There are a number of ways to go when brainstorming promotional items for trade shows, including a variety of different price points for your promotional budget. The possible ideas also vary in intent. In some cases, you’re looking to give people something useful that will remind them of your business or product. In others, you’re hoping to get them excited right away and aren’t so concerned about the long-term value of your promotional items.
Some of the best ideas are the ones that have common sense uses, especially right from the moment they are given. For example, if someone is going to be walking around a trade show collecting information from your competitors along with other people’s promotional items, there’s a genius way to win the battle of promotional items. Give away a branded tote bag, which they can use to collect and hold all of the other promotional items they receive.
Instead of walking around holding onto your competitors pen, thinking of them each time they look at it, they can walk around clutching a bag with your branding on it, throwing your competitors less useful promotional items inside. Meanwhile, your advertising is dominating the day.
A blog full of marketing ideas has done the legwork, and such bags can be had for less than $1 each. That’s a pretty cheap way to give yourself a great chance of getting your messaging seen and remembered by the end of a trade show.
You can also think in terms of an item that’s going to be useful on a more long-term basis. For example, some potential customers could use a coffee mug in the obvious way – to get their caffeine fix. Others might use it as a desktop pencil holder, but either way, your branding is out there.