A friend called me yesterday to bemoan that her client wants to print 1500 stress balls for an upcoming conference 🚫👎🙈

She knew it was a bad idea but didn’t know what to suggest instead. Because a lot of people face this problem, let’s talk about what I recommend!

If you have a trade show or conference and want to hand out something to everyone there, but can’t afford to buy something nice for hundreds or thousands of people, what do you do?

The first step is to ask whether you’re looking for 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘨𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 or 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.

If you’re looking for 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘨𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 and want to hand something to everyone, keep it simple: mints, pens, sticky notes, and other useful small items that people *might* stick in their bag for future use. You’re not going to build a relationship or get leads this way, but there will be eyeballs on your brand name. 

I’m not a fan of this route because it’s usually expensive and environmentally wasteful, but if a company insists on printing hundreds or thousands of something, this is the way to go. (𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘵 𝘢 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘣𝘢𝘭𝘭 😖)

If you’re looking for 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, here are your steps:

1) Create a print-on-demand shop with all your cute, fun, trendy branded items. Make it cool, creative, and chic. (Need help? Hire us at Go To Market – Custom Print-On-Demand Branded Merchandise!)

2) Print a postcard with a QR code to your shop and offer a gift code for a FREE hat / t-shirt / tote (you pick). Have people in your booth wearing your merch.

3) At checkout, ask customers to opt-in to your mailing list.

Here’s why this works:

1) A small percentage of people will take you up on this, but the people who do are 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐒. These are the people who want to engage with your business.

2) It’s a 𝐇𝐔𝐆𝐄 𝐖𝐈𝐍 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐘𝐎𝐔 when people are wearing your brand out in the world. It’s like handing out those 1500 mints except that there’s social proof involved.

3) It’s environmentally sustainable, which is often aligned with your customers’ values.

If you can’t get a print-on-demand store up and running, offer something else that’s high value — a free course, consultation, interview, etc — that gets people to your website.

Pens and stress balls don’t make sales. But people who opt-in for your merch are solid leads!

If you HAD to get a piece of low-cost merch, what would you pick? I’m going for the mints.