Making the Most of Canvas Bags

How to promote your business with canvas bags
By Lisa Maloney Canvas bags aren't just a durable, economical alternative to plastic grocery bags; they're also a means of advancing your business priorities. Whether you want to be eco-friendly, attract more customers or get your logo in front of as many people as possible, canvas bags give you a way of achieving those goals through an effective promotional medium.
 

Making the most of canvas bags means finding ways of branding them with a distinctive trademark, distributing them to your customers and getting them into the public eye. Durability is one distinctive advantage of canvas bags. Once distributed, they're likely to stay in use; even if put aside for a short time they'll still be waiting to remind your customers about your business and be put to use again. Consider the following strategies for distributing your canvas bags:

1. Include canvas shopping bags with product or membership purchases.

2. Use canvas bags to turn your employees into walking billboards.

3. Get customers involved by helping them make their own canvas bag creations.

Distribute your logo on custom printed canvas bags

Canvas bags are versatile, useful and popular in urban environments. They're the perfect perk that everyone can use, given universal appeal and value added when included as part of a membership or product purchase package.
Try: Buy canvas bags in bulk from companies like InkHead Promotional Products, which also offers custom imprinting on their bulk canvas bags. Wholesale pricing on canvas bags is also available through InGreetings.com, which offers short order custom imprinting on orders of 25 units or more.

Deliver your company's goods in canvas tote bags

If you run a messenger or delivery service, promote your business by delivering out of custom imprinted canvas bags that feature your logo. If you're in the business of repairing or distributing goods, delivering refurbished or brand new products in reusable canvas bags gives value added and instant brand name recognition.
Try: Deliver company goods in a company shoulder bag from Eco-Bags Products, or outfit your employees with canvas messenger bags purchased wholesale from distributors like CKB Products. Make sure the bags you use have your company logo on them or, at least, a business card slipped inside.

Use canvas grocery bags to get customers involved in contests and drawings

Whether you give a free contest entry with each canvas bag purchased and decorated, or invite local children in for a color-your-own-canvas-bag party and let their families take the bags home, these versatile products are a universal lure.
Try: Purchase blank wholesale canvas tote bags from suppliers like Custom Specialties Company, then invite customers and members of the public to customize their own bag and take it home. You can also find blank canvas bags for sale--below wholesale prices--at Convention Totes.com.

• If you're using canvas bags to promote your business's eco-friendly attitude, make sure your behavior is congruent. Demonstrate executive leadership and community involvement by carrying your company's canvas tote bags, just like you ask your employees and customers to do.