Talk Business Magazine September 2014 | Page 69

MARKETING Great giveaways Trade bait A Are giveaways at exhibitions worth your time, effort and, most importantly, money? Richard Edwards of Quatreus investigates. Offering cool freebies to encourage people to provide contact details can increase sign-ups, but ultimately provides low-quality leads at a high cost SECTION SPONSOR MARKETING_TB36_TradeBait.indd 69 re giveaways at exhibitions a great way to build your brand, attract footfall and generate new business? Or are they a waste of time and money that end up being ignored or simply thrown in the bin? The answer is some are, some aren’t. In other words, not all giveaways are useful. So how can we make sure that your giveaways and other freebies are useful in helping to convert business? The key is to align giveaways with your key objectives. Pinning down your key objectives should be your first step. Then it’s time to think about what type of giveaways will best help you achieve them. Here are some top tips: OBJECTIVE 1: GAINING AWARENESS If you’re hoping to gain more brand awareness from your exhibition then your giveaways should focus on visibility. Frequency of impressions is a key indicator as to how memorable your brand will be. As such, your giveaways need to be designed entirely around your brand name and logo and be the type of item that people would actually use, preferably in a working environment. Some ideas that Quatreus has seen work well include: • An environmentally-friendly tote bag – Everyone else’s giveaways go into yours; • Branded post-it notes - They are useful, visible by staff at the prospect’s office, and notes written on them will be passed talkbusinessmagazine.co.uk 69 29/08/2014 12:34