Who wants a free pen with your companys name on it? I dont and I doubt many others do. I recently advised a small business that was charging customers $10.00 if they wanted to purchase a t-shirt with the businesss name on it to stop. Sure they sold shirts to about 10% of their members but the profit margin was only $4.00 per shirt.

Instead, I advised them that during the initial sign up for each new member the business owner provide a free t-shirt with the businesss name on it in exchange for filling out a short survey designed to categorize who were the businesss customer base. In order to get the t-shirt the customer would have to sign up for a minimum of 6 months.

I did so because the business owner was cold calling new potential members out of the phone book and I felt this was wasting not only his time but money. The better investment would be to spend the extra $4.00 difference per shirt. Then, 100% of his members would have and wear the shirts resulting in free advertising and the business owner would know more about who his customers were and where his next attack on the market should be. The profit margin on one year memberships was much more than the $4.00 difference or the cheap marketing he lost to potential members. The white pages would no longer have to be his battle ground. Within a week, he was contacting the Census Bureau and business was booming.