No Swag ROI? It Might Be Your Delivery

If you give away swag or promotional marketing materials at events, trade shows, at your place of business or other spots in the community and you’re not seeing the return on investment you were hoping for, it might not be the swag. It might be in your delivery.

What part of your delivery are we referring to?

This isn’t a personal jab. If you’ve given your promotional items a lot of thought, and if you’ve selected items you were sure your audience would love, then your problem might not be the item but in the presentation surrounding the item. But we’ll get to that in a moment.

First, after mentioning that you need a promotional product that is perfect for your audience, let’s talk about what that looks like.

 

How to Find the Ideal Swag to Fit Your Customer

In order to find the ideal swag, ask yourself these questions and be ready to supply this information to your promotional products vendor. (Choose us, choose us!)

1. What are you using this swag for? Name recognition? Thank you item for current customers? Employee recognition? New product launch? Your goals should influence the item you choose.
2. Who are you giving it to? What are they like from a demographic perspective? What do they have? What do they need? What’s their biggest challenge?
3. What’s your budget? It shouldn’t be the only factor in deciding what to buy but we know it has to come into play. So be clear about what you want to spend.
4. How will you measure the success of your item? Just as you want to ensure you stay on budget, you want to decide what you will consider a successful swag offering. Do you expect sales from it? Maybe you want people to talk about you on social media? Be clear about what your desired outcome is.
5. How are they getting to your event? This is important because if you have recipients who fly to the event what they’re able to bring back may be limited. That means your swag may be given to the hotel staff or worse, end up in TSA’s trash can. Keep these things in mind when selecting an item.

Now that you’ve either selected the ideal swag for your demographic or you’ve reaffirmed that you chose wisely for your audience, it’s time to talk about how you’re getting it to them.

But first, go to your personal Facebook page. Yes, seriously. We’ll wait.

This is a very important point.

Go there and scroll down. What are you seeing?

 

Life Is an Event and a Big One

Okay, so if your stream is like most, you’ll see all sorts of regular events in people’s lives memorialized in big ways. Take for instance a first day of school picture. It doesn’t even have to be a big day like the first day of kindergarten. People are dressing their kids up with Pinterest-inspired chalk boards filled with their child’s vital information as well as their hopes and dreams at the time the picture was snapped.

When we got ready to go to school we had a lunch, a bookbag, and new shoes if we were lucky. No one was interviewing us and documenting this moment as if we had just landed on the moon.

Scroll through your feed some more. What about the big gender reveal parties when someone is having a baby? Or what about the prom-posals where the person inviting another to a prom acts like it’s an engagement?

No, we’re not making fun of you. We’re simply pointing out that in today’s world a lot of fanfare is given to regular events.

So?

Maybe you’re wondering what that means for your swag. A lot more than you think.

Because we’re becoming conditioned to expect an experience, simply handing something to someone falls short. After all, anything worth having is made into a production these days. To not do so, means the item is less important in the eyes of the receiver.

So in order to remain competitive in the giveaway game, you need to make your item more important by increasing the experience surrounding it.

Not a believer yet? Think you can just shove a pen at someone and see great ROI on it?

Consider t-shirt guns. Those t-shirts are rarely exciting and you don’t even know if it will fit you. But when someone aims in your direction, you go for it don’t you? You make every attempt to be the one jumping up and down with the t-shirt in hand. It’s fun. It’s competitive. There are an experience and a story behind how you got that shirt you didn’t even want until they offered to fire it at you.

You need to do the same with your promotional product.

We’re not suggesting that you go out and buy a t-shirt cannon. But you do want to make a big production out of your giveaway product.

 

Ideas for Swag Experiences

Ideally, you want to create a memorable and fun event surrounding the dissemination of your swag. Here are a few ways to do that.

• Earning it. Don’t give out swag to everyone who walks by. You’re devaluing it. Instead, make them earn it. Ask them a question. Ask them to perform a specific task or otherwise give them something to do. Then celebrate them earning your swag with a photo, announcement, big claps, or cheers. It can be over-the-top funny too.
• Luck. Spin the wheel or guessing games are another way to make swag feel more special. People get excited about games of chance and seeing what they’ll win.
• Hunting for it. Scavenger hunts using clues to find a grand prize or smaller swag along the way are a great idea to keep your audience engaged and thinking about you.
• Immersive experience. If you have a larger budget, you can create an entirely immersive experience around your giveaway. This is a highly effective way to tie in your messaging. For instance, if your giveaway is a sample of your farm-fresh product, you could create a farm-like experience in your booth full of smells and tastes and walk people through how your product is made. Stress the freshness and health of your ingredients. This can culminates in a delicious sample. If you don’t have the room or the event makes this impossible, you could allow participants to undergo the same experience virtually by using a virtual reality headset.
• Machines and novelty. Some companies are turning to technology and creative experiences like swag vending machines. There are machines that allow swag recipients to “pay” for their item in several ways such as scanning a badge, entering an email, or answering a question. The experience is fun and novel and a lot more original than simply grabbing an item off of a table.
• “Pay” what it’s worth. So this concept is often used by tech companies where they invite people to pay what they think something is worth to them. Most people won’t say “nothing.” The weight loss app Noom uses this pricing model for its “free” trial. While you don’t want to make people literally pay for your swag, asking them to “pay” creatively can create a fun moment in your booth. For instance, you might use a fishbowl filled with inventive payment ideas. Ask them to pick out a “payment method”  such as “sing your favorite commercial jingle” or “make a funny face.” These payments are not only fun, but they’re also entertaining for the crowd as everyone wonders what will come up next. It goes without saying that you should never force someone to do something they don’t want to do. So you may want to allow them to select another “payment” method if they are opposed to the one they drew.
• Photo ops and shares. Another way for your recipients to get excited about receiving swag is by creating a photo opp in your booth or area. People naturally gravitate toward photo opportunities. Enhance these moments by creating your own branded frames for the pictures, using props, or offering to send images to them using your equipment versus their own. If you select the latter, make sure that when you send their pictures you invite them to follow you on social media or join your newsletter or VIP list so you can stay in further contact. Be aware that just because they give you their email address or phone number for the images does not mean they are giving you permission to market to them. In order to avoid any potential problems with the SPAM policies, make the marketing invitation a separate request in the same thank you email. Don’t assume you have their permission.

Remember when our parents used to say that if you earn something it will mean more to you? The same is true of swag. If there is an experience tied into receiving the swag, they’ll remember it more and it will hold greater value in their eyes. If they receive your swag in a fun way, they are also likely to talk about it on social media. And that’s always a good thing for your business.