If you are planning on treating your visitors to free gifts, then there are a few hard rules to follow – or at least there are if you want to make it work for you! Giving items away can certainly be very lucrative for a business; it is a great way of advertising and of gaining new clientele…. but only if you go about it all in the right way.
Here are a few important factors to bear in mind –
Usefulness
Handing out freebies is all well and good, but people don’t want to go home with items that they will never, ever use! So if you do want to give something away to potential clients, make sure that it is actually useful; pens, mugs, coasters, rulers or T-shirts are all good examples. And if these items feature your company logo, then it is also a cunning way of getting your name around…
Relevance
Whatever gifts you give away should be relevant to the type of company that you have. For example, a pet food supplier would do well to dish out (no pun intended) branded dog bowls, whereas mouse mats would be the ideal choice for an IT company. Relevant gifts will have a far greater impact than non-relevant ones will; and this is because the practicality/company connection is evident to the recipient right from the off.
Originality
Rather than doling out the same old items which exhibition visitors can get from a hundred other stands, try to come up with something a little more interesting. This isn’t half as difficult as it sounds and you’ll be surprised by what ideas you can come up with if you take a little time to think it through. Giving away unique and original gifts will drastically increase your chances of being remembered – which, in turn, will drastically improve your chances of some extra trade!
Exclusivity
On a practical level, giving items away will cost money and the whole business of freebies can often become far more costly than you anticipated. This is why it is prudent to restrict your gifting to visitors who look as though they are interested in your stand to begin with. Giving things away willy-nilly may sound like a good way of drawing in the crowds, but in reality, will not normally work quite like this.
