766 to learn more about our items.