Contrary to popular belief, not everybody enjoys using ball point pens. A lot of people find them difficult to write with, requiring far too much pressure. What does this mean for your company? Well, if you are using promotional pens as part of your marketing drive this year you could do very well to find out if people prefer roller ball or ball point pens. If you do this before ordering large batches of either you can save yourself a lot of trouble and make your promotional activities far more profitable.

When in doubt, go for ball point pens. As far as promotional pens go you can?t really go wrong with a good ball point pen, but make sure the ones you are giving out are actually pens that people might buy themselves. Try to feel out the market or the crowd you are buying pens for. A tough business crowd would rather have sleek black or stainless steel pens than funky colors, twisty grips and zig-zag clips. Also, go for click-top pens rather than twisty-bottoms, as a recent survey has shown that click-top pens are the world?s favorite type of cheap plastic pens.


Roller ball pens work differently from ball point pens in that they use a much smaller ball and much thinner ink. Whereas a ball point pen only makes a line as wide as the part of the ball that touches the paper, roller balls make a mark wherever the tip of the pen touches the paper. This can mean much thicker lines, or it can also mean more precise writing, depending on both the pen and the user. One thing that sets roller balls apart from ball points is that they are often far easier to write with ? coming close to fountain pens for ease of use.

However, these pens can also be slightly more messy and the ink does not last as long. As promotional pens then, they are perfect! Nobody expects a promotional pen to hold its ink very well, so you can usually get away with this. Most of the time these pens do not look remarkable, but as soon as a person puts them to paper they wonder why they ever preferred ball point pens. The best part is: they cost no more than your standard ball point pens but can have a far greater impact. For every ten ball point pens the average office worker receives they are unlikely to receive more than one roller ball.

As a third option you can go for a ball point and roller ball gift set containing both types of promotional pens. This not only gives the user a choice between the two types of nib, but also makes them feel as if they have received a far more valuable gifts than just a single pen. Find a good, high quality gift set that includes both types of pen, and perhaps a mechanical pencil, inside a nice case that you can brand with your own logo. Gareth Parkin is the co-founder of Ideasbynet, the UK's leading online promotional pens and custom printed promotional pens supplier based in the north of England. Established in 2001, he has taken the UK gift market by storm by the application of the latest seo marketing techniques. For more details visit www.ideasbynet.com