As a sales professional one of my responsibilities is to attend local trade show events. This is an activity that I believe is essential to a sales career and one that can greatly influence success in prospecting.
Most recently I had the opportunity to represent my company at the BOMA Expo with a group of my colleagues.
It was an amazing opportunity to meet with current clients whom I never would have spoken to otherwise (because they aren’t in my territory) and prospects who are interested in our products but didn’t know much about us.
Trade shows and other networking events are a great opportunity to get your name out there and meet new people. But first you have to consider how you will attract people to your booth.
A well known way is to have trade show giveaways. You know what I’m taking about, promotional pens, flashlights, car chargers, etc., etc., etc.
The problem with giveaways is that there are so many different items available that it can be hard to choose which is best for your company, your brand, and your audience.
Below I’ve detailed my three criteria for choosing a promotional item, some recent giveaways I handed out at the BOMA conference along with some other tchotchkes (I had to look up the spelling for that) I’ve come across in my experience.
What Makes A Good Trade Show Giveaway
Although there are a lot of options available, not all are created equal. To make the selection process easier I’ve broken it down into the 3 criteria a trade show giveaway should have before you decide to use it at your next event.
First, it needs to be cost effective. If you were giving away free iPads I promise you’d be the most popular booth at the show, but that option is out of reach for most companies. One caveat to this criteria, I always recommend quality over quantity. It’s better to hand out less items to select and targeted prospects than it is to hand out cheap items to everyone. Be sure to set a budget and stick to it.
Second, it must be intriguing. This can mean that it’s either unique like some of items I talk about below or incredibly useful. This is to avoid the chance that it will be thrown away as soon as the attendee is back in their hotel room or in the office. Promotional tablet stylus, much more unique.
Third, it must be branded. The easiest way to cross this off this list is to have your logo or tag line on the item. Also, make sure all of your branded material, giveaways and collateral, are consistently branded. Use the same logo, the same fonts, the same typeface, and the same colors across all your material.
Here’s a great idea I came across from an article written by Susan Friedmann at The Tradeshow Coach.
Use trade show giveaways to help pre-qualify your prospects. the example she uses is playing cards. What you do is send the face cards to your various targeted attendees. For example you send Kings to your key customers, queens to vendors and suppliers, jacks to hot prospects, and aces to your whales. Send a note to bring the cards to the booth in exchange for a special gift. When handed in the booth staff will already know what kind of attendee they are and what talk track to use with them. It makes their time much more productive in front of visitors.
Recent Trade Show Giveaways
We had a wide variety of items available which was great because (1) it provide options for booth visitors , and (2) it made it more likely we had something that no other exhibitor had.
Breath Mints - I’m still making up my mind as to whether these were a good idea. On one hand they were little boxes that provided us with a lot of real estate for promotion, great for networking events since a lot of face to face talking is done, were easy to carry and pass out, and were relatively cheap to produce (I think).
On the other hand they had a limited shelf life as a promotional product. Once you were out of mints the box and branding potential was gone and in the trash.
Recommendation: Give out no less than two to each person. Tell them one for their pocket and one for their car. This will give your brand a little more shelf life with them.
Car USB Charger - This was the first time I’ve had car USB chargers available to hand out. Great promotional item. Most people have iPhones or electronics that can be charged through a USB charger and could use it while away from the home or office.
Recommendation: These will go fast so be sure to control their distribution and use them with targeted prospects. They aren’t the least expensive promotional item out there.
Lip Balm - This was an item that I had actually never seen as a trade show giveaway which got me really excited. Way to stand out MRI! It was a hot couple of days in San Diego so these were going fast. Also many people told us we were the only exhibitor to offer them.
Recommendation: Unique idea for sure. Stay away from strong flavors though since some people don’t like the taste or smell. We had mint which is a pretty standard “flavor”.
Pens - This is a probably the most common trade show giveaway out there. You can find these being passed out at conferences and networking events around the country.
Recommendation: Go quality over quantity when it comes to branded pens. When I grab or am given a pen at an event, if it feels, looks, or writes like a cheap pen it is in the trash. Professionals in all industries have no shortage of pens, give them a good reason to keep yours.
Reusable Water Bottle - These were cool reusable containers that we had to hand out. These got the most attention but because of their size were probably the least taken item. They reminded me of an adult Capri Sun with a mountain climbers safety hook attached.
Recommendation: Great idea and unique but most people had to ask “what are those”. Perhaps have one filled with water or have your trade show team each have one and use it during the show to reduce confusion.
Want any of these trade show giveaways? I’ve got plenty of extras.
Send me a personal message with your name and where to send it and I’ll have it in the mail in a couple of days. All I ask is that you send me a quote, picture, or tweet about the giveaway.
Recommendation: Picture with you and the giveaway, quote of why you think it’s a great giveaway, or tweet this post.
Favorite Trade Show Giveaways
Here are a few of my favorite trade show giveaways I’ve come across and thought were really unique, useful, or have kept and use to this day.
Hand Sanitizer - I am always happy to find a company that is passing these little goodies out as a trade show. Like any networking event you shake hands and talk face to face with a lot of people. Passing these out help keep the germs away.
Recommendation: Brand these as best you can and have plenty of them available. They’ll go fast to the germaphobes around.
Touch Screen Cleaning Cloth - Got this at the BOMA Expo. Super useful item that I will keep for a very long time. To be honest I don’t remember who I got it from or who made it. It’s green and the tag says “16×16 microfiber cloth…Made in China“. They missed a great branding opportunity.
Recommendation: Brand it with your logo, tag line, colors (if really unique like Tiffany’s blue or Victoria’s Secret pink), etc.
Tablet Stylus Pen - I talked about this giveaway in a previous post about sales gifts. This was such a high quality item that I still use it today and have yet to find an alternative that works better for the same use.
Recommendation: Like pens, focus on the highest quality product you can find. Tablets are the fastest growing personal computing device. If you provide a valuable tool to better use them, you’ve won a big battle for attention.
Reusable Bag or Tote - I kid you not. Of all the trade shows I’ve been to there are usually only one or two exhibitors who give away bags or totes. Maybe there’s a trade show limit that I don’t know about. Either way these are one of my favorite tchotchkes to get. I think more companies should give them out.
First of all it gives you a way to carry all the other goodies you pick up through the day. Second it is the largest promotional item I’ve seen given out in mass quantities with a lot of available square footage for advertising. Three, for hippie California folks like myself I can use these totes for grocery shopping, carrying food to the beach, as an overnight bag, to hold wet clothes after the beach, etc. The list goes on and on.
Recommendation: This is one of my top choices of trade show giveaways. You want to be careful that you don’t put too much info on the bags. Something simple like your logo and tag line on both sides will work. Or if you want to be a bit more creative perhaps some picture, caricature, or cartoon on one side instead. The point is you have a lot of marketing real estate but don’t go crazy.
Water Bottles - I love walking around an expo and stopping by the booths that had branded water bottles as giveaways. But this relates back to my issue with the breath mints. It is a food item and has a limited shelf life.
Recommendation: Give out a pair, one for now and one for the car. Stay top of mind for as long as you can.
Wine or Beer - This was a new one to me. There was an exhibitor with wine as their giveaway. Creative I’ll give them that but this can be good and bad.
Good because a lot of business professionals like wine, myself included. It’s unique. And can create a business social gathering area centered around your booth.
Bad, not everyone handles their liqueur well. If they get out of control it’s your fault. If they get rowdy at your booth the attention may be directed at you if they get mad that you cut them off. No bueno.
Recommendations: Trade a business card for 1-2 drink tickets. Also mark those that take advantage of the free booze. A small Sharpie dot on the middle part of their thumb should be identifiable yet not noticeable This will help you keep track of who’s already had a couple of drinks and may not be the best to serve more to.
My favorite wine: Pinot Noir if you’re wondering.
Other Trade Show Giveaways
These are the other trade show giveaways I’ve come across that didn’t present much value and were quickly filed away in the round folder .
Stress Balls - As long as these aren’t toxic the best use for them I can think of is as a dog chew toy. I don’t know about you but I’ve never used a stress ball for more than a dozen squeezes in any month period. They just take up desk space in my opinion. Please comment below if you beg to differ.
Recommendation: Stay away from stress balls. Think of alternatives such as branded baseballs, basketballs, footballs, frisbees, etc. something that is less….lame.
Flashlights - Small little flashlights that can go on your key-chains are a great idea. Based on their size their price tends to be deceivingly high. But it is small, branded, and usable.
Recommendation: Don’t use the small round flashlights; instead get the flat ones. They are super bright, pretty sturdy, costs less, and are more likely to be put on a key-chain.
What To Do Once You’ve Handed Out Your Giveaways
I hope you don’t think the relationship is over once they’ve grabbed something off your booth. This is were the real selling starts especially with a proper prospecting method in place.
If you are exhibiting a trade show and someone comes up scanning the giveaways available you have a few options.
You should collect their information. Whether that’s by collecting business cards (Are Business Cards Friend Or Foe?) or using a scanner to collect badge information, get what you can. If nothing else get a phone number and email address.
You can start a conversation with them to find to out what brought them to your booth. Are they a customer, are they interested in your product or just the giveway, are they even familiar with your product, have they used it before, do they know anyone who uses it. There are a plethora of questions you can ask a person when they stop by your booth.
You can take a picture with the visitor and your giveaway in front of your booth and share it among your social media profiles. Ask them to do the same on their social networks.
I hope this has given you some good ideas for trade show giveaways the next time you exhibit. Let me know in the comments below any other ideas you have or giveaways you’ve seen at shows.
~ Johnny Bravo
Image courtesy of graur razvan ionut / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Hello mr Johny.
Your comments are very helpfull.
I would like to havr your point of view about a giveaways product that i has not seen before at trade shows:
Trolley to carry all the things and samples brochures a person can collect while walking the show, this is a project I has been thinking to realize, this trolley “cardboard 100%” seems to be better that walking hanging a bag, obviously the bag cost is about 6 times chipper than a trolley cardboard that we expect to sale at U$ 8.oo per unid.
Thr benefits of our trolley cardboard are:
*Its more confortable to carry while walking the show if compared with hangbags.
* it really shows ” exhibits” the customer BRAND during and after the show.
As the trolleybox will be always visible 100%.
* The customer bring all information collected during the show and can keep it organized into the box, as the trolley cis totally foldable.
* Our trolley is 100% recyclable.
* Our minimun order is only 100 trolleys.
I would like your oppinion about if do you think that this will be very expensive as giveaways at the shows ?….
Hi Mike,
I’m glad you find things helpful.
I like your idea. If I understand you right I think you’re referring to little pull wagons? I have to say I have never seen something like that at a trade show but I can see how it would be popular.
It DEFINITELY would stand out.
The only thing that I would be a little hesitant about is the size of the giveaway. Carrying something behind you like a trolley or wagon can be a little cumbersome at a trade-show where there are a lot of people walking around,paying attention to the booths rather than where they’re walking.
I’d love to see what the product looks like though, do you have a picture?
~ Johnny Bravo
BOMA? That’s funny, we made the BOMA Miami website for them bomamiamidade.org. I came here looking for info about promotional products that are typically used as trade show giveaways so I was surprised to see that you mentioned BOMA, a client of mine in Miami.
Great article with lots of excellent tips on promotional products!
Appreciate thhe recommendation. Let me try it out.
Johnny,
I sell promotional products, and the one question I get is what do you have that will my booth and company stand out. I know the items need to be cost effective, but cheap is cheap and if you are putting your logo on something it represents your company. We sell a lot of desk toys, like the boogie bot, bungee rocket, jellyfish yo yo and unique shaped stress balls. Car chargers are very popular and grocery totes. Both items people can use and will not throw away. You offered some very good suggestions.