Maven Mapper's

This afternoon I opened up my mail, I was somewhat surprised to find a customized pen in the mail with the name of my company on it. It was a promotional item intended to encourage me to buy more custom pens like it or possibly fancier pens such that I could give those away to potentially client customers and partners and other people is a form of advertising.

Now I attend a lot of trade shows and so I tend walk away with pockets even bags full of pens on occasion. I typically don't get into the business of giving away pens myself I'm usually the target of) butts there is something to be said for this type of advertising.

As the recipient of many good and bad pens I can offer a few tips.

• don't waste your time with cheap pens -- just skip it if you think you have to go cheap
• don't buy pens that are too fat or large and look like they belong in the kindergarten class
• Skip the pens that have flashing lights on them- I don't want my suit to light up and down whenever I'm walking.
• Skip the pens that have funny toys attached to the end of them
• Don't skimp on the amount of ink that goes in the pen. You want these pens to last so that your customers or whoever receives them will continue to remember you and your company many weeks months possibly years into the future.
• if you can get your phone number and company name engraved into the pen as opposed to painted on the pen, you don't want it to rub off!
• don't give away any pens with naked people on them unless you're in the naked people business