Effective Tradeshow Giveaways
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Written by Farrah Pirkle Monday, 08 March 2010 10:56
For many businesses the tradeshow is often the financial lifeline and therefore, a necessary endeavor for success. Contacts are made and business is negotiated via networking and productive sessions or meetings. But with economical constraints and travel budgets being cut, it is very important to get the most return on investment during eac
h tradeshow. One way to do this is by making your brand or message STICK in the minds of your attendees and potential customers.
In an effort to make sure your attendees remember who you are and why you stand out, it is important to make sure your message is in their hands and at the forefront of their memory when they decide to pick up the phone to do business after the tradeshow. One important way this can be accomplished is by making sure you have the most effective promotional giveaway to hand out at your tradeshow. A small investment up front can lead to a large return and make your tradeshow efforts worth your while. There are three main tips to remember to get the most of your promotional giveaway budget: target audience, creativity, and usefulness.
Once you have a set budget for your promotional items, it is important to do some prospecting before you attend a tradeshow. Try to determine if you have some VIP prospects to see if you need to have different levels of giveaways. For example, you may want to have more expensive gifts behind your booth to give to certain customers versus the tradeshow giveaways that you have on your table for the general attendees. More likely than not, the conference attendees have a common interest and it will not be a wasted effort to learn the demographics of your audience before you order your items. For instance, if your attendees are going to be mostly middle-aged females, your items might be entirely different from an audience of males.
Creativity is the key and is often what makes a customer choose one vendor over another. Make sure you find out if there is a theme for the conference or tradeshow and try to match that theme if possible. Your creativity will be noticed and attendees will think that your company stands out as one that can accommodate to any theme a customer desires. If you cannot match the theme of the conference try to provide your customers with something that reflects your brand or product image. For instance, if you are a bathtub manufacturer working at a home tradeshow, give your customers rubber duckies with your logo on them. You can also be creative about when and how your items are handed out. Try to work with meeting or conference organizers to allow you to hand out your items at a time that sticks with attendees. For instance, the opening general session or during educational sessions are times that stand out beyond the actual designated tradeshow time.
Lastly, make sure your items are something that your potential customers will use or have in front of them all of the time. In other words, research about your target audience will glean some key findings about attendee interests and lifestyles. If you know that many of the tradeshow attendees have families at home, give them something they can use with their children like a Frisbee or mini-football for instance. Or, if your audience is made up of executives, providing items that they might use in their offices are always appreciated. You will be surprised how often people re-use and look at their conference giveaways if they are useful products that can be used daily.
There is no exact or cut and dry equation for the most effective tradeshow giveaway, but with the right amount of foresight, planning, and research you can get the most out of your promotional items. As overwhelming and involved as it sounds, we can help you make your experience both profitable and fun. Marketing Mud can help you with your strategy and design and make your next tradeshow a worry free success. Please feel free to submit your success stories, questions, and comments on our Facebook and Twitter pages and we look forward to doing business with you!
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