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Take a look around you. Do you see a pen, a calendar, a hat, a cup, a shirt, a letter opener, a ruler, a key tag, anything that has a personal or business use that was given to you by a business for FREE!?

I'm almost willing to bet that from where you sit reading this you will be able to find at least two Ad Specialties lurking right in your house or office. Things you use every day that always remind you that you should shop at Joe's, or buy gas at Fred's, or eat at Judy's or that you should wear a certain brand of shoe, etc.

An ad specialty, there are an estimated 150,000 products that can be sold as ad specialties, is anything that carries an advertisement for a business or product. Some are given away by the business and many are actually purchased. For instance, you may get a calendar each year from the local convenience store. That's a freebie. However, you may purchase a T-shirt that touts a certain brand of clothing or sports team. These are ad specialties that are purchased.

Ad specialties, whether free or purchased, are designed to do one thing for the giver or seller. Promote their business or product. When you look at the calendar, you think of the convenience store, when you wear the shirt you and all who see it think of that type of clothing.

Not every business uses ad specialties and if you aren't you are are missing one of the least expensive, most effective and simple ways to keep your name in front of the buying public. The name of the game in any business is promote! If you do not advertise and promote your business it will either wither away to nothing or reach a point of no growth.

Just as no traffic is death to a web site, no growth is death to your business. People have very short memories. They may buy from you today, but next week when they need more of what you sell they may go to the first place they see that offers what they want.

This doesn't mean they were dissatisfied with their purchase. They may simply have forgotten that they got it from you the last time. Now, if you had given them a little ad specialty with your name, phone number and a little advertising message on it, they would not only use the item and see your name each time, they would remember that you gave it to them and that would make them feel more disposed to coming to you again. Make no mistake about it, it is small things like this that set the successful business apart from the failing business. It does not matter if you are a one person business or one the size of Exxon, Ad Specialties should be a part of your business plan.

They say you are not supposed to talk about yourself in these little presentations, but about the benefits the customer or potential customer will get from what you are offering. However, we have a personal success story that I think will help you understand the power of these little items.

Our original dba, Forms-A-Plenty has been sold and we now do all of our business under the ATD Marketing banner. We began Forms-A-Plenty in 1990. I was working in a local print shop running a press. Ink under the fingernails time, and decided that clean fingers were something I would like to enjoy for a while.

I am not a very good employee. I always end up wanting to run things. So, after a major hurricane and a year working for local businesses I decided to start my own Print Broker business. We went through the process of naming the business, setting out a strategy and I set out onto the streets.

Now, I enjoy cold calling, and cold calling is one of the only ways to start a business such as this. You may make cold calls on the phone or you may do like I did and go face to face. At any rate, one of the things we decided to do right away was get an ad specialty printed to give out as I made my rounds.

We studied the many things that are available and settled on a letter opener that looks kind of like a comma with a fat head and a long tail tucked under it. I gave one to the manager of a hotel one day but did not get an order. Over the course of the next five years I visited the manager of this hotel almost monthly with no success. One morning the phone rang and it was her. She said she had been opening mail that morning, using the letter opener I had given her over 5 years before, and realized she needed some envelopes printed so she called me.

We have given these out for over 20 years and now they are our trademark. The neatest thing about them is this: everyone who gets one puts it on their desk, in their drawer or wherever and they use it almost daily. We have gotten numerous jobs because the owner of the opener used it and remembered they needed some printing and since our name was in front of their eyes they called us. It sometimes takes years of using it, but sooner or later your name and their need will come together and you have a chance to capture another paying customer. That is exactly what an ad specialty is supposed to do and will do.

By the way, if you would like one of our specialties, just send a self addressed envelope to us at: ATD Marketing, 17151 Key Lane, Oakwood, IL 61858 with your e-mail address and freebie written on your envelope. we'll pay the postage to get it to you.

So, an ad specialty is anything that carries an advertising message, is given away or even sold by a business to promote that business or its products. Every business needs to use them and if you are not, now is the time to reconsider your marketing strategy.

I challenge you to look around you wherever you go. I imagine you will begin to notice just how many ad specialties you own and use as well as how many ad specialties there are out there. Even bumper stickers are ad specialties!

We can provide you with a plethora of specialties that will keep your name in front of those who pay your bills as well as those who are not yet customers but could be if circumstances were right. You don't have to spend a lot of money to get a lot of bang. A $0.50 pen can keep your name in front of some one for up to a year or longer, try that with a newspaper ad that might cost upwards of $30.00!

Sincerely,

ATDMKTG1

For a list of some types of businesses that might use ad specialties:

Click Here

We use only the finest suppliers!

• AAkron Line
• Tranter Graphics
• Finn Graphics
• Plastic Promotions
• CHS - The Speedy Line
• American Greenwood
• The Gill Line
• Devon Logo Mat
• Design Original
• Ad Capitol
• Noteworthy

• Norwood
• Superb
• Atlantis Match
• Falcon Rule
• Allen Color Graphics
• Archer's Decorative Glass
• Galaxy Balloons
• Gary Line
• NABCO
• Royal Industries

Please look through our pages and contact us if we can help. We believe that personal contact is imperative when dealing with customized items. Some of our suppliers have provided us with excellent sites where you can place your order. However, many of them still rely on our contacting you to make sure all the details are right before they have to produce the items you want. Nobody wants to throw away something because of a transposed number or because some malicious person ordered something under false pretenses. So, we appreciate your understanding of why you can't just order it here and not have any personal contact with the folks at ATD Marketing. Please call us or e-mail us and we will make sure you get what you want at a price you can afford. We can provide a catalog from any of these suppliers for $2.95 S&H we will include a $10.00 off coupon for your first order over $50.00. We hate to charge for catalogs, but if you order we don't mind refunding your cost + some. A small business such as ours could go bankrupt paying to send out catalogs to everyone who just wants to window shop. We hope you understand.

We are firmly committed to bringing you the very best product with the very best service and we hope to do business with you in a way that is profitable for you as well as for us. We realize there is always somebody who will do it for less. We hope you realize that the cheapest isn't Always the best. All we ever ask is the opportunity to serve you. So, give us a try and you'll see, we do pay Attention to Detail!