New Years’ resolutions are in full swing, and gyms are packed with new members. If ever there was a time to encourage your customers’ new health habits, it’s right now!

Whether you’re launching a new workplace wellness program or you’re in the throes of new membership marketing, we have great promotional incentives ready for you!

Let’s just take a closer look at what the typical gym-goer brings to the gym, shall we? It’s a great place to start thinking about designing a starter kit for your desired audience:

1. Hand towels are used for various things from wiping down equipment to wiping away sweat. The life of your logo far exceeds the cost!
   
2. Let’s face it: gyms are known to be germ-laden environments. Keep a supply of pocket hand sanitizers available for extra protection.
   
3. If there’s anything a person might bring to the gym, it’s likely going to be a water bottle. Proper hydration is essential during any workout. This one even saves space in their gym bags:
   
4. Members often must bring their car keys, gym passes, and locker  keys into the building with them. Why not capitalize on that opportunity and offer a logo’d keychain? They can even clip all their keys to their new bottles or gym bags.
   
5. Nearly everyone on the cardio machines will engage in some sort of entertainment, whether it’s reading or listening to tunes. Add a bonus incentive to signing up by giving the first 50 new members a wearable MP3 player.
   

Check out more great solutions for your next Health and Wellness Campaign.

~Jessica

Filtered water bottles are a great answer for some of your biggest drinking requests. A reusable bottle instead of a disposable one? Check. Filled with filtered water? Check. No access to that big filtered water pitcher in your fridge? No problem. And you get to attach your logo to this great idea too!

We now offer several customized solutions for you and your health-conscious customers:

For the cost-conscious, we have the Water Filtration Sport Bottle, starting at just $8.95 each. To top it off, the logo’d bottles also boast a freezable wand and built-in water tracker. Score!

For the style-conscious, the Camelbak® Filtered Sport Bottle gives you the same popular bottle style from a brand you already trust.

Built-in filters reduce any concerns you might have about refilling from the sink or water fountain. And replacement filters are readily available for both.

These promotional bottles are great for road races, wellness programs, fitness magazine promotions, gym memberships, healthcare fairs and much more. Getting your 8-a-day could hardly be any easier!

~Jessica

The new government food guidelines have been in the news since their release earlier this summer. Even though the new “My Plate” system is simpler, it still takes some getting used to. The advantage of this new system is it shows ratios rather than servings, a much simpler way to illustrate that it’s the proportion, not necessarily the amount of food, that contributes to an unhealthy lifestyle.

The old guidelines gave a solid number of servings for each category, but the new system takes individual needs into consideration, like age, gender and activity level. The CDC has posted a helpful tool at their Fruits and Veggies Matter website to assist in determining each person’s individual needs.

Use this tool to promote wellness and individualized health to your target audience and watch them turn nutrition facts into healthy habits. The right giveaways combined with educational tools, events, materials and programs can help even the busiest people improve their diets! Check out these three practical promotional products they can use every day to help them along.

Salad To Go
This roomy bowl holds 4 cups of leafy greens below so they’re well on their way to meeting their individual veggie requirements. A three-section insert holds salad toppings and a freezable screw-top container for their favorite dressing.

Snack & Dip To Go
Give staple snacks like chips and dip a healthy upgrade by challenging your students, employees, or clients to dip into something new —peanut butter with celery, hummus and sliced veggies like cucumber or red pepper, yogurt and fruit, or baked chips. The dip container features a freezer-gel lid for safe serving!

Poly Pro Lunch Box
Lunch bags don’t have to be brown! Imprinted lunch coolers are daily reminders of your health message. A large opening provides easy access for food containers and cleaning. Check out some fun, funky patterns too!

Visit our online store for more ideas on promotional products for nutrition programs!

Michelle Obama launched a health initiative to encourage young children to eat healthy, paving the way for wholesome eating habits that carry into adulthood. She has even planted her own vegetable garden at the White House. The current emphasis on eating food that’s local, organic, and in its most natural form is a concept that has transformed the country’s way of eating, making Obama’s initiative a very timely one.

Launch your own healthy eating initiative, company wellness program or eco-minded practice with one of these great ideas. After all, there’s nothing more rewarding than eating food you’ve nurtured from seed.

These imprinted CD-case growing kits include seeds for growing the ingredients for a healthy mixed salad. The recipe is included. Your salad can’t get any fresher than this!

Those with established green thumbs might appreciate a new challenge. Help guide them into turning kitchen and yard waste into rich garden fertilizer with this logo’d booklet.

Or encourage your customers to support local farmers (and reusable packaging efforts) with this custom organic farmer’s market bag.

The Bento box (aka laptop lunch box) has been touted recently in several media outlets as a diet-savvy tool. Essentially, the Bento box is a food storage container with several various-sized compartments. The Bento has long been used in Japanese culture for takeout or box lunches. When you think about it, the Bento has several built-in qualities that support healthy eating habits. The sectioned compartments take the guesswork out of portion sizes and help you get a healthy mix of food. Try to fill the compartments with all the colors of the rainbow for a good nutrient balance.

Not only that, but the Bento is also a great reusable alternative to plastic baggies, brown bags and other disposable packaging. It keeps all your different tastes from mixing. And a single box means fewer dishes to do at the end of the day too! Bringing homemade food to work is a great way to save money and your health, so stash your leftovers in one of these!

We recommend fruits and veggies over crackers and chips!

This plastic storage container has three sections for snacks and a separate compartment over the top for a sandwich or utensils.  

These small snack containers even keep your food cool until lunchtime with freezable gel. With the 3-cup capacity, you’re well on your way to your daily recommended vegetable servings. Hint: measure out the capacity of the reusable plastic containers you already own once and you’ll always have portion sizes under control.

 Introduce your new company wellness program or health initiative with either one of these fine logo’d specimens to make portion control as appealing as possible.

Many of us, myself included, are often too busy to remember to make appointments with our healthcare providers on a regular basis. I do love getting those reminder postcards in the mail, though, since that is often my cue to call! But with all of technology – smart phones, cell phones, etc. – I wonder how many physician and dental offices use these mediums to communicate with patients?

One of my coworkers goes to a local dentist who regularly sends text messages to patients, including appointment reminders, satisfaction surveys, and Happy Birthday messages. The office recently sent her a Happy Birthday message for her husband, too, which served as a convenient reminder to her that she needed to make appointments for her family. Of course, the dental office phone number was right in the message, making it easy to find.

Your patients may or may not appreciate the friendly reminders, but it would certainly be worth finding out. It could be an easy way to differentiate yourself from competing offices.

For the past year or so, it has been difficult to not hear all of the discussions around Healthcare and Healthcare Reform. It is not always easy to understand, and patients just want to know what it means for them.

I’m no different. I am one of those patients who trusts my doctors, and rarely questions them as long as I get an answer. But I also like to be aware of my options and what is available, and given the changes occurring in our health system, I believe there are many others who just want to understand their options, too.

What types of options do you offer to complement your patients’ traditional course of care? Offering treatments and services complementary to the traditional methods gives your patients input in their care, making your relationship more meaningful and positive.

If you offer complementary services, take a look at the recently published 4imprint newsletter outlining how you can communicate these care options to your patients.

I spend a lot of time in the doctor’s office, since I will soon be adding to my family (baby # 2!).  At a recent appointment, I was thinking about how pleased I am with our physicians.  I had options when I chose our family doctors, and I made the right decisions for my family.  Just as I do research when purchasing a TV, refrigerator, or vehicle, I was able to do research before deciding which doctor to see.

If I am doing research, so are other patients.  So where are we getting this information?

Since almost 75% of the United States population uses the internet, it seems reasonable that this is a key source of information.  There are a number of government websites, such as AHRQ website, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and Medline Plus, that provide insight for patients on what questions to ask and how to check the quality of a doctor.   Patients can also check the websites or social media sites of a particular organization to understand what they offer.

In my case, I also talked to family, friends, and coworkers for their input on particular physicians.  Real-life examples and experiences can have a huge impact on the decisions we make when it comes to healthcare.  Some of this may even be communicated through Facebook, Twitter, and even traditional email, where word travels quickly.

Do you know what patients are saying?  For ways you can appeal to potential patients check out 4imprint’s Healthcare newsletter.

One of the fastest growing trends in medicine is not a specific treatment, but an approach to care. The existence of medical spas is on the rise, and offer patients relaxation during procedures which can be nerve-racking. Dermatologic and cosmetic treatments are the most common types performed at medical spas, but there are many other specialties that are beginning to use the medical spa strategy. Patients dealing with dialysis, cancer, and even fertility issues can find comfort and care in a spa setting. There are even spas popping up in hospitals, in an effort to provide overall health and wellness to patients.

For some ideas on making your practice more spa-like, check out 4imprint’s latest Healthcare newsletter.

Hearing form more business start-ups as a result of my post earlier in the week. Have to say we’re having some fun with this. We just put through an order for a gentleman named Zoltan who has recently started a non-medical senior care business (which sounds like something that will have great growth potential). Had another for a new photography studio.

The passion and excitement these folks have for their new ventures is uplifting and gives me great confidence in the future!