Raise your hand if your fridge is the family bulletin board.
More than eight in 10 Americans have things like appointment reminders and children’s artwork on there side-by-side. And you know what’s keeping them in place? Customized magnets.
Fridge magnets and photo magnets are effective, low-cost items for boosting brand recognition while serving a practical purpose.
Business card magnets are one of the bestselling promotional products today. Frugal CEOs smartly invest in custom magnets because they know their name and logo will be seen every time someone walks by a fridge. Since magnets are kept for years, company logos are seen thousands of times!
People also use custom promotional magnets at work to decorate cubicles and keep important documents handy. And let’s not forget about car advertising magnets! You can turn any vehicle into an instant company billboard with a colorful, car magnet.
Keep reading to learn how your business or organization can benefit from customized magnets.
What are custom magnets?
Magnets are items that produce invisible magnetic fields that can affect objects around them. Every magnet has north and south poles. Opposite poles attract to each other; some poles repel each other.
Magnets for refrigerators are made of a group of metals such as nickel and iron called ferromagnetic metals. These magnets are designed to attract to other metals such as those used for filing cabinets, lockers or vehicle doors.
Today’s magnets are available in numerous sizes and shapes to perform tasks, market a brand, share a message or simply decorate a space.
The history of magnets
Edited: Totally Promotional
Magnets have been around for thousands of years. One of the first civilizations to discover magnetism in certain types of iron-rich stones were ancient Greeks, according to JRank Science & Philosophy. Early records also indicate the use of magnets by people in India and China.
Customized magnets for the fridge can be traced back to the U.S. in the early 20th century. At that time most were made with celluloid, a material that has since become obsolete.
Fridge magnets eventually grew in popularity in the 1970s. One of the most memorable teaching tools decades ago were magnets glued to colorful, plastic letters. Children would place these on the fridge to form simple words such as “cat” and “dog.”
The magnets used today to stick on fridges or magnetic white boards began with Sam Hardcastle. He is credited with creating a material that was completely magnetic, not just a magnet attached to a piece of plastic. Prompted by the space industry, he found a way to mix iron dust with flexible vinyl to create these powerful magnets.
Hardcastle eventually started an advertising company to sell the world’s first fridge magnets. Another inventor, William Zimmerman, took the concept a little further and created fridge magnets in cartoon shapes.
Whether it’s a calendar magnet or a school’s football schedule stuck to a fridge door, custom magnets continue to be used by people around the world.
Selecting customized magnets by size, color and strength
Edited: Totally Promotional
Custom-printed magnets are available in all shapes and sizes, making them versatile and highly customizable for marketing. From car logo magnets to business card magnets, there is a style suited to almost every situation.
Totally Promotional offers numerous magnet sizes with full-color and one-color imprints. Our smallest and most popular is the 3-1/2-in. x 2-in. Business Card Magnet With Square Corners and a full-color imprint. We also have this same small but mighty magnet with rounded corners.
You’ll notice that many of our magnets are available in various mil strengths. For example, our 3-1/2-in. x 2-in. Business Card Magnet with Round Corners has a 25-mil thickness. However, you also can order the same magnet in 20-mil and 30-mil strengths.
What does mil strength mean? “Mil” identifies the thickness of a magnet. A mil represents a thousandth of an inch. The bigger the mil size, the thicker and stronger your magnet will be. For reference, a standard piece of copy paper is about 4-mils thick.
Our line of custom magnets at Totally Promotional includes styles with these unique traits and benefits:
- Made with 50% recycled material
- Laminated paper surface
- Full-color designs
- Water-repellent
- UV-resistant
- Indoor/outdoor use
- Printed with your own artwork/image
How much do customized magnets cost?
Totally Promotional goes to great strides to make our promotional magnets affordable. Most of our smaller magnets cost less than 50 cents each when purchased in bulk. The vast majority of our personalized magnets have minimum order quantities of just 100, which is perfect for small businesses on a budget.
We realize cost is a huge factor for most businesses today and we want your investment to pay off. The true value of custom promotional magnets is the number of impressions they make. The cost per impression of magnets is extremely low when calculating bulk prices with the thousands of views received in a single year.
Being able to advertise your business, products or services while spending just a fraction of traditional advertising costs is very attractive. This makes custom magnets an excellent, low-cost investment for branding any business.
How to use promotional magnets
Edited: Totally Promotional
Ad magnets are one of the most versatile marketing tools for businesses because of their size and low cost. Here are a few examples of how business card magnets can be distributed:
- Trade show giveaways
- Freebies at festivals and parades
- Packet inserts for special events
- Career fair handouts
- Mass mailings
- Lobby giveaways
What should a business magnet include?
Totally Promotional designs custom magnets for all types of businesses and industries. Many of these organizations use personalized magnets to accomplish specific goals. Use these examples as inspiration to create your own fridge magnets and car logo magnets:
- Company name and logo
- Contact information (address, phone, email, social media, website)
- Business hours
- New menu items
- Special services
- New listings (real estate agents)
- Tips related to your products/services
- Discounts and special offers
- Business site image
Custom magnets for residents, agencies and events
Edited: Totally Promotional
Businesses aren’t the only ones finding success with bulk custom magnets. Here are a few other organizations and groups that put personalized magnets to work for them:
Communities (cities, towns, villages, counties): Custom-print emergency numbers (police, fire, EMT); and contacts for city administrators, water, trash, electric, gas and cable service; area schools; post office; chamber of commerce; libraries; and civic organizations.
Schools: Customize magnets with sports schedules, special dates such as graduation, end of quarters and semesters, and names and contact information for administrators.
Hospitals: Create magnets with addresses, contact information and hours for urgent care, medical centers and all satellite offices; tips for staying healthy; and information on upcoming health fairs and other sponsored events.
Baby announcements: Send personalized magnets to family and friends to announce your new arrival! Have your magnets printed with a photo of your baby and include the name, birth date, weight and height.
Wedding save-the dates: Mail fridge magnets to everyone on your guest list to announce your wedding date. Include a gorgeous engagement photo, the date, and any other vital information, such as details for a destination wedding.
Make your message stick with custom magnets
Don’t wait another day to give your business affordable branding power! Customized magnets are highly visible so they easily capture people’s attention. They are inexpensive, eye-catching and durable.
It’s easy to get super creative with your magnet design when shopping our wide range of styles, sizes, shapes and colors! Don’t settle for boring business cards or flyers. Order full-color, promotional magnets to hand out all year long!
