A Guide to International Corporate Gifting for Beginners

Importance of Corporate Gifting

Corporate gifting is one of the top growing business trends and is becoming a necessity for anyone working in marketing, sales, or human resources. The reason this trend is so popular is because of the importance of building relationships with all those involved in the success of a business.

With competition growing in many different industries, strong relationships matter in terms of gaining clients, partners, and employees. Sending a gift is a sign that the recipient is more than a means to revenue for the business, and that whatever value they may add to the firm is not going unrecognized.

Marketers and sales personnel can use corporate gifting for all their lead and client facing needs. Sending a gift is far more effective in getting a response than an email or phone call. A great gift will also set you apart from other competitors attempting to impress the same lead or customer. Once a business relationship has been established, corporate gifts can be used to nurture and maintain relationships to increase trust and loyalty between both parties.?

Imagine you work for a company that is looking to outsource its recruiting efforts and are speaking to multiple different recruiting firms. One recruiter reaches out through email and gives you the basic rundown of benefits that they can offer your firm. Their competitor reaches out through email, as well as sending a gifting link that allows you to select a gift under a specified budget. One is looking to close a deal while the other just sent a gift without any guarantee of gaining a return on their investment. Which do you think is more likely to be remembered when making the final decision?

Gifts are also very important to any HR staff members looking to improve their office culture. Rewarding good work with a corporate gift will leave the employee with higher work satisfaction, a sense of recognition, and new found motivation. When you incentivize success within your organization, the organization is more likely to become successful.?

Establish A Budget

One of the most important things to look at when starting your corporate gifting journey is how much money will be allocated towards gifting. It is crucial to be realistic about your firm's financial capabilities and how they can be applied to gifts. There are many aspects that determine a budget with the first being the size of your organization. Smaller companies should start out small while larger firms can take more risks and send more luxurious gifts.?

Another key in creating a budget is the recipient pool. If you have a large amount of people that you want to send gifts to, the budget should reflect the amount you want to spend per person. If you only have a few people you want to send gifts to, you can spend more per gift.?

The final piece to look at is the occasion for the gift. While all gifts are special, certain times cause for higher priced items. An introductory gift should not cost more than a gift commemorating 10 years of business together.?

It is important to plan and budget ahead when sending corporate gifts because you don’t want to find yourself in a situation where you get to the holidays and your budget has been drained from gifts sent earlier. Budgets should be planned out in advance with some extra money left for surprise situations that appear throughout the year.

Know Your Recipients

It is crucial to research your recipients if you are looking to send the best gifts possible. Learning their preferences will help you find a gift that will have meaning to them and increase the chance that it is effective for whatever your strategy was. For example, imagine you send a bottle of wine to a client who does not drink due to their religion. It might not be received that well.... Getting to know your recipients takes the guesswork out of corporate gifting and will make your campaigns more effective. If you don't know what to send, you could always use our gift collection feature and send them a bunch of wonderful options to choose from.?

Timing

The timing of a corporate gift is so key to the success of a gifting campaign. For whatever purpose your company has for the gift, sending it at the wrong time can ruin the whole thing. If you are using the gift to nurture a business relationship with a customer, it is important to send the thank you gift quickly after a sale so there is a connection between the two occurrences. This connection will show the customer that their brand loyalty is not unnoticed. When sending gifts for holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries, you obviously need to make sure that the gift arrives by the important date. If it doesn’t get there on time then the intended message doesn’t get through as planned. In some regions across the world, Giftsenda can help deliver gifts in 2-3 business days to help prevent this from happening.?

Consider The Packaging

The first thing that the recipient will see when they receive their gift is the packaging, so why not make that part special as well? If the item comes in beautiful packaging that will only enhance the perceived value of the gift. This will help make the experience more memorable and more effective for whatever the business purpose was. A brown box with a shipping label doesn’t compare to a beautifully wrapped gift with a handwritten note. It is a simple and affordable aspect that can increase the benefits of your campaign. You can even go one step further and add your branding to the gift box for a fully branded gift experience.?

Personalization

Any way that you can personalize your gift will help build the business relationship even further. A handwritten letter describing how important the recipient is to your firm can sometimes be more valuable than the items themselves. Anything that you can do to make your business relationships more personal will have a great impact on your firm.

Consider Cultural Differences

If your firm operates internationally, then there are some cultural differences you may encounter in your corporate gifting journey. Certain items that are popular in one country may have a completely different perception somewhere else. Take the baseball cap for instance. It is a staple accessory in the United States, but in some European countries it is considered rude to wear one inside. It is important for senders to research the culture and preferences of the people they are sending gifts to in order to avoid unnecessary mistakes.

Track your Gifting Activities

Giftsenda’s corporate gifting platform allows you to track the success of your gifting campaigns so you can constantly improve them. Tracking campaigns allows you to see whether you are using your budget correctly, as well as what gifts are working and which aren’t. At the end of the day, these gifts are a part of your business strategy, so it is important to track the data to make sure they are being used correctly.

Use Giftsenda For International Corporate Gifting

Corporate gifting is here to stay! Gifts can be one of the most useful tools in your business strategy, and when done correctly, can offer major benefits to your business locally and internationally. Gifts can help you close deals with leads and clients, as well as keep those within your own staff happy and motivated.?

Our international gifting platform enables you to send gifts to employees, clients and leads worldwide. Think it and we’ll source, package and send it to over 200 countries. We can even personalize your gifts with branding, gift cards and handwritten notes. Visit our website to find out more.?