How to Choose the Best Custom Promotional Pen for Your Small Business

Promotion for any small business is difficult and can lead to being fairly expensive. We regularly recommend custom promotional pens in order to avoid any mistakes that could dent your budget. They’re simple, easy to carry, and practical too! The only real problem pens have is that there are simply so many of them. Makes for a difficult decision if you don’t know what you’re doing. So we’re going to go through a few highlights and features of some promotional pens that should help you make the perfect choice for your business.

What You Should Know Before Purchasing Custom Pens

When purchasing custom pens of any kind, you’ll want to make sure you have a goal in mind. It doesn’t have to be all about just promoting to clients. Here are some key questions for you to ask yourself:

• What is your budget?
• Which logo should you use?
• Will the logo fit on the barrel of the Pen?
• What style pen are you looking for?
• Do you just want cheap and easy or more quality?

Custom pens don’t have to just be for clients after all, these can be a great morale booster for your clients. Having a quality promotional pen from their employer can make them feel special, or at the very least help them save money on office supplies. Anyone able to save a few dollars will feel better about it!

Types of Custom Promotional Pens

Ball Points

A ball point pen dispenses ink from a small metal ball at the tip. That’s why they have the name “ball-point” ! These pens were invented in the 1880’s, but became the patented ball point pen in 1938 using an oil-ink base. The “ball” sits in a hollow socket with a hole on one end, which is where the ink flows into from the ink chamber. As you write with the promotional pen the ball turns and ink spreads over it, which then transfers to the paper. The key comes from the ink, which dries extremely quickly. It’s great for anyone who tends to be writing constantly but needs to be able to put everything together quickly.

Fountain Pen

Fountain pens have a reservoir of water-based ink instead of their ball point companions. The ink runs through a “feed” into the pen’s “nib” or tip. Fountain pens have a much sharper tip compared to other pens, and are composed of a lot more pieces. Goulet Pen offers a fantastic anatomical look at the way fountain pens are built. Because they are built with different components, you can actually change out the pieces to adjust the size and stroke of your promotional pen. 

Gel Pens

Gel pens work very similarly to ball point pens. They also have the rolling ball that allows for the ink to flow through, and are built with the same barrel to hold all the components of the custom pen. However, their ink contains a water base instead of an oil base. While most water-base inks could lead to a loss of vibrancy, gel pens combine water with different biopolymers to help thicken the ink back up. Gel pens also have a fantastic array of colors that you can choose from, making them great for creative writing or for organizational writing.

Brush Pens

Brush pens mimic paint brushes, as the name would suggest. Tips of brush pens can bend and move, making it easy to adjust the stroke size mid-movement. Artists adore brush pens for their ease of use compared to paints, which have to be constantly loaded up again on the brush before use. Brush pens also come in many color options, all the more reason they’re used by artists on a budget.

Markers and Highlighters

Markers and highlighters have thick, unmoving tips where ink flows out from. You’d use a marker ideally for filling in space or making larger indicators on sheets like blocking out text. Highlighters also block text well, but they emphasize sections rather than attempting to remove them completely. The key to highlighters is their fluorescence. The electrons in the ink become “excited” when activated and give the highlighters their iconic translucent yet striking colors.

Pencils

At the end of the day, some people don’t want to work with the permanence of pens (myself included among them). So it may be better to purchase custom pencils instead. While not as classy as pens, pencils provide a great platform for your brand’s personality. There are even some brands of pencil that are working to be more environmentally friendly, which is much more difficult with a plastic pen.

Stylus Pens

Give your clients the ability to go beyond paper by using stylus pens. Stylus pens are built with a rubber material that allows them to be used on touch screens of all kinds. If you’re in tech but not wanting to overspend on gifts, stylus pens are both tech friendly and budget friendly! Though the only backdraw to them is that they can be difficult to add a lot of detail to due to their size.

Want to Make Your Own Custom Pens?

Now that you have an idea of what kinds of pens can be customized for you, you can ad your brand logo onto pens of your own! If you’re still unsure about what kind of pens would be best for your business, feel free to reach out to us. We can help guide you to picking the best possible custom pen for your business. Whether you want something easy to give away or a quality pen you want folks to hold onto, we got you covered.