If you’re new to promotions buying, this Buyer’s Handbook explains some of the things you need to know to be an informed buyer and make good decisions. Where the Marketing Smart section describes a top-down strategic approach for integrating promotions with marketing, the Buyer’s Handbook gives you the scoop on how the industry works. It’ll help you manage the negotiation, ordering, and technical aspects of promotions buying—including picking the right distributor.

Even if you’re an experienced promotions buyer, you’ll learn some of the tricks common in the promotions industry that sometimes trap buyers into making bad choices.

The goal of the Buyer’s Handbook is to help you:

• Select high-quality products

• Stay within your budget

• Meet deadlines

• Avoid tricks and traps of unscrupulous sellers

• Get results—boost your brand and improve sales

• Take the worry and stress out of promotion buying 

It isn’t hard to put together a great promotions campaign. It just takes a little knowledge and some planning. 

The problem in many companies is that ad specialty items are treated as the marketing step child. It’s last on the todo list and gets the budgetary table scraps. Often it’s a last-minute “we gotta give-away something” emergency that hurts the chances of staging an effective campaign.

To make matters worse, the promotional products industry is historically driven by salespeople, not marketers, who push product and low-price deals.  It’s easy to fall into their preoccupation with price, and forget about the broader marketing goals.

The articles in this section will help you be a better promotional products buyer.

Primer on the Trinket Trade describes the players in the industry, and de-mystifies pricing.

The Eagleview Method describes how we work the process.  Even if you don’t buy from Eagleview, this is how it should be done.

Order Checklist lists the basic facts you need to think about to get the process started.

Imprinting Basics lays out the least you need to know about imprinting on products.