When you invest in promotional pens for your business, you want to make sure you’re getting maximum value from your investment. Assuming your pens are printed with your contact details and a call to action, they are effectively serving as business cards for your organisation.
Printing the pens is the first part of the struggle, next you have to find creative ways to get them into the hands of the right people. Here are 10 creative ways you can achieve this with very little effort.
Perhaps the most obvious use for pens would be to include stacks of them for individuals to take away during a conference. Pens are always useful in a conference setting, so you can make life easier for individuals by offering freebies at your stand. Make it a fun design that everyone will want to get their hands on and you’ll find people flocking to your stand to make sure they get their own.
Hosting an industry quiz or networking evening? Bring your high quality promotional pens along and offer them as low stakes prizes throughout the evening. Make it easy enough to win a pen that most people in attendance will be taking one home with them.
Once you’ve invested in promotional pens for your company, you’ll never need to buy stationery supplies again. Only use promotional pens at home, in the office and out and about. You can also make sure you always have extras so you can give them away if anyone ever asks if you have a pen they can borrow.
Promotional pens succeed because they combine low production cost with constant, everyday usefulness. Each time the pen is picked up, your brand earns another impression without additional spend.
Pens are lightweight but they have more value than something like printed promotional materials. This makes them the ideal option to pop in the post as a small thank you to your loyal customers. This is a cost-effective way to reach lots of people and to also spread your branding far and wide. Your pens will go from boxes in your office to being scattered all around the country and possibly even all over the world. Who knows where they will end up?
When you’re out and about, try to remember to carry a stack of pens with you. This can make a fun game as you leave your promotional branded pens in fun places. You could leave one behind in a mug of pens at the doctor’s office. You could leave one at the bank. You could leave them in the seat pocket on your next airline trip. “Forgetting” your pens in creative places is a great way to spread the word about your business in a natural and organic way.
If you’re heading to an event, you don’t have to have a stack of business cards to hand out. Go one step further with a promotional pen that includes your company contact details and tagline. This is more useful and more memorable than a business card, as it will have intrinsic value to the recipient beyond holding your contact details.
Charity events often need lots of pens to encourage individuals to sign up or pledge their support. You can do something good for society and something positive for your business image by donating your promotional pens to a good cause. They can either give them away as an incentive to sign up, or they can use them for their administrative planning work. Either way, your brand will enjoy some positive brand exposure and you’ll also enjoy a little visibility boost.
Event organisers are often seeking contributions to goodie bags for events and conferences. You can donate your pens to be included in a goodie bag alongside items from other brands. There will often be a limit on how many pens they are willing to include, so make sure you get in there first or offer something unique to ensure your company isn’t left out. This is an effective way to get your promotional pens into the hands of important individuals.
Pens deliver the most value when you stop rationing them. The more hands they pass through, the more your brand travels.
When employees start at your company, consider giving them a welcome pack that includes some promotional pens they can take home and distribute as they like. You could include things like a new notebook, branded sticks, promotional pens and even a company lanyard to help make the onboarding experience more enjoyable and engaging. Your new employee might be tempted to share this with their friends and family and post about it on social media.
Planning a networking event? Offer everyone a notepad and a choice of promotional pens in different colours to help get the conversations and connections flowing. Each pen will signal a different conversation topic that the individual wants to talk about. Or they could be specific to different departments in the company. The challenge will then be to seek out the individuals with specific pen colours that relate to the topics they want to discuss – or avoid!
| Method | Effort Required | Reach Potential | Longevity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conferences & Events | Low | High | Medium |
| Direct Mail | Low | Medium | High |
| Goodie Bags | Very Low | Medium | Medium |
| Organic / “Forgotten” Placement | Very Low | Unpredictable | High |
A key part of the process of distributing your promotional pens is to remember that they are cheap to produce and readily available. Be generous and willing to give them away freely. Just be sure to include your contact details and brand message on the pen so that recipients know what you have to offer.
If you start to feel like you can only put the pens in the hands of potential customers, you’re going to start overthinking the entire process. Instead, go with the flow and have some fun seeing how far and wide you can spread your promotional pens.
Rather than assuming that every pen given away needs to result in a sale, embrace the unknown and enjoy the act of being generous with your branded giveaways. In the future, you might surprise yourself by spotting one of your own pens out in the wild.
Discover high-quality promotional pens designed to deliver long-term brand visibility.
Are promotional pens still effective in digital marketing?
Yes — physical items often stand out more in an increasingly digital world.
How many promotional pens should I order?
Order enough to distribute freely without hesitation — volume supports visibility.
