Best Promotional Pens for Businesses

The best promotional pen depends on the job it's doing. For giveaways handed out in volume, choose a plastic pen printed with your logo. For pens people keep on a desk and use every day, choose a metal pen, engraved or printed. For clients and gifts, choose a pen from a brand they recognise, or pair a pen with a notebook.

We supply printed and engraved pens to businesses, charities, schools and organisations across the UK, and this is how we'd match one to each job.

For exhibitions, events and giveaways

A plastic pen printed in one colour, chosen for how it writes as much as how it looks.

Pens are handed out at almost every event, which is exactly why the forgettable ones end up in a drawer. The pen that gets kept is the one that writes smoothly first time and feels solid enough to use, so it's worth ordering a sample through the product page before you commit to a large quantity. The current sample terms are shown there.

The Olympia Pen is a push-button pen in a wide range of barrel colours, and the Value Twist Frost is a twist action pen with a frosted barrel. Both are screen printed along the barrel. If your logo has several colours, the Curvy Promotional Pens offer a full colour wrap around the barrel as well as a standard print.

Our plastic pens cover the rest of the range.

For desks, receptions and everyday use

A metal pen, because it feels better in the hand and lasts long enough to keep your logo in use.

This is the pen for reception desks, sales teams, delegate packs and new starter kits, anywhere a pen is used every day rather than handed out once. Weight is the first thing people notice, and a metal barrel feels like something worth keeping.

Metal pens are often laser engraved rather than printed. Engraving removes a thin layer of the surface to reveal the metal beneath, so the logo can't rub or wash off. The Vantage Recycled Pen is engraved on the barrel and made from GRS certified recycled aluminium, which suits a brief with a sustainability requirement as well.

See the full metal pens range, and our guide to screen printing, embroidery and engraving for how each branding method works.

For clients, speakers and gifts

A pen they'd be glad to own: a recognised brand, a well made metal pen, or a pen paired with a notebook.

A gift pen is judged the way the recipient would judge a pen they bought themselves. A name they already know, such as a Parker Jotter, arrives with its reputation attached, which is why a pen from our brands range works well as a client gift.

Keep the branding small. An engraved logo on a good pen gets used in meetings for years, while a large printed one tends to stay in the box. If you're giving a notebook as well, a matching pen and notebook reads as one considered gift rather than two separate items.

If the pens are going to clients, our guide to corporate gifts for clients and teams explains the £50 rule on when a branded gift to a client can be claimed as a business expense.

For sustainability briefs

A pen whose material is named on the product page.

Eco claims on pens vary a lot, so look for the material rather than the word. The Eden Recycled Card and Corn Pen has a barrel made from recycled card with corn plastic trims, the Vantage is recycled aluminium with GRS certification, and our bamboo pens have barrels made from bamboo.

Check the whole pen rather than only the barrel. Refills, clips and trims are often made from something else, which matters if your brief says plastic free. Our guide to buying eco-friendly merchandise without the greenwashing covers the standards and the questions worth asking.

What changes between a giveaway pen and a gift pen?

Almost everything changes apart from the job of writing.

The price per pen falls as the quantity rises, because the setup for a print run is spread across more pens. Our guide to what drives the cost of printing a logo on 500 pens explains what else moves the number, and every pen page shows the price at the quantity you enter.

If your deadline is close

Start with our Express Curvy Pens, which are set up for fast turnaround.

The express service on that pen is based on a one colour print on one side of the pen, up to a maximum quantity shown on the product page, so keep the design simple. Where they apply, your basket shows No-Rush, Standard and Express delivery options, each with its own date, and the date you select at checkout is guaranteed. Our express range shows everything else set up for speed.

How do you order printed pens?

Choose the pen, enter your quantity and print options, and request a free Visual Proof™. Our in-house designers will put your logo on the pen and send it back with the price and delivery date, usually in around 20 minutes. You can request as many changes as you need, and the price on your proof is locked for 14 days.

Before you approve it, check your logo against the pen's print area. Our guide to choosing the right pen for your logo covers what fits where.

If you've found the same pen for less elsewhere, our Price Match covers qualifying like-for-like comparisons.