Several of my friends own their own businesses and they have all recently started using promotional pens to help promote their different places of work, in a bid to spend less money on advertising whilst still achieving good results.



The first that I knew about using printed pens was when my friend, Sarah, showed me some pens that she had ordered to promote her bar and restaurant. She had browsed the internet looking for something appropriate and decided that pens were something that everyone uses and they wouldn’t cost as much as other advertising methods she had tried in the past. She now gives all her customers, who order a bar meal on a weekday, a complimentary pen to take home with them. The free pens are bright red rollerballs which write in royal blue ink and have the name of the pub printed on their barrel. Sarah says that all the customers who receive one are both surprised and delighted. Most have promised to tell all their friends, and Sarah says that she notices that the bar is busier at lunch time all through the week already.



The first batch of promotional pens that she ordered was not expensive, and she thinks that they have paid for themselves already through increased sales. This has got to be good, because at the moment the statistics are showing that one pub a week is closing down due to poor trade. There are many villages where the pub used to be the centre of village life but breweries are selling them off to be redeveloped into residential houses. Sarah is now going to order some more executive type printed pens with the pub name and phone number printed on them. They will have the message, "A warm welcome awaits" printed on the caps. Sarah is going to give one of these pens as a gift to couples who spend over fifty pounds on a meal together, just as a thank you. She is also looking into pens as giveaways for children to see if she can get more families in to the restaurant. As Sarah has found out, if you are not using promotional pens as part of your marketing strategy you could be losing out on customers.