If Calvin Klein taught us anything, it's the value of wearing a brand name on your butt. While most people think of promotional items as freebie giveaways to attract more business, there's another side of promotional items that can add to your bottom line. Selling promotional items can be an excellent way to make money for your business and increase your brand recognition at the same time.

The benefits of selling promotional items or gifts imprinted with your club, store or company name are pretty plain to see, but let's enumerate them just to lay them out there.

1. When you sell items imprinted with your company name, you're making money from your promotion instead of spending it. Even if you sell the items at cost, you're still making out.
2. Every person that buys and uses your promotional items becomes an advertisement for your business. That's advertising that you can't buy.
3. People walking around with your name on their chest, their head or their rucksack increase the visibility and popularity of your name.
4. When you sell promotional items with your company logo or name, you're promoting customer loyalty, goodwill and identity.

By marketing your own brand advertising as a saleable item, you're solidifying your identity as a purveyor of quality, offering something of value to your customers and putting your name out there where it's seen by hundreds of people who are not your customers - yet.

What sort of promotional items and businesses are a good fit for this marketing strategy? There are several sorts of businesses that this strategy will work best for. They include:
- retail stores who might sell reusable cloth tote bags with their store name or logo imprinted on them
- delis and restaurants who might sell insulated lunch boxes and picnic packs
- coffee shops who might sell coffee mugs, travel mugs and vacuum containers that can be refilled with their coffee
- pubs and bars that might sell rugby shirts, t-shirts, caps and mugs imprinted with their name and logo
- health clubs and gyms who might sell kit bags and roll bags, water bottles and other items for use in healthy pursuits
- dance schools and other similar businesses who might sell apparel with their team or business logo on it
- schools and clubs that can sell a wide variety of imprinted promotional items to students and parents as a show of loyalty. A school store might benefit greatly from selling anything from imprinted pencils to jackets and fleece sweatshirts imprinted with the school name

If you've only considered promotional items as an expense in your accounts, take another look to see how you might profit from selling branded merchandise with your name on it. For more ideas on how your company can benefit from using imprinted and branded promotional merchandise, visit Ideasbynet, one of the UK's premier purveyors of promotional items and merchandise. Browse their online catalog, or contact one of their representatives to take advantage of their years of experience in marketing and promotional items and gifts.