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When Should Your Trade Show Budget Include Promotional Items?

When Should Your Trade Show Budget Include Promo Products? | Exhibitus

Promotional items can be a very successful way to get your brand name into the hands of potential customers. However, if your item is ineffective, there will be no long term benefit for the money you’ve spent.

The key to a successful giveaway is making sure it fulfills one or more of three essential functions: connecting to a person’s emotions, sparking a conversation, and most importantly, increasing your trade show ROI.

Here’s how you decide how much of your budget to dedicate to promotional items.

Emotional Power

Emotions play a significant role in buying decisions. The way a person feels when they see or interact with a brand can be the most important factor in whether they purchase a product or service, or not.

Remember that your giveaways will either make a person excited or disappointed. If they get a positive feeling about it, they’ll associate your brand with that emotion, helping to move the deal toward a successful conclusion.

Conversation Piece

Sparking a conversation with a booth visitor can be a tricky process. Many attendees just want to walk by and sneak a peek without having to invest in a conversation. A good promo item can help attract a potential customer and open the door to conversation.

The giveaway can be a simple, budget-friendly option such as a pen with your logo on it. Creatively using a pen to engage with a show attendee is far better than a “cold” lead staring at you until you begin pitching. Use a product you feel comfortable spinning into a conversation.

A Better ROI

The most important goal of any marketing activity is getting a positive ROI. After all, if your advertising isn’t making the company more money, then you’re not using your budget effectively. There are a few things you can do to help increase your return on any promo product.

A good way to find out if your hand-out is effective is by inserting a trackable measure on the product, such as a custom phone number or unique URL that will track the people directly visiting from receiving your giveaway. This gives you an easy-to-trace, tangible metric that you can present at next year’s budget meeting.

Another important step in getting calls or clicks from your promo investment is to make sure you’re targeting the right people. If your target audience consists primarily of young, single adults, giving away a children’s toy isn’t the best way to spend your budget. Evaluate what your target audience is interested in and use that to decide on a promo product.

Another idea is to select a giveaway that reflects the theme of your exhibit, reminding attendees of your message and interaction after they leave the trade show floor.

Improve your trade show ROI by using items that positively connect with your audience. If you need help, Exhibitus is an experienced exhibit design company that focuses on delivering measurable results. In fact, we have an entire division dedicated to walking you through your trade show results. Contact us today to begin increasing your ROI at your next event!

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