From First Pitch to Lasting Growth: A Distributor’s Guide to Smarter Marketing

By Kimberly McDade

Starting and growing a promo business isn’t easy, and you don’t need us to tell you that. Between finding clients, managing orders and keeping up with trends, marketing yourself often slips to the bottom of the list. But without consistently getting in front of prospects, it’s tough to bring in new business or stay top of mind with existing clients.

That’s exactly why we built the Distributor Marketing Toolkit. It’s a free ASI® member benefit that works like your personal marketing team, giving you ready-made campaigns, content and ideas to help you market smarter and feel more confident about growing your business. By combining marketing tools for distributors with expert insights, it gives you the kind of resources you’ve been asking for – all included in your membership.

Distributor Marketing Toolkit

Why Marketing Can Be So Tough

When we ask distributors about their biggest challenges, we hear two things again and again:

“I’m just starting out and don’t know how to get my first clients.”
“I’ve been at this for years, but I’m stretched thin trying to keep my edge.”

The truth is, both groups need the same thing: smarter marketing for distributors that saves time and delivers results. That’s what the Distributor Marketing Toolkit was designed to do.

For New Distributors: Landing Those First Clients

Getting started in promo can feel like standing at the bottom of a mountain. You’ve got ambition, but where do you find the first clients who’ll trust you?

The Toolkit gives you a boost by providing turnkey campaigns organized by product, theme or industry. Picture this: Instead of building your first email from scratch, you can choose a premade campaign – maybe a seasonal idea like back to school or a category focus like eco-friendly products. With a few clicks you’ve got polished outreach ready to share.

Back to School Email

Better yet, the Toolkit includes promo industry research and infographics that prove the ROI of promo. When you sit down with a prospect you don’t just have products to show – you have data and insights that make you look like an expert from day one. That confidence is often the difference between a prospect saying “maybe later” and saying “let’s get started.”

This is how new members can land first promo clients faster and with greater confidence.

For Seasoned Distributors: Growing Deeper & Smarter

If you’re already established, your challenge isn’t getting started; it’s keeping clients engaged and expanding your pipeline. The Toolkit helps here too, but in a different way.

Think of the Toolkit as your monthly playbook. Every calendar is filled with awareness events, holidays and seasonal angles you can use to spark conversations with clients. Maybe it’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Employee Appreciation Day or a big sports season – you’ll always have fresh talking points at your fingertips.

And with exclusive ESP+ tips, you can take those ideas and turn them into sleek presentations. Instead of spending hours piecing something together, you can walk into a meeting with a professional deck that shows you’ve done the thinking for your client. That’s how you move from being “just another vendor” to becoming a trusted partner in their marketing.

ESP+ Presentations

Smarter Marketing = Stronger Relationships

Here’s the real secret: Marketing isn’t just about finding new clients – it’s about staying top of mind with the ones you already have.

Maybe a client has gone quiet for a few months. Instead of sending a generic “just checking in” email, you can reach out with a themed campaign tied to an upcoming holiday. Or maybe a loyal client needs a reason to believe in promo again – you can share the latest promo industry research or a powerful infographic that reminds them why branded merchandise works.

These small consistent touchpoints build trust and strengthen relationships. They show clients that you’re thinking ahead on their behalf.

Stay Ahead With Constant Updates

Promo moves fast and so does the Toolkit. New campaigns and assets are added regularly, so there’s always something fresh to share with clients. And if you’re looking for a quick start, you can take the 10-minute ASI Learning Network course that walks you through how to put the Toolkit into action.

It’s not just a resource you use once – it’s a partner that grows alongside your business.