How to Make Event Giveaways Start Conversations, Referrals, and Revenue
Playing cards are an obvious giveaway for magic events, but with a little thought you can leverage the giveaway for outstanding results.
Everyone wonders “what should we give away at our event?” when the real question they should be answering is “What do we want our giveaway to accomplish?”
Because it’s not WHAT you’re giving away that matters - it’s HOW you give it away.
It’s entirely possible that someone will look at a pen with your phone number on it three weeks from now and think “I should call them” and contact your company.
It’s just incredibly rare.
That’s really not what giveaways and swag items are for.
The best event giveaways have a job to do. They can help you:
• Give people a story worth retelling
• Start sales and referral conversations after the event
• Stop traffic and create a crowd
• Bring the right clients and prospects to your booth
• Make your brand visibly dominant at the event
Here are five real ways companies have used giveaways to make an event produce more than a bag full of stuff.
Crafting the Story They Tell About Your Event
If you want referrals and repeat attendance, people need to be talking about your event long after it’s over. Those stories make them look forward to coming back year after year, and they also make sure other people hear about your event. It’s a great thing if you can ask your clients to give you referrals, but it’s even better if they naturally tell people about your event and their relationship with your company.
When I perform as a magician and mentalist at corporate events, guests want a souvenir of the experience. I’m amazed by how many people come up to me years after a show and take a playing card from their wallet and say “this is the card that I signed and you made appear in an envelope in your wallet!” or “this is the $100 bill that you made appear in an orange!”
To maximize my clients’ return on this idea, I had my clients print a deck of cards with their logos on the back. Every guest received a deck of cards in a nice plastic box at their table setting during dinner. I went table to table performing magic for everyone and using the decks of cards on the table rather than bringing my own. Not only did people take the decks of cards home after the event, people told me they were keeping their souvenir deck of cards on their desk in their office, on the shelf with their Executive of the Year trophies, and even in the china cabinet in their homes.
Rather than being a giveaway, these items became “Impossible Artifacts” of the event. Whenever someone came in their office and asked about the cards, they would take down the deck (displaying the company’s logo), talk about the event, and tell the story of the trick I did with the deck.
Not only were they reinforcing the memory of the great time they had at my clients’ event, they were telling their friends that they were customers. Their friends naturally asked questions like “What makes you a Company X customer? Why do you work with them?”
Your client is already in a referral conversation without any of the awkward “let me recommend my friend to you” stuff that usually goes with it.
Starting the Next Conversation for Revenue and Referrals
As a rule, any event should start another conversation that will lead to a referral or a discovery call. You can leverage your giveaway items to generate more conversations long after the event has ended.
I taught some of my clients with highly qualified trade show audiences to give away magic tricks at the booth. The tricks featured the products or sales message we were promoting, so the prospect actually talked about my client’s products.
Not only were they reinforcing the memory of their booth experience and the product message each time they did the trick, they were also creating the opportunity for a referral conversation.
Replacing the awkward “who can you refer me to?” conversation with a referral-oriented conversation about your company that your client naturally wants to have with their colleague is a powerful business multiplier.
Stopping Trade Show Traffic
Gifts are a powerful pattern interrupt that’s hard to ignore. When someone offers you something, you naturally stop and pay attention to the gift and the person giving it. It’s simple reciprocity - but it works really well.
On the trade show floor, I would use a complimentary deck of cards to stop aisle traffic. I would simply extend the cards toward a person in the aisle and ask “Have you got your deck of cards yet?” The person would naturally walk over, then I would offer to show them a trick with the deck, which would start building a crowd.
I’ve seen other booths use free samples and small food items to stop aisle traffic at food industry shows. Just like the free samples at Costco, this attracts a large crowd, and the person giving away the free items can deliver a short, well-crafted message that explains why people should visit the booth to learn more about the product they just tasted.
Attracting Ideal Prospects to the Booth
An uncomfortable truth is that your existing clients are your best source of expansion sales and referrals, but only if you can get a conversation with them to ask about referrals and tell them about the products they don’t buy from you. Your current customers are very happy and love what you do, but they also think they know everything you do - so they don’t prioritize your booth at a trade show.
One of my trade show clients created a “VIP Gift” for a specific list of customers we wanted to make sure we connected with. Before the show, we sent an invitation to visit the booth with a note that we had a special gift for them if they showed us the invitation. When they came to the booth and asked about their gift, we had a whole process that elevated this from a giveaway to an experience.
When a client would show us their invitation, we would say, “Oh, yes, we do have a gift for you. Fred, please go get Bob’s gift for him.” Fred would go to the back of the booth to get the gift while the salespeople asked Bob about his current business situation - specifically asking about problems that our newest products solved.
Bob felt like we gave him a special gift, and our salespeople had Bob’s undivided attention and a conversation they might not otherwise have had.
And did Bob show his VIP gift to his friends and tell that story? Of course! Yet another opportunity for a referral conversation when his friends thought, “My supplier didn’t give me a special VIP gift for visiting our booth…”.
Visibility at a Trade Show or Conference
One reason my clients hire me to entertain at their events is that they want every one of their customers and prospects talking about their event the next day. It communicates a clear message to everyone at the event - Company X is the dominant brand in our industry, and everyone at this event seems to be a Company X customer. That’s social proof in action.
You can do the same thing on the trade show floor visually by having everyone at the event carry your brand name and logo with them wherever they go. Giving away T-shirts, hats, stickers, and bags - things that people actually wear and display with pride - is a great way to show that you’re the dominant brand.
A lot of companies give away bags during trade shows so people can carry the literature and swag they pick up on the show floor. There’s an old story about an exhibitor who realized his competitor was dominating the show floor by giving away bags, so he started giving away bags that were slightly larger. When someone carrying his competitor’s bag walked up to his booth, he put the bag with the competitor’s logo inside his bag - taking his competitor’s logo off the show floor and replacing it with his own. He manufactured some visible brand dominance (although nothing prevented the competitor from making bigger bags next year).
One of my clients hosts a President’s Club event at beach resorts. They want the resort to appreciate how many people they bring to the event and how much money their guests spend at the resort, so the resort employees prioritize their guests and the sales department remembers how much revenue their company brings to the resort. To make this clear, they give away towels in the company’s color - no actual logo, just their one unique color - in the gift bag. Most of their guests take the towel to the beach and the pool, so their corporate presence at the resort is obvious.
Conclusion
The pile of stuff sitting on your booth table isn’t doing anyone any favors - it’s not earning you money, it’s not attracting attention, and it’s not getting you into conversations you wouldn’t have otherwise.
You’re spending money on it - figure out how to make your swag work for you.
Before you order a giveaway, decide what behavior you want it to create. Should it stop someone in the aisle? Bring a client to your booth? Make guests feel recognized? Give them a story they will repeat? Start a conversation after the event?
If the item cannot do one of those jobs, it is probably just stuff on a table.
Want more ways to design events that create conversations, referrals, and revenue? Fill out the form below to request a complimentary copy of Exponential Events: The Step-by-Step System to Multiply Conversations, Referrals, and Revenue from Every Customer Event.
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About Mike Duseberg
Mike Duseberg is the founder of Magic Means Business and a corporate magician, mentalist, and event-engagement strategist. He helps companies use live events to create stronger face-to-face connections with employees, clients, and prospects.
