Promotional mugs for advertising gifts

Promotional mugs are among the more successful and cost-effective ways to highlight your company name and keep it prominently displayed on a customer's or prospect's desk. Promotional mugs are one of those simple desktop business gift ideas that are well tried and trusted. And are one of that select band of promotional items that sit on the desk day after day, week after week and month after month without giving offence, silently promoting your sales message to those in the office...and all through a humble promotional mug!

Promotional mugs are usually earthenware with coloured glaze options and styles that will suit most occasions. However, for a more exclusive business gift a bone china mug offers a more prestigious and stylish option.

Most ceramic decorators in the United Kingdom tend to use similar designations for various promotional mugs; the most popular being an earthenware chunky shape known as a Sparta mug. Other similar varieties are Avon and Atlantic whilst taller and more elegant designs include the Sheraton or Lincoln styles. The bone china mug variety includes some graceful designs that will enhance any office and some of these are designated Apollo, Pearl and Topaz and amongst the finest coffee mugs.

By far the most spectacular example of a promotional mug is heat sensitive which, when hot liquid is added, reveals a brilliant and vibrant full colour sales message that is always a talking point.

Although many promotional mugs are handed out at various functions and by sales people there is a place for them as part of a mailing package. Initially, a mail campaign may not seem the most logical desktop mailer. All the same using polystyrene postal cartons ensures a mug will arrive safely and stand out from the crowd. Using a two-step mailer of an introductory letter outlining the sales pitch with a note to watch out for the next package can create an air of expectancy and mystery…and works well in practice!

Promotional mugs used like this are a most reasonably priced part of a direct mail promotion…just do some testing. This will confirm that a campaign utilising a mug will do better than a campaign without a promotional item…sometimes by as much as 30% or 40%; consequently proving the value of a mug as a business gift or promotional item.

The costs are not exceptional as a half-decent earthenware promotional mug can be had for around £1.25 - £1.50 and this means that you can put a mug on someone's desk for less than a penny a working day…not a bad advertising return on such a minimal investment.

There are many other promotional gift products competing for space on a prospect's desk but very few are superior to a promotional mug for all-round usefulness although not necessarily for durability. Nevertheless, people sometimes become so attached to a particular coffee mug that, in the event of a breakage, they often call and ask for a replacement. And that must be a testament to the quality of your advertising promotional mug.