Trade shows gather large target audiences in one place. For executives in marketing positions, successfully marketing their company or brand at a trade show can lead to many new customers. These marketers regularly use attractive giveaways as effective marketing tools to get returns from their participation in trade shows.

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	Cheap or uninteresting giveaways land in the trash in no time, taking your company’s reputation along with them.

Everyone likes receiving gifts, even small ones. Companies participating in trade shows cash in on this reality to attract visitors to their booths. Providing trade show giveaways is an effective way to build goodwill, get your company’s message across, create awareness of your company or brand, and even create long-term brand recall if the giveaway is a coupon or certificate that can be redeemed at a later time.

Most companies use trade show giveaways to collect leads during events. They ask visitors to fill out a form asking for their contact details before providing the giveaway. This is an excellent way to enhance post-event follow-up marketing initiatives. You may offer your giveaway as a reward to visitors participating in a contest at your booth, as an incentive for giving you their contact information, or to say ''thank you'' for visiting your booth.

The giveaway you choose will significantly affect the success of your marketing plan at the trade show. Cheap or uninteresting giveaways land in the trash in no time, taking your company’s reputation along with them. Give careful thought to your choice when deciding on a giveaway. Here are some important considerations:

• Does the item match your company’s image?


• Does it fit into your budget?


• Is the giveaway unique, and will it hold your visitors’ interest?


• Is it something you would like to own or get as a gift?


• Is it the right size? Will it accommodate your contact information or message?

One important aspect that no marketer can afford to forget when selecting a giveaway is the quality of the item. If your budget is tight, pick a small but high-quality product instead of a larger, low-quality product. The quality of your giveaway speaks volumes about your company’s image and value.

To get a good return on money invested in giveaways, it is important to control who is going away with your gift from the booth. Not every visitor is your prospective customer, and some of them are just there to collect the ''free stuff.'' Use your instincts to decide who should be carrying away your giveaway. Do not keep giveaways stacked in front of your booth for visitors to stop by and pick up. This lessens the value of your giveaway and also fails to create recall value.

For experienced marketing managers a trade show does not end at the close of the event. Following up with the leads you collected during the trade show increases your chances of converting prospects into customers. It is important that you continuously market to your leads through phone calls, by sending postcards, mailers, or catalogues, or by setting appointments to take your relationships to the next level. Failure to follow up wastes the whole exercise of participating in the trade show.

Conclusion

Giveaways are important to attract potential customers to your booth at a trade show. If you plan to continue to exploit this marketing tool in the future, measure the success of your giveaway after every event. Considering the answers to questions like ''Did it effectively draw potential customers to our booth?'' and ''Did it create the right image of the company?'' will help you do better every time you participate in a trade show.

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