Whilst the printed USB memory stick will do a great job at showing off your brand or logo loading data onto the sticks is a easy and cost effective way to give your customer easy access to your sales, pricing and promotional material.

After all the most expensive part of any branded memory stick is the flash memory housed within the stick itself so it makes sense to make use of it. Any file that can be digitized can be stored on the memory stick. As a good rule of thumb any data that can be stored on your PC or Mac can be stored on the memory stick but its best to stick to file or data types that most people will have the application to open.

Files that are typically pre-loaded onto a memory stick before distribution include things like PDF versions of sales brochures or price lists, PowerPoint presentations, Movie files, audio files and other Microsoft Office files.

These files can either be “locked” onto the memory stick so they can be viewed or copied but not deleted. Or they can be loaded without any protection so that they user can delete them when they have finished with them and then make full use of the available memory on the stick for their own use. There are two schools of thought on the merits of which approach is best but if you do load lots of data onto the memory sticks and then “lock” this data you make it less likely that the stick will be used and therefore negate the benefit of the user carrying it around with them.

Its always easier (and cheaper) to load the data onto the memory sticks during the manufacturing process but if this is not possible then don’t panic because most supplier of branded memory sticks offer a local, post-production data loading service as well albeit this tends to be a little more expensive.

One of the simplest and most effective things to data load onto a memory stick is a link to your website. Loading these links onto the memory sticks is very very simple. If you are loading web links yourself just connect the USB stick to your PC and wait for the PC to allocate a Drive Letter to it and generate the “pop-up” window so that you can see what’s on the stick. At this point you just “drag and drop” the bookmark of your website from your browser to the memory stick and that’s it. What you should then see is a link stored on the memory stick that when clicked will open you web page.

Don’t ignore the opportunities to load data onto your memory sticks even if it’s something as simple as your web site URL. After all you’re paying for the memory storage on a promotional memory stick so you ought to make best use of it.

If you’re using memory sticks as a way of distributing speakers’ notes and slides at a conference or seminar then it’s a must. No question, audiences at most seminars will be hoping for a USB memory stick with everything neatly stored on it rather than having to make their way home weighed down with a mass of paper.

It makes sense for you as well as the giver. By loading your files/data onto the memory stick you don’t have the printing costs and overheads. You don’t have to worry about making deadlines at the printers, it matters less if your speaker notes are delivered a little later than hoped for and you also don’t have to haul tons of printed-papers to your event.

But there are a couple of questions you need to ask yourself before you load data onto your branded USB Memory sticks:

1. Do you want the recipient of the branded USB memory stick to be able to delete your data from the stick?If you don’t want the data deleted then you need to get the data loaded during the manufacturing process and “locked” on the stick. The downside with this is that you need to plan it and ensure you have factored the delivery of the data to the factory before the memory sticks are manufactured. There can be no last minute additions and you won’t be able to delete anything either. So for example if your CEO decides at the last minute he wants to change the content on the pre-loaded memory sticks he/you won’t be able to.But, if you’re not worried about the data being deleted by the user after its been read then last minute changes are easy albeit time consuming.
2. Do you need to safeguard the pre-loaded data from falling into the wrong hands?If the information you have pre-loaded onto the memory sticks is confidential then you might want to consider encrypting and password protecting it. Again this can be done during manufacture and you have two basic options. One option is to simply prevent access to the data by means of a password challenge. The more sophisticated option is to protect access to the data by password but also to encrypt (scramble) any saved data.
3. After you’ve loaded your data is there enough space left on the USB memory stick for the recipient to use it?If one of your objectives is to have your branded USB memory sticks used and as a consequence your brand promoted you need to leave a enough space on the memory stick for the user to add their own files. Particularly important if you have “locked” your own files on the memory stick so they cannot be deleted.

Finally remember that data loading done post manufacture is time consuming so whilst there are real benefits in doing it please plan ahead.