50 marketing mistakes / Mistake #04
Mistake #04 of 50Don’t buy marketing items and then hoard them.
If you buy 500 pencils, give away all 500. They’re not inventory. They’re advertising.
What it costs you
A box is not a marketing plan.
Somewhere in your business, there’s a box.
Maybe it’s in the back room. Maybe it’s under the counter. Maybe it’s in the trunk of your car.
Inside are pens. Or magnets. Or T-shirts from the open house two years ago.
A pencil in a box produces nothing.
Every one of those things is a little ad that nobody has ever seen. It isn’t on a refrigerator. It isn’t on a desk. It isn’t in anybody’s hand.
A real example
The tire gauges in the back room
A tire shop orders 1,000 tire pressure gauges. Good ones, with the shop’s name and number on the side and a great line: “Low tire? We’re right here.”
They hand out a couple hundred in the first month. Then things get busy. The box gets pushed into the back room.
A year later, the owner finds it. Eight hundred gauges.
“I don’t want to just give them away. Those were expensive.”
The money is already spent. The only way to waste it now is to keep them in the box.
Same gauges. Already paid for. Only one of them brings anybody in.
Why it happens
Why the box never gets empty
None of those reasons ring your phone.
Do this instead
Put it in their hands.
Don’t wait for people to come take one. Put it in their hands. An empty box is not a problem. An empty box means it worked.
| Every time… | Do this |
|---|---|
| A job is finished | Hand one over at the finish line, and say thank you. |
| An order ships | Drop one in the box, on top, where they see it first. |
| An invoice goes out | Slip one in the envelope with a quick handwritten note. |
| Someone visits | Hand them one on the way out, not on the way in. |
| Your team heads out | Every company car carries a handful. |
| There’s a local event | Bring the whole box. Come home with an empty one. |
| You meet someone new | Keep a few in your own pocket, bag or car. Always. |
Make it somebody’s job. Pick one person, give them the box and one goal: “This box is empty by the end of next month.” If your team hands out ten a day, a box of 500 is empty in fifty days. That’s 500 people with your name, for stuff you already paid for.
Do this today
- 1
Go find the box. You know where it is.
- 2
Count what’s in it, and write the number down.
- 3
Put a handful in your car, your bag and every work vehicle.
- 4
Pick a date this box will be empty, and give it to someone to make that happen.
You already paid for them. Now open the box, and give away the damn pencils.
Stolen from the masters · Benjamin Franklin
For about 25 years, Franklin printed Poor Richard’s Almanack, a little book people kept in the house all year. A printer who understood that people keep useful things. One of his sayings fits this mistake perfectly:
“Well done is better than well said.”
Ordering the pens was “well said.” Getting them into people’s hands is “well done.”
From the book
Chapter 12: Give Away the Damn Pencils
Starts on page 112. The whole chapter, plus 250+ ways to market your business, in the free book.
Download the free bookIdeas that fix it
Get them into people’s hands.
Idea 60 · book page 291Promotional Pencils$0.20–$0.50 eachCosts almost nothing and lives in a drawer for years.
Idea 66 · book page 294Promotional Pens$0.30–$1.50 eachUseful, cheap, and passed from person to person.
Idea 86 · book page 304Magnets$0.75–$2 eachOn the fridge right when the pipe bursts.
Idea 122 · book page 322Tire Pressure Gauges$2–$6 eachLives in the glove box for years.
Idea 82 · book page 302Key Tags & Keychains$0.50–$4 eachRides on someone's keys every single day.
Idea 63 · book page 293Carpenter Pencils$0.25–$0.75 eachContractors actually use them up, and come back for more.Want a plan for what to hand out, and when?
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