Using promotional travel mugs to promote your business is an effective marketing plan any time of the year. Insulated travel mugs keep beverages a consistent temperature, regardless of the season.

While it may seem like the best way to promote your business is to randomly hand out promotional travel mugs, just the opposite is true. Giving your mugs out selectively to people who will use them often and are interested in your company is the best plan. Consider these suggestions when considering how to promote your business with the mugs:

1. Use promotional travel mugs to appeal to environmentalists.

2. Be an active part of the community by giving out your travel mugs at a local benefit.

3. Make a lasting impression on trade show visitors.

Action Steps for Finding the Best Promotional Travel Mugs
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Promote a Green business with custom logo travel mugs

Promotional travel mugs are an ideal way to promote a Green business. You can give these mugs out to potential customers to encourage them to stop using bottled water and start simply refilling their own mug. As a bonus, every time they take a sip, they will see your logo, which reminds them that you are about them and the environment.

I recommend: Quality Logo Products offers suggestions on how to promote your business in the most effective way using the products they sell. You can find general suggestions on their website or you can call them for one on one help. ArtPromos.com has an extensive promotional travel mug inventory. This company has an experienced customer service staff that will help you customize your mugs and develop a plan to distribute them.

Serve beverages in custom travel mugs at a local benefit

Local benefit events, such as a BBQ that raises money for cancer research, is a wonderful advertising opportunity in which you can help make a difference in the world. At most benefit events, people are active, which means they are thirsty. You can arrange to serve beverages in your travel mugs instead of having to serve them in disposable cups.

I recommend: DiscountMugs.com has a large inventory of inexpensive promotional travel mugs, including some for under $3 per logo travel mug. The WEBstaurant Store has portable beverage dispensers, including insulated models, for sale. Use these to keep ice water and other beverages on hand for thirsty participants.

Attract attention at trade shows with corporate travel mugs

Trade shows are an ideal event to showcase your business. Passing out corporate travel mugs to people who visit your booth and are truly interested in your company is a good way to make a lasting impression on them. Many businesses focus on quantity instead of quality when they choose items to give away at a trade show.

I recommend: PoorRichardsPromos.com offers trade show quality custom logo mugs. This company offers articles in the Education Center on how to increase trade show traffic. If you want more customized help, you can call to have the experienced customer service team help you. Jodime has elegant, high quality customized travel mugs at inexpensive prices.

Tips & Tactics for Making Travel Mugs a Strong Promotional Tool

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Use your promotional travel mugs as part of a multi faceted marketing program. For example, give children stickers or balloons. Give some people ink pens and save the travel mugs for people who are truly interested in your company.

Every day, millions of people, including members of your target market, commute to and from work with a travel mug that contains their favorite drink. Why not present them with a promotional travel mug that features your company logo? Travel mugs are usually designed to fit into a car’s cup holder. Most promotional travel mugs are made of plastic or stainless steel and come in sizes ranging from 8 oz. to 20 oz.

Why custom travel mugs work as a promotional tool:

1. Your prospects will carry your company name with them on a daily basis.
2. Travel mugs are one of the few promotional gifts that many recipients will actually use.
3. People often take their imprinted travel mugs into their workplace, giving your company even more exposure.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Travel mugs for every taste

Look for wholesale travel coffee mugs with an extra feature or two. For instance, a plastic mug with a stainless steel liner keeps beverages warm without making the outside of the mug too hot to hold. Splash-proof or leak-proof lids help keep the liquid from spilling onto your recipient’s suit jacket. Some people like mugs with a rubberized finish or rubber tabs for easy gripping.

I recommend: Try vendors, such as PromoPeddler.com, which offers 51 pages of customizable travel mugs, and TradeShowExhibitor.com where you can get sample mugs before you place an order. Many of the promotional coffee mug vendors listed at Business.com offer travel mugs.

Consider stainless steel promotional travel mugs

A personalized travel mug made of stainless steel will last longer than a mug made from plastic. Stainless steel mugs are easy to clean, they don’t stain and they keep beverages hot or cold longer than their plastic counterparts.

I recommend: BizMug.com offers a large selection of stainless steel mugs in a rainbow of colors. PromoPeddler.com sells a stylish two-mug set. For a directory of promotional mug suppliers, visit Business.com.

Spring for high-end imprinted travel mugs

Are you going after a market that appreciates gifts that carry a hint of luxury? A high-end travel mug with logo can enhance your company image.

I recommend: L.L. Beanoffers a sturdy stainless steel canister mug that is designed to keep beverages fresh during the longest commutes. Contact Sharper Image’s corporate gift group for information about its selection of travel mugs. At A Better Idea! you’ll find the Café Tote For Two. It includes travel tumblers along with accessories like teaspoons, milk and sugar dispensers and a polycanvas tote bag. The entire package comes in a gift box.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Pick a travel mug with a screw-on lid. It’s more likely to stay on place than a snap-on lid if the mug tips over.
• •  Your logo doesn’t have to stand alone on your promotional travel mugs. Consider adding a call-to-action tag line, your Web site URL or your phone number.
• •  To keep costs down, invite one of your suppliers to add their logo to your custom travel mug and split the costs with you.

Promotional travel mugs are an excellent advertising tool for a wide range of businesses. Retail stores, banks, movie rental businesses and restaurants are some of the businesses that can build an advertising campaign that includes these mugs.

When you consider using travel mugs as part of your advertising campaign, it is important that you consider all of the promotional travel mugs basics to ensure that you get the best products for your needs. Consider the following ideas to help you choose the mugs to represent your company:

1. Use classic stainless steel promotional travel mugs to represent your business.

2. Consider a simple acrylic or plastic mug to show your company's style.

3. Show off your company's active style with a warming promotional travel mug.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Give out stainless steel promotional travel mugs

A stainless steel promotional travel mug is a good way to show that your business has style and class. This type of logo travel mug compliments most attire, including business suits and casual weekend wear. As such, these mugs are ideal in almost any situation.

I recommend: LogotoYou.com sells a varied selection of stainless steel customized travel mugs, including insulated travel mugs. This company offers models with handles and some tumbler styles without handles. Show Your Logo has stainless steel imprinted travel mugs. This company offers wholesale prices on all its products.

Pass out acrylic promotional travel mugs

Acrylic promotional travel mugs are a relatively inexpensive promotional tool. These mugs are available in a variety of colors and styles that can set off any logo. When you order these travel mugs, be sure that you specify a cap color that compliments the mug, if applicable.

I recommend: Valueline sells a varied selection of travel mugs, including acrylic logo mugs. This company offers discounted prices and free samples, in most cases. This company offers personalized customer service and discounts when you register. Express Mugs offers different styles of acrylic custom logo travel mugs, including some that have stainless steel interiors and features.

Hand out warming promotional travel mugs

Warming promotional travel mugs plug into a car's AC adapter to keep the contents warm as long as it is plugged in. These mugs are a good promotional tool during the cold winter months, when customers and employees may want to bring their morning coffee with them on the way to work or while driving around town.

I recommend: MyLogoImprinted.com and ePromos both offer warming custom travel mugs. Both of these companies offer discounted prices if you order larger quantities.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  As with many promotional products, many personalized travel mugs suppliers offer discounts for larger quantities. In most cases, these discounts are on the website. When you order these products, order the largest number possible so you can take advantage of these discounts while only having to pay a single set up fee instead of making smaller, more frequent orders when would require you to have to pay a higher price and multiple set up fees.

In many different businesses, those tasked with getting the company logo out through personalized or business-branded gifts look for neat solutions, such as promotional travel mugs. Mugs are a great way to get a company logo or image out because they get used so much by the recipients. A mug goes with many workers throughout their daily commute and nearly everywhere they go during a typical work day. For businesses, knowing about some of the basic terms around elements of promotional travel mug design can help managers of branding make good choices.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Sip lid

One handy feature for a promotional travel mug is a sip lid. The sip lid keeps hot beverages from splashing around during a hectic commute or a bumpy ride over off-road acreage.

I recommend: See product details for easy-sip promotional travel mugs with sip lids at Quality Logo.

Stainless steel liner

A stainless steel mug provides a lot better protection for long-term use: the drinker doesn't end up with plastics and coffee 'mingling.' Even a stainless steel liner in a mug will help alleviate this concern. But stainless steel travel mugs, on the other hand, are not microwave-friendly.

I recommend: Find out more about stainless steel liners and the benefits of using stainless steel over plastic at Travel. Get reviews on stainless steel mugs (scroll down) and other mug designs from big providers at Star .

Specialty imprinted mugs

Another common idea for travel mugs and other gifts is to have the branding imprinted. This is probably the most common method, but there are many ways to design an imprint.

I recommend: See a range of custom imprinted mug types and details at FortePromo.

Promotional tumbler

The old-school travel mug has a cylindrical component and a handle, but some newer, flashier promotional cups are designed without handles; these are often called 'promotional tumblers.'

I recommend: Find out more about promotional tumblers at Zimbio.

Snap-on lids

Promotional mugs can have several different types of lids, including snap-on and screw-on. These can make a difference in convenience for the user, and some reviews of these items talk about how a lid design can make all the difference in usability.

I recommend: Get more consumer feedback on snap-on lids and more about different kinds of promotional travel mugs at L.A. Times Travel.

Acrylic plastic

Some promotional travel mugs are made with this high durability synthetic material. Acrylic plastic can provide a handy substance for crafting those designs that will stand up to a lot of heavy use.

I recommend: Find out more about acrylic plastic at this materials page at ENotes.