I’m looking into ordering some magnets. In the past I’ve always planned on getting magnets, but for no specific reason, I just haven’t even though I know they are great advertising tool. So now that I’m finally getting around to doing it, I have a couple of questions for those of you that use magnets:
What type of thickness should I be looking for?
How do you distribute them? Do you just tape them to the pizza boxes and make sure that every order that leaves the door has one until they are all used up?
Also, how long do you guys continue to send them? Do you just keep reordering and sending them out all year round?
Being that it’s almost football season, do you feel it would be more effective to order magnets with the local college’s (in my case: Syracuse University) schedule or would it be just as effective to get standard business card size magnets? I’ve had companies in the past try to sell me magnets with Syracuse’s schedule on them and I have seen other businesses give them out. Can’t you get in trouble and run into trademark issues using their name or logo?
Oh goody…I love posts like yours…Seeing how I sell magnets for a living…lol…
Magnets come in all sorts of incarnations…From very thin to very thick…Based on my sales both extremes are not the most popular…My typical magnet is 25 mils thick with full colour offset printing and mylar lamination…But if cost is an object I also offer a 19 mil magnet than has a little less magnet and is uv coated (varnish) instead of lamination and a lower price…Most folks who order this style do not repeat but instead go to the 25 mil magnet…It is more durable and holds more…
As far as distribution I have clients who guard them as if they were gold and others who buy as many magnets in a year as they do menus…But I think for the most part somewhere in between is better…Include them with every order even if they already have them…Hand them out at local events…Mail them out with your 30-60-90 days lazy mailings…Get them in welcome packs at local colleges…
As far as schedule magnets…To me schedule magnets cost pretty much the same as calendar magnets but a calendar magnet can have 12 to 16 months (on larger sizes) so they stick around longer so they cost less per impression…So if you have to pick one over another, I am a fan of calendar magnets…
But having said that (and selling lots of calendar magnets every year), I think 911 magnets (and a few local numbers) http://www.logothis.ca/350x500have even a longer lifespan so if you want more bang for your buck they are the best investment…Other options include various safety charts (CPR, 1st aid, etc.)…Again these have longer lifespans than schedule or calendar magnets…But may not get viewed as many times…
Also, there are lots of posts on this subject in the archives…It has been well discussed in the 5+ years I have been here…
Maybe I’m biased, but I think magnets are an amazing marketing tool. I’ve purchased well over a million of them in the 14 years I have been in business. I like to change the design and I like to put a special on the bottom of them in small print “redeem this magnet for…” and i change up the offer with each batch. My thoughts are if I can give someone a reason to put 8 different magnets of mine with 8 different specials on them when they want to order pizza they are much less likely to open the latest coupon book that came in the mail. I hope they will just look on their fridge and find the special that fits what they want. We only actually collect the magnets from them if the special is way out of date.
As far as schedule magnets, they work great if you have a following for the team. Sorry, but at least when I went to school in upstate NY a LONG time ago, Syracuse students didn’t care much about football season unless it was a televised game. I would skip the football schedule magnets if I was there. Maybe a basketball schedule or possibly a lacrosse schedule offering a victory special might get their attention. The calender magnets that Royce mentions also work well. Obviously you want to put these out in late December into January. It takes a lot of area to print a calender magnet and if it is all magnet it tends to get expensive. I use a 4"X10" magnet mailer from magpac.com with a 2" strip of magnet to save on this. It also gives me room for 4 perforated coupons as well.
Every order gets a magnet…some customers may give one back, as they have several already on the fridge…just slide it into the edge of the box…
In college towns, we see many of our magnets on the fridge, even when someone moves out, the magnet stays…great automatic advertising…
We work with the RA’s and give them some free pies, so they will put some magnets in the dorms…
Some apartment complex’s will let us put them on the individual doors as well…
You can run a promo - redeem this magnet for a free pizza (to new neighborhoods) and repeat as needed…always get a phone # or email when redeemed…once you put a piece of your pizza in their mouths, you should make a new customer for life…
I was looking at your website today. I have a question about the price of your Business Card Magnet - 3.5x2 - 25 Mil (Square Corners). It says 2,500 for $250 but when I click on it and start the ordering process, the price comes up as $375. Is there a mistake in the pricing or do I need to type in some type of promo code? Thanks -Roger
I had an idea to offer that I stole/was given from a friend. When you get magnets, if you are driving on campus or around your service area, put a whoooole bunch of magnets on your car/truck. Put them in such away that they won’t fly off. Now, the objective is for people to see the car, be curious and come up and lift one for themselves. Instant distribution and instant word of mouth . . . “Hey, did you see that magnet car/truck?”
Whatever you do, get in good with student life/services. Get into the residence halls, the sports teams, anywhere and everywhere yo can if there is a college nearby enough to matter. Maybe a magnet with campus phone # important to students, the peel off offers can be keen. “Mention this magnet” offer could work good, too. Make sure you have a catchy design and that it stands out among the clutter of all the other magnets they’ll have.
IDEA: Send a copy of the proof to Daddio. He got like hundreds or thousands of magnets in a drive he was doing, and he can tell you how it stands up to a bunch of them in one place
Thanks for the ideas Nick! I’m always trying to get the on campus business but it’s tough. The college in my town is a smaller state college (not Syracuse University like I mentioned in my other post. SU is about a 30 minutes from me.). I get a lot of business from the students that live in off campus housing but not as much as I would like from the students that live in the dorms. The problem is that Dominos has a deal with the college where the students can use their meal cards to buy from them. So instead of having to pay cash, it comes out of their meal plans. That’s hard to compete with but I still try.
I recommend aiming more towards the special events/parties angle. Find out when back-to-school time is, when finals are, mid-terms, as well as social and other events. During finals, it may be a worthwhile effort to bake up a stack of small (10") or so pies and arrange to have them distributed at the dorms in the late evening as “snack break”. Get permission/plan is my suggestion, though others have gone guerrilla on this. Anything to get you food in their mouths and name in front of them. Be careful of stereotyping college students. They have some disposable income that you can convince them to spend with you . . .then later you may get in on the school food program too.
