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Weekly Email Series

For over 35 years, I have exhibited at hundreds of consumer trade shows and other events. Moreover, in the past decade, I have launched and expanded my own events whilst continuing to exhibit in my events along with others. This email series is my means of giving back what I have acquired through observation, firsthand experience, trial and error, and interviews with industry sources and hundreds of exhibitors.  —Frank

Avoiding Giveaway Pitfalls


How can having a giveaway drawing help my booth’s performance?
As we covered already in previous posts, the number one reason to exhibit in a trade show is to ENGAGE with the public. A giveaway is one way to attract folks to your booth and slow them down long enough to listen to your “elevator pitch” while they fill out their entry.

All too often inexperienced exhibitors fall into several traps associated with administering a giveaway drawing. While engagement is your number one goal, you don’t want your drawing methodology to create a mess for you to deal with later. You also don’t want this activity to get in the way of highly qualified prospects connecting with you as they normally would if the drawing were not being held.

What are the best strategies for holding a prize drawing?
There are several specifics that can make a HUGE difference in the results you get from holding a giveaway drawing at a trade show. The following points will help focus your thinking on options and their impacts on outcomes.

What are you giving away?
A prize that appeals to anybody, like an iPad or a flat screen TV, will likely generate the most entries. But, this may not be what you want. Most of the time, an exhibitor is more specialized. Selecting a prize that relates to your business is the best strategy for generating leads that are more qualified. For a home product or service company, the prize would be something that makes more sense for a homeowner to want than a non-homeowner. More specifically, something that appeals to a particular age range or possibly the sex of the entrant. Example, if you want to generate a list of entries consisting of housewives, then your prize needs to be suitable for females, over 30 perhaps, that relates to the home.  If your target is male hunters, then just about anything with camouflage on it could get you there. You get the point. Your prize selection can and will drive the cross section of the public that are most likely to enter.

The giveaway prize can be a product or a service. It can be something your company makes or does or it can be just highly related. Let’s take a guttering contractor as our working example.  They could give away splash blocks or a rain barrel. Both relate to guttering and rain management and would require homeownership to have any real value to the entrant.  Or they could tighten the filter even more and give away a prize that only holds value as an add-on to a sale like free gutter screens on any new guttering they install.

Prize value?
If you’re only giving away one prize at the end of the show, then the prize needs to be worth coming back to the show to retrieve. If the prize value is small, you might consider pulling names hourly or daily to create more overall value and better odds of winning. Some companies are known to give away major value prizes after several shows or even a whole year.

What’s on the entry slip?
The entry slip can be simple asking for only name, cell phone and email to enable you to contact them. But, it’s not uncommon to include a bit of a survey on the slip asking what their interests might be. These additional questions should be labeled as optional. But if answered, they could turn the entry slip into a lead. You can use a more hi-tech entry system such as an iPad. But, some older folks may shy away from technology. The plus is that all the data is already digitized. The negative is that you may lose some entries.

Should you offer consolation prizes?
If you are filtering well enough to be gathering entries from well-qualified individuals, then consider offering a consolation prize to all “losers”. This gives more reason to enter.

What's the best booth setup?
You want your drawing entry box and the prize to be noticeable from a distance so that attendees will seek it out. Make sure it has legible signage explaining the offering even when folks are gathered around the entry point. Make sure you have pens and enough entry slips to last the weekend.

How do you maximize the value of the give away?
As folks are filling out their entries, be discussing your product or service with at least one of them where the others can overhear. That way you are basically holding a mini-seminar with prospects as they are entering. Don’t talk about the weather, sports, etc. Talk about how your business helps people. Explain that you are at the show to connect both directly as well as through referrals to folks you can help. Those that perk up and show interest can be passed to the other staff person to set an appointment, get referrals, or close a sale while you continue to generate qualified interest. This system also allows the second or even third staff member to work directly with other prospects that show interest without coming entering the drawing. Alternately, folks that decide they don’t want to have the salesman come measure on Tuesday can be directed to enter the drawing where you may gather their contact info for follow up contact with a consolation prize.


 
Questions or Comments about Avoiding Giveaway Pitfalls