Promotional Products Will Drive Traffic to Your Booth

OK, so you're looking for hoards of people to gather to your booth for your next trade show and looking to brand your product /service. Well, here's how to do it. Studies show 71.6% of trade shows attendees can recall the name of the company they received a promotional product from.

Unfortunately you are not going to be able to speak to every attendee walking the show floor. Many people are going to slip through the cracks during peak exhibit times.

There's no denying it. Promotional products are great trade show traffic builders and will draw a crowd to your booth. But what items should you be looking for? You want inexpensive items that have high retention rates, are re-useable and that work.

Here's another tip. Make your trade show giveaways available and make sure your contact info is on the product and any message you are focusing on at the show. You would be surprised at the amount of promotional items given out WITHOUT contact information… what a waste!

The fact is, promotional products are great for getting a targeted message to a designated recipient on a repetitive basis. If nothing else, the exposure will help brand these attendees for future shows. And that's not all. Studies show people receiving promotional items think favorably of the companies that gave them to them.

Keep in mind; this is great if EVERYONE at your next show is a potential buyer or prospect. But what if they are not?

Who is a Qualified Recipient?

Sure, you may want hoards of people to your booth to get some exposure, but remember this…When talking about trade show promotional products one thing is clear. You need to know WHO your targeted prospects are… your QUALIFIED recipients.

So WHO should you be looking for out of the masses? The obvious answer is that you want the decision maker, right! Well consider this… How about other people who may be exposed to the decision maker? What about people who can influence the decision maker?

Picture this. If my assistant was wearing your logo'ed baseball hat everyday, chances are I would take notice. The reason you should include those around the decision maker is to take advantage of the opportunity to influence them with your brand exposure on that promotional item. In the case of the logo'ed hat - Don't you think that continued exposure would be worth the $5 investment!

Trick or Treat

It would be a simple world for you as an exhibitor if every person walking the show floor was a buyer of your product or service. The unfortunate reality is that this is not the case.

Here's a common scene at trade shows. Companies simply put out their promotional items for everyone to stop by and pick up. The result? They waste a ton of money that will never bring them a return.

There's a saying… "The guy with a big bag of tchotchke ain't buyin." You know the type, right? The attendee who goes from booth to booth to gather as much "free stuff" as possible. Yup, that guy… he's not buyin'.

So do yourself a favor, do not wasting valuable time talking to unqualified leads who are talking to you solely to add to their overflowing bag of "free stuff."

Promotional Products Can Drive OUT Disqualified Traffic

Ok, you might be thinking, "What's this guy talking about? He just got finished telling me how great promotional items were for drawing traffic TO my booth."

Truth is, if you are prospecting for qualified leads, you can also use promotional items to quickly get unqualified traffic OUT OF YOUR BOOTH. It all comes down to this.

If everyone at the show is not a potential buyer it is just as important to disqualify people as it is to qualify them. If an attendee is not qualified he or she is not a prospect. What's more, they will cost you money by taking time away from prospecting good leads. Your show time is finite and must be managed to maximize results.