If you’re in charge of the corporate budget for Christmas send-outs and you’re scratching your head for clever gift ideas, you should think about branded notepads with a stylish message.

Everybody needs a notepad on their desk to scribble down relevant facts during a telephone call or meeting, so a notepad is never a wasted gift; in fact, it is one of the most effective marketing tools as it means you’re guaranteed pride of place on someone’s desk for weeks, if not months.

So think ahead for the Christmas season and get your design done well in advance. This will give you time to select images that convey your corporate message, come up with a cohesive design and carefully select the number you want to send out.

Of course, it’s an expense and every pound must be justified in the modern corporate environment, but take a short tour of your own office and see how many people have a notepad on their desk. Ask them how they would feel to receive one as a gift from the company and you’ll see that most people would welcome this as a gift rather than a pointless novelty that gets shut in a drawer when everybody comes back to work after the holidays.

You can send out simple branded spiral notebooks that often turn out to be the best jotters, as the recipient can rip out pages that are covered in scribbles, tidy up their notes on a fresh page and keep the important stuff as an archive. Alternatively, you can push the boat out and opt for a much more stylish corporate notebook with a padded cover and elegant perfect bound feel.

If you plan ahead, you can even adopt a two-tier system and send out spiral notebooks to the workers and more elegant items to the senior management level customers, would-be customers and future targets.

Just make sure your design is elegant and well thought out and there is no way it will not be gratefully received. We all need something to write on, after all.