Despite the rapid development of e-commerce and virtual reality technology, the traditional exhibition still remains one of the best ways to present your products and brand.
So, what should you do to purchase the promotional items for an exhibition to expand your brand awareness and promote your new products?
Well, we've got some achievements in this field and would like to share with you. Let's get started!
What types of exhibition promotional items should I order?
In fact, you will find from Google a lot of articles on buying promotional items for an exhibition. The list includes traditional promotional items such as office supplies, clothing, consumer electronics, drinkware, etc. Sure, these are good options, however, we could be more goal-oriented and choose the giveaway items more fit for the main products that we are selling.
For example, if you are attending the Cologne Hardware Exhibition, there is no doubt that you are going to highlight your business as a provider of quality hardware products in this world-renowned trade show. Then, a set of hardware gadgets is obviously more suitable than giveaways like notebooks or pens. Similarly, if you are going to the CES Consumer Electronics Show, it is your best choice to choose some electronics promotional items for your potential customers.
How can I control my purchasing cost?
After deciding on the best promotional items for your trade show, the next thing you need to do is to have a general idea of how to control the purchasing budget.
According to our exhibiting experience, a large part of the budget, nearly 40%, will go to the booth design and rental expenses, 20% for air tickets and accommodation, and 25% for the expenses of on-site customer visits right after the exhibition and for product transportation.
So, the remaining budget is left for purchasing exhibition promotional items. Do not exceed 15% of your budget on the giveaways.
By the way, some exhibition products are large in size, and may not be cost-effective to ship them back afterward, so these products might well be sold out at discounts in the last two days before the trade show ends. If your product happens to be in this case, and you are going to sell it before going home, then, you will have an easy budget.
How many promotional items should I prepare?
In fact, it is not difficult to estimate. According to my experiences, I find three ways to roughly estimate how many promotional items I need to prepare for the trade show.
#1. Visitor data from the exhibition organizer
Generally, organizers will require visitors and exhibitors to register for the exhibition, and put the data on their website. According to this information, you can learn how many people will visit and how many promotional items to prepare.
#2. Visitors from previous attendance
If this is not your first time attending the exhibition, you can estimate the visitor quantity according to the customer contact and business cards that you collected from the previous attendance, and then decide on the gift quantity.
#3. Customers being invited to visit your booth by phone or mail
Obviously, the customers that you invite to visit you at the trade show will have a great chance to show up as they promise. We should take this into account and prepare a gift for them.
By the above three methods, you will be able to have a rough number of visiting customers. However, I suggest you purchase 10% more promotional items for the big rebound after the two-year exhibition shutdown.
If you order too many promotional items this time, don’t worry. You can use them in other ways or in the next exhibition.
Where should these giveaways be placed at the booth?
Actually, this is not a problem at all. However, I am bringing it up just because I saw some exhibitors get it so wrong and put the promotional items in the conspicuous place of their booth, which should actually be reserved for their main products or best-selling ones, or their brand.
So, my advice is that you can put these giveaways wherever you like, as long as you don't put them next to the trash can.
A tip about how to hand out gifts at your booth
I've seen many exhibitors do it in the traditional way. When they exchange a few words with visitors coming to the booth and conclude that this is a potential customer, they will hand out some small gifts before the customers leave in order to make a good impression.
In fact, we can do it in an interesting way, so that customers will be much more impressed with us. I once set up a darts game for visitors to play at the site, and we give them different gifts according to the scores they got from the game. So enjoyable, right?
Compared with the traditional way, this unique way can make potential customers a bit happier. After all, it's really tiring for exhibitors and visitors to work all day at the exhibition. Why not have fun and relax during the break? Happy working and happy exhibiting at the same time.
As the Epidemic dies off, the once-declining exhibition industry is now making a magnificent comeback. I hope this article will be helpful for you to choose the right promotional items for your business. I also welcome any talk on the promotional product industry. Please feel free to contact me at sales@plentmax.com.
