Why Corporate Gifts Are Important and Tips on How to Choose the Right Ones

In 2021, the corporate gifting market was worth an estimated $242 billion. It received a boost during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Corporate gifts are used to maintain connections between companies and clients. They help boost the morale of employees working from home during uncertain times.

Gift cards are a go-to gift item for many individuals, but they are generic and can be seen as an impersonal, one-size-fits-all approach to gift-giving.

If you’re looking for unique and personalized corporate gift ideas, this guide can help you. We’ll also cover the importance of why giving corporate gifts is a must.

So keep reading!

Why Is it Important to Give Corporate Gifts?

Corporate gifting isn’t just a good idea; it is an integral part of doing business. Corporate gifts provide many benefits. They serve to bolster your company and enhance connections in the following ways.

Corporate Gifting Improves Client Relationships

While you may be content to get by on your reputation, including corporate gifts is a great way to strengthen your existing client bonds. Giving existing clients corporate gifts throughout the fiscal year helps to remind them of your presence.

It can improve their opinion of your company in their minds. They will feel more valued, with 80% of individuals surveyed stating that corporate gifting had improved client relations. This leads to increased client retention using your brand or service long-term.

The gift does not have to be a large, lavish, or expensive item. A simple remembrance included with a quarterly shipment can keep your clients happy. It may even lead to referrals to other clients.

Corporate Gifting Improves Employee Relationships

As established during the COVID-19 pandemic, companies and their employees were pushed to the limits with stay-at-home orders requiring most employees to work from home. The increased stress on employees caused an increase in many quitting their jobs.

Corporate gifts make your employees feel more connected to your brand and the company, helping maintain employee satisfaction and retention. Receiving thoughtful gifts from a place of work improves employee motivation and loyalty.

Sending out gifts on important dates such as a work anniversary or an employee’s birthday establishes your brand as one that cares about its employees. It can also help to improve employee productivity.

Corporate Gifts Promote Your Business Brand

Corporate gifts serve a larger purpose outside of the workplace, too. Items that an employee or client may frequently use, like a branded water bottle or a tote bag, serve another purpose. It gets your company’s name out to the general public.

Those in the public eye will see your company’s logo on corporate gifts. Each view of these items generates a brand impression that can help cement your name in the minds of consumers. It creates a favorable view of your business to potential customers.

Corporate Gifts Help Attract Prospective Clients

Corporate gifts may help you seal the deal for businesses that are not yet your clients. Sending a corporate gift can put you on their radar and increase awareness of your brand.

For example, if one business is looking to connect with another for a possible partnership, they’ll likely consider several options before making a final decision. When decision time comes, your branded corporate gift will be front and center and tip the scales in your favor.

Corporate gifting promotes a more personal connection versus a cold-call client pitch. You can achieve a higher chance of client acquisition by demonstrating your commitment to them. You’re also showing that you value them even before a decision is made otherwise.

Corporate Gifts Establish a Lasting Presence

Corporate gifts are tangible items with the ability to produce a lasting brand presence. Frequently used promotional items like branded stationery, custom journals, and pens have staying power amongst clients and employees alike.

Six out of ten people keep promotional branded items for at least two years. This means your corporate gifts have a huge potential to generate thousands of brand impressions over their product life and use.

This is not only a source of free ongoing marketing each time the item is used but also offers a more significant potential return on investment over time.

Tips for Choosing the Right Corporate Gifts

So, now that you understand the benefits and importance of corporate gifts, Factors such as the budget for the gifts, the frequency of when gifts are sent, and the types of gifts available are all essential parts of the corporate gifting process.

You’ll also want to consider if there is an ability to personalize these items, create a theme or story for these gifts, and choose gifts with usefulness or purpose to them.

Work Within Your Budget

You might want to send everyone on an all-expenses-paid trip to Costa Rica or a hot air balloon excursion, but make sure you set a budget first. You don’t want to go broke trying to impress your clients and employees. You also don’t want to set your sights so high that others could see your gift as intimidating or ostentatious.

Look at your quarterly expense reports and see how much you can spare in your corporate gifting accounts. Set budgets for different types of corporate gifting occasions, such as an employee’s retirement or a milestone anniversary of a particular client.

Corporate gifts like those given out for birthdays range anywhere from $25 to $75. In contrast, gifts for new client acquisitions could start at $75 and go as high as $125 per gift. It all depends on what you’re sending, the relationship, and the occasion for the gift.

Opt for thoughtfulness first and foremost over being too showy. This also allows for reciprocal gift-giving on a more even scale across business-to-business platforms.

Decide on When to Send Gifts

Timing is everything. Determine when and why corporate gifts are sent out over the year. Of course, new client acquisitions and potential client leads warrant gift sending, but what about other events?

Do you have a set schedule? Are your corporate gifts sent out each quarter? Keep a calendar of important dates easily accessible to ensure you don’t miss an employee or client’s important date.

Holiday gifting is especially important. For example, ensure you allow enough time to order, fulfill, and deliver your corporate gifts during busy periods such as the December holiday season.

Stay up to date on other special occasions like the birth of an employee’s baby, a wedding, or an engagement so that the proper congratulations may be sent out timely.

Choose a Theme or Story for Your Brand

Themed gifts are the most well-received because of their memorability and the effort to make them unique.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies sent their employees stay-at-home self-care survival kits with various items to help them stay safe. Items like branded PPE supplies, scented candles, snacks, and computer accessories for their home offices assisted their at-home working transition.

If possible, you can align your corporate gifts with your company’s products or brand story.

Make Your Corporate Gifts Useful

Where applicable, you should also opt for helpful corporate gift ideas. Stationery sets, tote bags, and drinkware get the most use, aside from wearable items like t-shirts, hoodies, hats, and jackets.

Practical items have a much higher rate of retentiveness for their recipients. They won’t end up stuffed in the back of a drawer or a closet or thrown away as soon as they are opened.

These types of corporate gifts also offer more opportunities for brand exposure.

Personalize Your Corporate Gifts in Some Way

Outside of the traditional branding on your corporate gifts, a little personalization can go a long way to making your company more than just a faceless business.

Something as simple as a short handwritten card or note addressing the specific recipient by name sets you apart. You always want to go the extra mile to provide your clients and employees with a personal touch to show that you care.

Clients and employees will hang onto your handwritten notes longer and remember you more fondly.

Have a Variety of Gift Options Available

Don’t use a stale “everyone gets the same gift” approach. No two individuals are the same, so why should their gifts be? You need to differentiate.

Have different gifts for men and women. Something for book readers and sports enthusiasts. Some people like to cook and bake, while others enjoy sipping on custom cocktails in their leisure time.

Don’t be that lazy company that gives out a pen set for every event or milestone. Instead, offer a variety of corporate gifts that will best suit each gift recipient’s profile or tailor them to each gifting occasion.

Corporate Gift Ideas

Corporate gifting is beneficial but can be overwhelming when deciding which corporate gifts to choose. You need to narrow down your options to a more manageable list.

Gift Baskets

Gift baskets are ideal due to their ability to be customized. It is possible to create a custom gift basket for nearly every occasion, from welcoming a new baby to celebrating a wedding and honoring a retiring employee. The basket itself is decorative and functional.

Gift baskets are versatile. They can be given to new and established clients with different gift items. Everything from food and drink products to home goods, baby supplies, tech accessories, and branded company gifts can go into a gift basket.

Writing Instruments

Writing instruments such as pens and pencils are essential everyday items. Everyone at some point in life has needed to take down a phone number or other piece of information and has had to search for a pen.

The odds are that the pen contained some marketing or company branding on it. Pens and other writing instruments are capable of achieving 3,000 brand impressions over their lifetime of use.

From signing checks to writing notes and filling out necessary forms, branded pens are worth their weight in gold. They are effective as marketing tools and as practical corporate gifts.

Floral Arrangements

Floral arrangements are excellent for many types of occasions as well. Flowers have meanings and convey the emotions of sympathy, congratulations, joy, and welcome across multiple cultures.

For those who have an allergy to flowers, paper flower bouquets bring all of the beauty of natural flowers in a long-lasting way. Paper flower bouquets date back to the ancient Japanese practice of origami, a paper-folding art.

Journals

Journals as corporate gifts offer your employees and clients a multifunctional booklet they can use to jot down important notes and memos throughout the day. A journal can also serve as a diary to track thoughts and feelings or be used as a diet and exercise tracker.

Journals keep their recipients more organized. They are effective for boosting memory and enhancing creativity.

Calendars and Planners

Keeping track of important dates, events, and meeting times is crucial in a busy world. Although most people use their electronic devices to store appointments in a calendar, what happens when the battery dies or the phone malfunctions?

That’s why maintaining a paper calendar or planner book is essential. Gift recipients won’t have to scramble for their phone or computer whenever they need to check their schedule. It’s all formatted in a convenient planner.

Find the Perfect Corporate Gift Ideas at Occasions Just Write

You put a lot into making your business great. Your corporate gifts should also “wow” your clients and employees.

Occasions Just Write, located in Wilmington, NC, can assist you with your corporate gift ideas. You’ll find various items like custom invitations, greeting cards, stationery, school supplies, and writing instruments. We also carry floral arrangements, gift baskets, and paper bouquets.

At Occasions Just Write, we specialize in B2B corporate gifting. Let us help you with a custom corporate gifting order that will set you apart from the rest.

Contact Us today for more information about your corporate gifting needs.