What Gifts Should You Give Your Clients This Holiday Season?

‘Tis the season for gifts and giving. As an event manager, you’re no doubt already trying to come up with some gift giving ideas for your most valued clients. And if you aren’t, you should be.

Feelings of warm and fuzzy generosity aside, there are plenty of reasons to think up a few gifts to hand out to your clients this Christmas, chief of which is loyalty. See, generally speaking, people enjoy getting gifts. And if you give them something meaningful, they’re definitely a lot likelier to regard you in a positive light – and that much likelier to choose you over a competitor in the future.

That’s provided, of course, you can offer them a gift they’ll actually want. That’s where we come in. Today, we’re going to talk about a few gifts you might possibly consider handing out over the holidays.

Have a look, and I’m sure you’ll find at least one thing that’s worth handing out. 

Some Initial Advice

Before we actually get down to brass tacks, there’s a few words of advice we need to offer up. First and foremost, don’t hand out anything that’s too divergent from your brand. What I mean there is that you need to understand what sort of gifts your clients will actually be interested in receiving. A client base of twentysomethings isn’t really going to care much about paper calendars covered in your logo, while a demographic consisting of older business professionals aren’t likely to be interested in tickets to a Justin Bieber concert.

Tailor the gift to the client, or there’s a chance it might come across as thoughtless or tacky – and therefore have the opposite of your desired effect. They aren’t really part of any larger marketing program or plan. Sure, you’re hoping it’ll make your client happy and inspire greater brand loyalty, but beyond that? You’re just being generous.

You Can’t Really Go Wrong With Food

My next piece of advice is as follows: provided a guest doesn’t have any severe food allergies, food’s pretty much a universally acceptable gift. Send out a few personalized fruit baskets, or some unique cuisine that was a particular hit at a previous event of yours. Treat clients to some local food that they can’t get where they’re from, or put together a candy dish.

Christmas is, after all, one of the most food-centric holidays around. I’m certain there’s not a single one of you who doesn’t have at least a few fond memories of Christmas dinner. With that in mind, what better way to celebrate it than by offering some tasty treats?

Sit Down With a Good Book

Now, a word of caution here – generally speaking, if you’re a published author, you should probably avoid handing out your own books as gifts to clients (unless it’s obvious they really, really want to receive them). Reason being, it can come across as way too tacky and self-promoting. Not really in the spirit of giving, in other words.

So what should you do instead?

Think about each of your clients. Think about their industry, their careers, the event they hired you to run; everything about their professional life. Then ask yourself: “If I were them, what book would I find invaluable? What advice would make my life immeasurably simpler?”

Everybody Likes Free Stuff

Of course, when in doubt, you could just take the easiest route.

Let me explain what I mean. See, everybody loves getting free stuff (provided that stuff’s actually useful to them). As part of your gift-giving this year, try handing out free tickets to your next event, or giving someone you know will be a repeat client a significant discount on your services.

Basically, offer them stuff that they’d ordinarily have to pay for through your brand, free of charge. You might be surprised how far a few freebies will take you, even if they’re handed out as Christmas gifts. Speaking of freebies…

Your Time is Valuable, Too

If you’re drawing a complete blank as to what sort of gifts you can give out, why not simply donate your time, instead? Offer your services as a consultant or assistant for free. While you probably don’t want to plan out an entire event without pay, your clients initially hired you for a reason – you’re an expert in your field. That means your time and expertise can be just as valuable as any tangible, physical present you could hand out.

Closing Thoughts

Mind you, this article just covers a few of the possible gifts you might hand out to your clients. The list is by no means a comprehensive one – just a primer meant to get the juices flowing and give you a few ideas. If you’ve some creative gift concepts of your own, let us know in the comments – we’d love to hear from you.