I used to run a small business, me, two full-time employees, and a handful of subcontractors. There were a number of businesses after me, trying to get me to buy from them. Some used promotional gifts, mostly personalized pens.

One of the companies that thought promotional items marketing was a good way to my wallet was one that was in the promotional products business. It sent me sample pens personalized.

I’d heard about the law of reciprocity, was not immune to it. Yet, I never bought anything from this company.

Why?

Four times a year for ten years they sent me a sales letter with a promotional pen, personalized with my company name and phone number.

Except that it wasn’t my company name. My company name ended with ‘Services, Inc.’ What they sent me ended with ‘Servic’ – not ‘Services’ or ‘Svcs.’ or ‘Svcs’ or… There were other ways to shorten my company name that did not include butchering words. They didn’t have enough room to write out my company name in the font they were using and they didn’t think of using a smaller font or finding a commonly acceptable short name for my company. Their way of doing it annoyed me to no end.

The point of all this?

They used promotional products well in all but two respects. Here’s what they did right:

1. My name and title were correct and they used my name several times in the sales letter.

2. My company name on the envelope and on the sales letter was correct.

3. The pen inside the envelope created curiosity so that my assistant opened the envelope every time.

4. They kept marketing to me.

5. They had an offer.

6. The offer was good for a limited time (a short time).

7. They had a guarantee.

8. The letter looked right – no long, scary-looking paragraph, some highlighting, a couple of phrases in bold letters.

9. The style was conversational.

Here’s what they did not do right:

1. They did not follow up. They did contact me four times a year but always with a one-letter campaign.

2. They messed up my company name on the sample.

If you’re wondering how they could have known I’d mind so much the way my name appeared on the sample personalized pen, the answer is: there was no way. But common sense says there was a chance I would (people love the names they give their businesses the way they thought of them). So, the best thing to do when you know that some people mind something is to determine if they’re worth marketing to. If they are, you don’t do anything that would annoy them.

You can annoy the hell of all the people, except the ones who’re going to buy from you. Look at politics: republicans don’t care what democrats think of their campaign promises and democrats couldn’t care less about what republicans think of theirs. They’re after their own and the independents. You should do the same in your marketing. But republicans do care what republicans think and democrats care about what democrats think. At least till they get elected.

If someone’s worth marketing to, market to them according to their likes and dislikes. No matter how good-looking or useful a promotional product is, if you send it to the wrong people, it will do you no good. And, if you send it to the right people, but mess up the message, your promotional product is wasted.