Corporate Thank You Gifts

Corporate thank you gifts may seem like the product of a bygone era, but make no mistake—organizations that invest in personalized gifts for employees tend to fare better with employee productivity and loyalty. In the hustle and bustle of our modern world, a simple gift to show our appreciation can go a long way in building rapport. For ad agencies and other organizations that interact with high-end clients regularly, gift ideas for VIP clients should be considered at every stage of the relationship. This shows that the company appreciates the client’s choice in choosing that company with whom to conduct business within a competitive market.

A workplace is first and foremost a place of transaction. Workers give their time and labor in exchange for a salary on which they can sustain themselves. Clients and customers give their money to a business in exchange for a product or service. This does not mean that we should abstain from small acts of goodwill. These workplace transactions are a necessity of modern-day life, however, a business can take steps to ensure that clients and employees do not feel as though they are only a means to an end in the capitalist machine. A gift outside the realm of the expected transactional reciprocity illustrates to the receiver of the gift that the giver considered the professional relationship invaluable and worthy of additional cultivation.

Gifts for employees appreciation can take many forms. It could be a gift card to a store relevant to the industry. It could be an item from a local shop. It doesn’t need to be a physical gift at all, but rather a fun experience like a wine tasting. However, the best corporate gifts for employees convey the sentiment that they are valued and appreciated. While it is essential to personalize gifts, luxury corporate gift ideas are not always the way to go. The main takeaway should not be what the gift physically is, but it should demonstrate that genuine thought was given in choosing the gift.

Best Corporate Gifts 2022

When considering the best corporate gifts, 2022 has proven to be a year of great social and cultural change. Cultural norms are changing both in and outside of the workplace. Diversity and inclusion are at the forefront of everyone’s mind, as well as other social issues. As prominent members of civil society, business organizations are expected to be leaders and set examples regarding these topics. As such, strong corporate gifts ideas can include those that offer patronage to businesses owned by women, people of color, and other members of marginalized communities. Businesses could collaborate with minority-owned businesses to create corporate gifts with a logo as well as other forms of corporate swag. A business can also turned to locally-owned shops of these kinds to fulfill all their end-of-year gift needs to celebrate their employees’ hard work and dedication.

Another way is to buy customized corporate gifts whose proceeds go to a larger issue. For example, giving tree-planting kits from Forest Nation to an employee serves the purpose of providing corporate gifts for employees and giving back to the planet. For every purchase of a tree-planting kit, Postal will plant 10 more trees. Or by buying gifts of jewelry from Love is Project, a business can rest easy knowing they have bought gifts that empower female jewelers in 10 developing countries. 

Gifts for Business Professionals

When selecting gifts for business professionals and gifts for clients, many businesses take advantage of the use cases with Postal. By doing so, they increase engagement by 30% with meaningful touch points offline. When companies provide personalized gifts for professionals, they are killing many birds with one stone. Firstly, it can increase funnel velocity. Through thoughtful gifting, especially luxury corporate gifts, companies can obtain a greater return on investment with 60% in open rates and 24% in engagement rates.

Secondly, gifts for new professionals can increase brand affinity in high-value accounts. Businesses can make memorable impressions with professional gifts for him, her, or anyone in between. By doing so, that business is standing out to a customer who sees near five thousand advertisements a day. According to in-house Postal statistics, specially curated gifts for professionals can result in a 4X increase in pipeline creation, a 30% close rate increase, and a 55% increase in sales conversion. With those types of numbers, there is no argument to be made against corporate gift-giving, only the nature of how companies go about it.

Field marketers benefit greatly from corporate gifts that take the form of online events and experiences. Since virtual events are here to stay even after society emerges from the cave of pandemic lockdowns, out-of-the-box experiences can assist those businesses operating on a fully remote or hybrid work system.

Small Business Thank You Gifts

Businesses need to carefully consider the vendors that they use when shopping for small thank you gifts for customers and small thank you gifts for employees. If a gifting gesture appears generic and disingenuous, not only does it not achieve the desired result of building stronger relations, but it can actually create a negative impression. Therefore, businesses may fare better in thinking about their corporate giving not so much in terms of professional relationships, but to approach the task as if they were shopping for small thank you gifts for friends.

When shopping for inexpensive thank you gifts for large groups, it can be easy to fall into the trap of offering overly generic items.

One strategy to avoid coming off as bland is to procure bulk thank you gifts for employees from small businesses within the community.  Depending on the size and scale of the company, taking the time to invest in smaller businesses to give back to the local economy can help greatly with the company’s image and brand. Examples of small business thank you gifts could include locally sourced and natural skin care products, beeswax candles, specialty baked goods, hand-crafted jew and so much more. With the growing trend of greater awareness about what we consume and where we consume it, gifts from small businesses allow employees and customers to feel valued and companies to feel positively engaged with the community.

Unique Corporate Gifts

The best corporate gifts are unique corporate gifts. As outlined in the previous section, using generic corporate gifting companies can do more harm than good, giving the impression to employees and customers that the corporate holiday gifts had no thought put into them and that the business is just trying to check off a box. No one wants to leave that sort of impression with a customer or client, so corporate gift-giving needs to be deliberate.

Since the earliest days of civilization, human societies have been built on the notion of social reciprocity. This is defined as “the ability to both socially respond, socially initiate and manage interactions in a give and take manner.” While religions have attempted to emphasize the joy of gift-giving without the expectation of anything in return, most people like to think that if they take the time to give someone a gift, the recipient will want to return the gesture in kind, even if it does not manifest in the exact same way.

Therefore, because we are socially conditioned by the notion of social reciprocity, it is not hard to believe that reciprocity drives business growth in the professional sphere. If one business is helping another business to succeed, then the second business will be more inclined to help the first business succeed as well. Personalized corporate gifts and branded corporate gifts foster this philosophy and send the message, “I am so grateful that our relationship is allowing both of us to succeed and I want to continue supporting each other as we reach our goals.”

Unique Client Gift Ideas

There are several phases within a professional relationship that may warrant strategic gift-giving. They can range from welcoming a new business to awarding customers for their personal and professional achievements. Corporate giving can also be a prudent strategy in trying to reel a client that has ghosted the business and even when rectifying a wrong that has occurred.

Depending on the nature and stage of the relationship between the business and the customer, companies would do well to carefully craft unique client gift ideas that are the most appropriate for the current status of the relationship. Explore more client gifting use cases in our blog post.

The first and foremost rule of corporate gift-giving is not sending inexpensive thank you gifts for clients. Expensive and inexpensive gifts alike are not always measured purely in monetary terms. The value also lies in the intention behind the gift. Small thank you gift ideas should come from the heart. Business thank you gifts should illustrate that the relationship is worth investing in, which comes out in both the physical price and the personalization with the gifts.

Unique High-End Corporate Gifts

High-end client gifts are guaranteed to set your business apart from the rest. Even if others are going through the motions of corporate giving, very few will be investing in unique high-end corporate gifts like the ones available on Postal. By giving unique executive gifts, your business will have the highest ROI. Portal can help in your brainstorming for premium gift ideas to serve all of your needs, from high-end corporate Christmas gifts to expensive employee appreciation gifts. Luxury corporate gifts with a logo can make a great impression and ensure that customers and clients remember you. 

Postal is one of the only Offline Marketing Automation platforms that helps you create authentic acts of reciprocity at scale. Request a trial today and gain access to over a thousand specially curated gifts, make digital marketing all the more efficient, and track the ROI of your offline efforts.