Maximising Trade Show

Maximising Your Trade Show Presence: How Promotional Products Drive Booth Traffic

Trade shows remain a significant part of most businesses’ marketing plans. They offer the opportunity to face customers personally, demonstrate what exactly a business offers, and increase brand recognition in a much more personal and human manner. What’s more surprising is how fierce the competition is to gain your attention. This is where promotional products can fill the gap. With carefully chosen promotional items, you’d drive traffic into your booth, and still leave a strong impression on the client long after they’d walked away.

Most businesses spend between 5-10% of their marketing budget on trade shows, but in certain industries, this can climb up to 20% due to the immense value these events provide in connecting with customers

Knowing the Potential of Promotional Products

Promotional products are also referred to as swag or giveaways. In this context, though, they are items that bear your company’s logo or message, which you give away for free at trade shows. These are multi-functional in use for:

A. They attract people to your booth.

B. They associate a positive notion to your brand

C. They are a constant reminder of your business after the show is over

When used to their fullest extent, promotional products can be a phenomenal advertising tool for your trade show marketing campaign.

Choosing the Right Promotional Products

In the end, the success of using promotional products revolves around choosing items that make sense to your desired customer and relates well to your business. Here are a few things to look for in promotional products:

Usefulness

The best promotional products for people are those that they could actually utilise. Useful items, such as pens, USB drives, tote bags, or phone accessories, are popular because they have an everyday usage for people.

Quality

Lowest cost does not necessarily mean it is the best, but it surely can damage your brand image with low quality. Invest in goods that best depict the quality of your products or services.

Relevance

Select items that are associated with your brand or line of business. For example, if you are in the tech industry, you may choose to carry gadgets or accessories such as headsets among others. In the health sector, it is advisable to have products regarding exercise and fitness.

Uniqueness

Be different from other exhibitors. Maybe you should create something just for the event or add a unique twist to something common.

Budget

Think about the budget you have, and how many of these items you’ll be giving away. Sometimes, it’s better to have a few quality items than to have a large, forgettable quantity of cheaply made pieces.

Strategies for Making Effectiveness of Promotional Products

Having fantastic promotional products is only the beginning. The following are considered some of the strategies you can do to maximise its impact:

Develop a Tiered Giveaway Plan

Not all promotional items need to be given out for free. A tiered plan might work:

Tier 1: Low-value, cheap stuff for everyone who walks by your booth (pens, keychains).
Tier 2: More expensive stuff for people when they discuss your product or demo with you (brand power banks, good water bottles).
Tier 3: High-value for qualified leads or give them as part of a contest (branded backpacks, really cool gadgets).

This way, prospects will spend more time at your booth and speak to your people.

Promotional Products to Encourage Engagement

  • Instead of just handing out goods, use them as interaction tools. Some examples include:
  • Give a spinning wheel game to where people can win assorted promotional items
  • Create a scavenger hunt wherein the participants have to go around the trade show floor, and they would end it at your booth for a prize.
  • Hold a social media contest where the participant can win a high-value item by posting about your brand in social media.

Such strategies bring in more viewers, but also create experiences remembered in connection with your brand.

Display Your Promotional Products Creatively

Show your promotional products attractively. Harness the imagination in booth design or dynamic displays to focus on your product. It can be a good way to attract potential buyers to your booth.

Train Your Team

Ensure that the staff members working at your booth when exhibiting at the fair know what the promotional products are and how to use them appropriately. They should be able to tell the people how the items relate to your brand and use them as a conversation starter.

Customise on the Spot

If possible, also offer on-the-spot personalisation of promotional items. This could be as simple as employees writing out visitors’ names on items, or as complex as having a machine print designs specific to that customer. It is then personalised and therefore of more value to the recipient.

How to Measure the Effectiveness of Your Promotional Product Strategy

You should measure the return of your investment in promotional products. Track these through:

1. Measuring Booth Traffic

Use foot traffic counters or have staff keep a tally of visitors. You compare this number with the previous trade shows or to times when you didn’t use promotional products.

2. Lead Generation Measurement

Count how many leads you generate from the trade show. Compare this to your goals and to previous events.

3. Conduct Surveys

Ask attendees what attracted them to your booth. This can help you better understand the role that promotional products may have played in drawing them into the booth.

4. Follow up after the show.

Ask them if they recall your promotion products during subsequent follow-ups with the leads after the show. That would be a great idea of how memorable those items really were.

5. Social Media Mentions Analysis

If you engaged social media usage in your strategy, you would track how frequently the mentions and the hashtags relating to your brand or promotional products occur.

6. Pitfalls of Promotional Products

While promotional products can be very effective, there are some pitfalls to watch out for:

7. Selecting Unrelated Items

Avoid marketing products that have nothing to do with your brand or industry. They are mostly gotten rid of.

8. Quality Overlooked

Poor quality, poorly made items can only end up hurting your brand reputation. Always go for quality, not quantity.

9. Poor Branding

Ensure that your branding is clear and attractive on all marketing items. A logo that barely shows or poorly printed will do nothing for your brand.

10. Giving Out Too Many Items

If you simply hand out products to everyone who walks by without engaging with them, you have missed the moment and the chance for meaningful interactions.

Future Trade Shows: Promotional Products Trends

As you make plans for future trade show participation, watch for these emerging trends in promotional products:

Eco-Friendly Products

Eco-friendly, biodegradable, and recyclable promotional merchandise can make your brand seem more environmentally conscious.

Tech-Focused Items

For many people, technology has become the centre of their existence, so technological accessories, phones, tablets, laptop covers, key lights, and other gadgetry always remain popular promotional items.

Health and Wellness Items

Personal health and wellness-related items like hand sanitiser, fitness trackers, or gadgets promoting relaxation are trendy now.

Experiential Giveaways

Other companies have shifted from tangible goods to experiences as their promotional items, be it a demonstration of virtual reality or an interactive game.

More about these trends in this article:
2024’s Hottest Promotional Product Trends: Eco-Friendly, Tech-Driven, and More

VMA Promo Custom Gifts 1

Conclusion

Use the right promotional products to get traffic into the booth and make a long-lasting impression when attending trade shows. Choose the right items, have the right strategy in place, and avoid pitfalls at all costs. The trade show is not about giving away free stuff but building a meaningful relationship with the potential customers, something that will return those customers back with a positive notion of your brand and leave a long-lasting impression.

Proper planning and proper implementation of the promotional product plan can make your booth a ‘must-visit destination’ in any trade show, you, therefore, set above all your competitors, and you are sure of achieving all that you need to accomplish in marketing. Be you a small start-up or massive corporation, then the right promotional products can level out the balance of the playing field on which you could achieve success needed in this competitive trade show environment.

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