How to Create a Budget for Corporate Gifts & Holiday Gifts

If there’s one thing for certain, it’s that your internal team and your clients will both love receiving high-quality branded corporate gifts. The problem is that the term “corporate gifts” and “business gifts” is so incredibly broad that it can be hard to know where to start. This article will focus on the first step of the business gift buying process – deciding how much to spend on your gifts. Once you’ve landed on the right dollar amount for your company, be sure the head over to our Corporate Gift Buyers Guide for some great custom logo corporate gift ideas!

Determine Your Overall Budget for Business Gifts

Whether you’ve specifically budgeted for client gifts and corporate holiday gifts or you just have a budget surplus at the end of the year it’s important to give back to your employees and clients to make them feel appreciated. Once you reach a conclusion on how much money you can set aside for corporate gifts distribute the money as you see fit to the following groups:

• Your Employees
• Your Clients or Customers
• Service Providers

Make a List of Who Will be Receiving a Corporate Gift

Depending on the size of your staff and customer base, you might not be able to give a gift to everyone. You can use a bit more discretion in picking and choosing which clients to give gifts to as opposed to which employees. Don’t play favorites with employees unless your decision is completely results-driven.

On the other hand, there is a lot you can take into consideration when deciding who to purchase client gifts for. How long have you been working with this client? Are they a major part of your business? Do you enjoy working with them? Has the client sent business or referrals your way? These are all good questions to ask yourself if you need to trim down your list just a bit. Sending a handwritten note is always a good alternative too.

Establish Your Spending Amount Per Recipient

This isn’t necessarily just taking your budget and dividing it by your recipients. If a certain client or employee brought in five times as much business as another client or employee, you could reward the higher earning client or employee with a more expensive corporate gift. However, if you want to distribute gifts to everyone on your team, we recommend spending the same amount on each employee unless you lay out a rewards program in advance. To give you a numerical idea of what the norm is, in 2017 73% of employers spent between $50 and $75 on corporate holiday gifts per employee.

Make Sure Your Gift is Appropriate for the Occasion

There are countless occasions for business gift exchanging, so you want to make sure the gift matches the scenario. Gold watches are great for retirement gifts, but not feasible as promotional giveaways. Just like custom printed golf balls might not be the best corporate holiday gift if you live somewhere that’s cold in December.

Another thing to consider when ordering business gifts is tastefulness. While it might be tempting to go super outside the box and give humorous or edgy gifts, you don’t want to run the risk of offending any clients or co-workers. Unless you know the recipients of your gifts well enough on a personal level, it’s smart to stick to safe gifts like corporate apparel, drinkware, electronics, and food. Your HR department will thank you later.

Popular Corporate Gift Brands

Brands matter, especially when giving gifts! Here at Merchology, we're all about Your Logo + Brands you Love. These are a few of our customers' favorite corporate gift brands, so you feel confident knowing that your client gifts are from some of the top corporate gift brands in the world. 

                                                        

Popular Corporate Gift Ideas

A recent survey showed that custom apparel is the most popular corporate holiday gift given to employees, followed by gift cards, bags, and food. It’s also a great idea to add your company logo to your gifts, especially for your internal team. You can check out our buyers guide for more detailed corporate gift ideas, but in the meantime, here are some popular categories to get you started:

Corporate Apparel

Company branded clothing with your added logo is always a hit for your internal staff, especially around the holidays. People love getting a new custom sweatshirt, jacket, or polo to wear around the office or to trade shows and corporate events.

Custom Drinkware

Personalized water bottles, tumbler cups, and coffee mugs are some of the easiest corporate gifts you can possibly give. Everyone drinks water and there’s no need to track down sizes for drinkware! Plus, it’s a great way to cut down on office-wide plastic bottle consumption. Popular selections include engraved YETI Tumblers and custom S'well Bottles.

Personalized Electronics

There’s nothing better than getting a sweet new gadget. There are tons of ways you could go with this, but the most common custom logo electronics for corporate gifts are Bluetooth speakers, portable chargers, and wireless headphones.

 

Embroidered Bags & Luggage

Custom embroidered backpacks, duffel bags, messenger bags, totes, and luggage also make great corporate holiday gifts. Tons of people are traveling around the holidays, so they’ll definitely make the most out of their new bags. They’re also perfect for business trips when you add your company logo!

Food & Candy

Food and candy are an easy win when it comes to corporate gifts. After all, they say the way to someone’s heart is through their stomach. You can choose from Custom Gift Baskets filled with tasty treats or add your company logo to wrappers and packaging from your favorite candy brands!

Need Your Corporate Gifts Delivered Fast?

Like really fast? Maybe you need to get personalized holiday gifts before Christmas. Maybe you need some promotional products before your next trade show or corporate event. Whatever the case, we've got your back. Just click below to view our quick delivery collections.

Next Steps

Now that you’ve established a budget for your business gifts you can start shopping! Check out our Corporate Gift Buyers Guide for some great business gift ideas. Planning a company holiday party too? Read our 10 Steps to Planning a Company Holiday Party from our event planning guides section for all the tips you’ll need. If you have any other questions about ordering custom logo corporate gifts for your team don’t hesitate to contact us for answers!