The marketing strategy behind corporate gifts

Since customers are essential to any business, it makes sense to take good care of them and occasionally show your appreciation. Corporate gifts — also known as business gifts or client gifts — are an excellent way to reward consumers and build their loyalty. They’re also used to thank employees, business partners, and suppliers.

Using marketing through corporate gifts

Marketing specialists and sales teams know the persuasive power of corporate gifts. They don’t hesitate to use them for commercial purposes to increase revenue.

To achieve growing sales results, gifts need to be directly integrated into your marketing strategy. Several elements must then be considered to build a winning strategy.

1. Personalize your offer

Personalization is the most important factor for an effective corporate gift. It’s especially achievable when offering a client gift for a birthday. If you’re giving corporate gifts for Christmas, personalization will be more limited. That said, you can offer several versions of your gift to have models better suited to your clients’ profiles.

Take a unique approach for each prospect. Think about who your clients are and what interests them, then make sure your gifts match their personal interests and goals.

The more personalized a gift is, the more likely it is to be effective. Always stay attentive to the signals and personal insights you receive from your prospects. Pay attention and ask questions that will give you a competitive edge. Ask them about their weekend, their hobbies, their family, and their interests. Just be careful that this inquiry never becomes intrusive. If a client doesn’t respond willingly to your questions, stay within professional bounds.

2. Use a tiered gifting approach

Treat each prospect as a unique case and adapt your strategy based on their personality and seniority. Since no two prospects are alike, think about the types of corporate gifts that prospects with different seniority levels might respond to.

You can define different customer categories and offer them corporate gifts of varying value, based on their importance. This is only feasible if you’re certain your clients don’t know each other and never cross paths, since they must never become aware of this difference.

3. Expect nothing in return

Prospecting is an art. Spending time (and money) crafting a thoughtful gift for an important prospect doesn’t mean they’ll sign a contract on the spot.

It’s therefore important that you expect nothing in return for your corporate gifts. If you expect too much, your client may notice, start doubting your generosity at the moment you gave the gift, and take offense.

4. Use seasonal holidays to add relevance to your strategy

Giving corporate gifts to prospects and clients during seasonal holidays is a proven approach. Tying gifts to national days like International Coffee Day or Earth Day is a clever strategy to streamline your offer and increase your chances of winning your client’s favor. If you’re running a campaign around International Coffee Day, for example, you could send prospects a personalized coffee mug.

Try to find lesser-known, more original holidays to build your corporate gift campaigns around. This helps surprise and delight prospects and clients by giving gifts at unexpected times of the year.

5. Celebrate wins with clients

Corporate gifts can be used to build customer loyalty. Sending champagne to mark the anniversary of your partnership, for example, shows your clients how much your company values their loyalty. This tactic also works well with at-risk accounts, as it reminds them why they need you.

How do you measure the ROI of your corporate gifting strategy?

The return on investment of a corporate gift strategy is hard to calculate, but you should still take the time to analyze your results.

To measure the success of your client gift campaign, run long-term comparisons to determine whether the gift influences contract signings. If it doesn’t, question the nature of your gift, how you delivered it, and when, in order to improve your process.

The tax treatment of client gifts for businesses

There are tax exemptions on business gifts in France. A business benefits from VAT deduction if the value of gifts — per recipient and per year — stays below €73 including tax, the new threshold set since 2021.

Corporate gifts don’t need to be declared, as they are considered deductible expenses. However, be careful to use these promotional items appropriately, in the interest of the business’s activity, to avoid unpleasant surprises during a tax audit.

Gifts worth more than €3,000 must be declared on the statement of general expenses. It’s also possible to record these gifts as deductible expenses against the company’s net taxable income.

How do you choose the right business gifts?

Every year, the Omyague business gifts trade show takes place in Paris and Lyon, showcasing an immense variety of corporate gifts. You should consider your budget, but also the impression you leave with your client.

If you have the budget, you can offer high-end gifts: a watch, a wallet, luggage, and so on. You’ll also find a wide range of less expensive but very useful business gifts. As a result, your client will be reminded of your company’s name every time they use it. This could be a mug, an insulated water bottle, a quality pen, and so on.