Every company hands out promotional items as part of a larger marketing strategy, but what if your advertising budget is too small to give everybody a new Blackberry? A stack of promotional gifts to hand out at traffic lights can easily break the bank for many small businesses and if your campaign does not go well the bad investment could very well sink your business. Fortunately, the market is a was with fantastic low cost promotional gifts which take away much of the risk and still provide excellent value for money and a good return on any investment.

One great idea is to go for bespoke printed playing cards with your logo and message emblazoned on the back. These are highly cost effective and meet the majority of tighter budgets. Remember to always design the backs of the cards so that your logo is simply a repeated pattern. Most gamers will not play with a deck whose cards look different depending on which way they are held upside down - and the idea is to get people to use your cards and be exposed to your logo.

If your target market are office based, then promotional pens are the perfect giveaway for this environment. This makes distribution of your promotional items a lot easier, because all you have to do is ship boxes of pens to various companies, give them time to filter through to all employees and then wait for the phones to start ringing. Promotional pens and similar gifts are so versatile they can be used for almost any market and what's more they are highly cost effective.

Beach promotional products are becoming ever popular and there is a whole variety of unique and funky options available. For little cost you can go for kites, beach balls or frisbees all of which have a great potential to be seen by a wide variety of people on a daily basis. Even if only one or two people are actually given one of the items, a lot of people will see the item, use it and enjoy themselves. Such promo products act as an exceptionally good way to build brand association between your logo and a particular time of enjoyment.

All too often during the festive season, people are continually trying to push Christmas decorations and do not realise that in fact they can be a highly effective advertising medium. You can get a box of Christmas decorations custom imprinted with your business logo and special message and hand them out to passing shoppers, you will be amazed at the response as they now do not have to outlay money on decorations. For years to come your logo will be appearing in homes throughout the land, and as such creating a special and unique connection between a time of happiness and enjoyment and your business - nothing can beat this form of marketing.

We all get a bit tired of it, however Christmas is a key selling and marketing opportunity. You should take advantage of this great selling opportunity and distribute free Christmas promotional items. This is the perfect opportunity to create heightened brand awareness and also build a lasting relationship between your business and your key target market.