Have you ever seen large businesses hand out promotional material with their name on it such as calendars, mousepads, pens, notepads, hats, shirts etc..? I am sure most of us have at some point and there is a good reason why they do it. It is to try and always have their name in the front of the customers mind. To be “stuck” in their heads.
This works well for big business or printing businesses (since they can do it at cost), but this is type of marketing is probably too expensive for most computer businesses. However, there are some great ways you can also be sticky at a fraction of the cost. Read on.

What better way to be sticky than to actually use stickers?
In todays day and age where tabletops get messy with bills and junk mail, chances are they will eventually lose your business card that you gave them on your last visit. To prevent this, why not get some small stickers made up that you can stick to part of their computer case? Make it small, un-intrusive and straight to the point “Computer Problems again? Call 9999-9999″. Next time their computer wont boot, your phone number is right in front of them. Be sure to ask them before you place one on their case as some people are sensitive about the way their computer looks, something along the lines of “Do you mind if I place a small sticker here with my phone number in case your computer has problems again? That way you wont have to search for my number when you need me most.”

Case Badges
We had a whole topic about this just recently in our Technibble forums
. Case badges are best used when selling new computers because if you are only repairing a computer, chances are the computer already has the makers case badge on it. A simple logo and phone number on the badge should be enough. To get them made, you can get in contact with a company that specializes in making case badges (UK and US based, never delt with them personally though), or use a “create your own” kit (AUS based, have delt with them, good people).

Mailouts
With every callout you do, I hope you get and keep your clients details. By sending your clients mail outs every now and then, it keeps you in the front of their mind. You just need to think about what you are going to put in that mail out. It can be a voucher for a free callout or PC Health check or you can get creative. I once knew a dog washing/grooming business who would ask the dogs birth date in casual conversion and write it down later. On the dogs birthday, they would send the owners a Happy Birthday card for the dog with the business details in small writing down the bottom. Its a nice unexpected gesture, they could safely send it to them once a year and the client likely to keep the card around the house for a little while.

Desktop Icons
I have seen some computer technicians in my area do this but never tried it myself so I don’t know how effective it is. They place a simple icon with their business logo on the clients desktop that is a link to their computer sales/repair/support web page. Some clients seem to keep the icons on the desktop as I do come across them every now and then. I personally would get annoyed if a technician did this to me though so be careful with this one.

If you have any methods of your own that we haven’t mentioned here, leave us comment.