Posted on June 20, 2010 by

Promotional giveaways are a staple line item in trade show budgets, but in order to differentiate yourself you must dare to be different!  First of all, a giveaway or “freebie” is not free!  This is the first lesson to unlearn – the only thing which is free is “free”, but promotional giveaways cost money and they can cause harm to your sales and marketing efforts unless used properly.

Margins are tight and everyone is looking at improving or maintaining ROI with the hard economic climate, but the cost of acquiring a trade show lead is still far less than the cost associated with generating a field lead.  The issue is how to maximize the impact of existing resources to maintain and improve sales as part of an overall marketing strategy.

Attendees should not be allowed to walk onto your trade show display and help themselves to a promotional item: giveaways are there to reward and reinforce positive sales and marketing behaviors you expect to see from potential customers.  Coffee and candy can be free, but if they expect to walk away with a giveaway, they will first have to engage with your booth staff and complete some part of the qualification process.

By restricting who gets a promotional giveaway you reduce the number of freebies you need to achieve your objectives.  By reducing the number of giveaways, you also free up budget which can be used to upgrade the quality of the promotional gift you will be using and this is important – the greater the perceived value of your gift, the greater the motivation of the attendee to engage with you in discussing business so you can qualify the prospect.

Do not be afraid to hold a promotional gift in your hands but NOT give it to the attendee until they have completed the qualification process you want them to go through.  No interaction means they do not get a giveaway and even if this puts the attendee’s nose out of joint, you are saving time and money plus that attendee will probably pass the word around that your booth is not a pushover; attendees have to work for their “free” gift!

This entry was posted in Trade Show Advice, Trade Show Displays, Trade Show Events, Trade Show Promotional Giveaways, Trade Show Tips, Trade Shows and tagged freebies, trade show booths, Trade Show Displays, trade show promotional giveaways, Trade Shows. Bookmark the permalink.

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