Promotional items for B to B exhibition

[Chez2 10]

Mods - sorry to put B to B but title was too long.

 

Has anyone any experience of doing business to business exhibitions? If so, how do you work out how many promotional items to take for the expected footfall? Any rough rule of thumb of what percentage of visitors usually come by most stands for a look and a freebie?

 

We are exhibiting to our main target market, the manufacturing sector.

[bensonhedges 10]

Why don't you have a chat with our experts Jo, Jenny and Andy. They are sure to be able to help.

 

http://www.formkraft.co.uk/promotional-merchandise/

[Chez2 10]

It looks like you are just selling promotional items. I don't see how they could answer my question in an unbiased way.

[steveroberts 10]

It looks like you are just selling promotional items. I don't see how they could answer my question in an unbiased way.

 

You'd be right..I used to be their Sales Director

[Chez2 10]

Hi Steve. Have you done any exhibitions yourself? We have booked a stand at the Manufactured Yorkshire exhibition on 11th May. I have only exhibited for employers and they didn't have much to give out. I'm trying to work out what percentage of the visitors may visit our stand and take a notepad with our details on.

[Dubaidani13 10]

Mods - sorry to put B to B but title was too long.

 

Has anyone any experience of doing business to business exhibitions? If so, how do you work out how many promotional items to take for the expected footfall? Any rough rule of thumb of what percentage of visitors usually come by most stands for a look and a freebie?

 

We are exhibiting to our main target market, the manufacturing sector.

 

whenever we did exhibitions we found that a good selection of brightly wrapped sweets on the stand attracted people, along with logo pens and small desk pads again with logo and contact details, all are fairly cheap to buy in quantity and if you dont use them all this time they can be used next time.

we used to do 3 day B to B motorcycle exhibitions and got through about 2000 pens 1000 pads and boxes of sweets.

[Chez2 10]

whenever we did exhibitions we found that a good selection of brightly wrapped sweets on the stand attracted people, along with logo pens and small desk pads again with logo and contact details, all are fairly cheap to buy in quantity and if you dont use them all this time they can be used next time.

we used to do 3 day B to B motorcycle exhibitions and got through about 2000 pens 1000 pads and boxes of sweets.

 

How many visitors came to the event? That would enable me to guestimate the percentage that came to see you.

 

We aren't bothered about pens. We are going for note pads that will hopefully be sat on their desk (with our details on).

 

The sweets is a novel idea.

[Dubaidani13 10]

How many visitors came to the event? That would enable me to guestimate the percentage that came to see you.

 

We aren't bothered about pens. We are going for note pads that will hopefully be sat on their desk (with our details on).

 

The sweets is a novel idea.

 

from memory the show attracted approx 10000 through the doors over 3 days about 50-60 stands and all trade visitors no public.

some just came for freebies but its all about brand awareness.

pens we found were good and note pads together, key rings we also did one year. everyone likes sweets the most popular were the humbug with soft centre type, buy in bulk from makro.

we always had fresh coffee on the stand as well for serious enquirers, good stuff not instant, filter machines are fairly cheap.

Edited December 18, 2015 by Dubaidani13

[Mr Bit 10]

Someone I know just did sheffex, he hired a magician to be on his stand, he said it worked extremely well.

[Chez2 10]

Someone I know just did sheffex, he hired a magician to be on his stand, he said it worked extremely well.

 

Its not the sort of image we want to project, it doesn't fit with our business, I'm not sure the organisers would be too keen either. Its an event for the manufacturing supply chain, a mixture of SMEs and large corporates.

[Phanerothyme 12]

Get the figures from last year's show.

 

Don't give away crappy pens in their thousands, no-one ever picked up a pen, looked at the shonky transfer lettering on it, and thought "I must give them a ring and sign a six figure contract".

 

Unless you can afford to give away personally engraved Mont Blancs or something.

 

Think more about giving people what they need at an exhibition - a cup of coffee, a sit down, a chance to recharge their phone etc.

[Dubaidani13 10]

Get the figures from last year's show.

 

Don't give away crappy pens in their thousands, no-one ever picked up a pen, looked at the shonky transfer lettering on it, and thought "I must give them a ring and sign a six figure contract".

 

Unless you can afford to give away personally engraved Mont Blancs or something.

 

Think more about giving people what they need at an exhibition - a cup of coffee, a sit down, a chance to recharge their phone etc.

 

i agree with getting figures from last show, but disagree about pens! yes dont give cheap nasty ones but give away the nicer heavier ones that feel like quality, people do use them and if they are good enough people fight over them in the office.

we used a company in London and the pens were nicely heavy with embossed lettering.

who knows if the customer is good enough a Mont Blanc pen with first order could be a good incentive??

why would you encourage someone to sit down and re-charge their phone if they are not likely to be a sale:loopy: i guess you dont do many exhibitions?