Promotional products do more than increase sales and bulk up your patient list. Well-chosen promotional products can help reinforce important health messages and drive home the importance of nearly any health care issue. Many health care professionals are most familiar with promotional products from the receiving end - the pharmaceutical and medical equipment industries are among the biggest consumers of promotional products - but there are many ways that you can use promotional products in your practice.

Promotional products make a wonderful addition to any public service campaign. In many cases, raising awareness is the first step toward providing medical care or a cure. There's a wide variety of different types and classes of promotional products to choose from. Some suggestions might include squeezable stress toys as part of an awareness campaign about the harmful effects of stress or t-shirts printed with a health awareness slogan. Your office might give printed pedometers as part of a fitness campaign, or hand out inexpensive promotional watches as part of a "Time to watch your health" campaign.

Promotional products can help build your practice. Introduce your office to new residents in your area with a welcome in their post box, or partner with an estate agent to be part of a "Welcome to Your New Home" basket of goodies. Include a useful gift from your office, imprinted with your practice name and telephone number for emergencies. The type of gift you include should be specific to your practice area. A general practitioner could use a small first aid kit, for instance. A chiropractor might include a hand-held back massager imprinted with his name and number. A clever gift from a pediatrician's office might be a bandage dispenser filled with colorful adhesive bandages for those little cuts and scrapes and a refrigerator magnet to keep your telephone number handy.

Support public service causes with appropriate promotional products. Make yourself and your staff available for public health fairs and promotions. When you partner with public service agencies you increase both your visibility and your credibility. If your business is nutrition, set up a display to emphasize the importance of healthy eating and hand out travel mugs imprinted with a health conscious message. If your office specializes in sports medicine, you might choose stress toys shaped as different types of balls. Suit the promo products that you choose as takeaways to your practice specialty.

Paper promotional products are important informational tools. Companies that specialize in promotional products for trade fairs and conferences often also handle the design and production of informational tools like brochures, leaflets and flyers about your practice and specialty. If you already have a relationship with a promotional product company, be sure to include them when you're pricing the cost of creating promotional literature about your practice.

Say thank you and please come again to your patients and clients with promotional products. Pediatricians have handed out stickers, lollipops and plastic rings to their patients for years as a "Job Well Done" reward. Why confine that to children? There's a wide variety of little thank you gifts that you could offer your patients, from sticky notes with a reminder to "Eat Healthy" to stress toys to help them stay healthy.

About the Author

Tina Rinaudo is one of the leading lights in the UK promotional products industry. Tina is the co-founder of YesGifts, the UK's fastest growing online promotional items resource specialising in promotional mugs, pens, mouse mats, umbrellas, conference items and much more. For more information please visit