On flipside, if you are looking at motivating employees, thanking customers, buying gifts or building premiums chances are you will want to budget more money per item. However, there is likely to be fewer items ordered. I don't think a pen would be ample to thank someone for years of service! Items for these categories would fall under desk supplies, plaques, acrylic awards, clocks, engraved items and more.

If you are using these items or sales purposes, perhaps if you have traveling sales people, you will want something that will be left behind to keep your name top of mind. Things like a note cube or coffee mug are things that can sit on a decision-makers desk for a long time.

If you are looking to promote your business at an event, such as a concert or festival, passing out t-shirts could be a great idea. You can easily tie t-shirts up in knots and throw them to crowds. Lower ticket items for events could be things like pens, pencils, keychains, magnets, calendars, tape measures and more.

Finally, cost is something to keep in mind too. You don't want to spend same amount on a prospect as you would on a loyal customer. Use this as a suggestion: Under $5- Prospect $5-$25- Reward Over $25- Loyalty

The important thing here is that promotional items should not be ordered just because you like it. The item should clearly be in plan to help meet your business objectives.

Don't compromise on literature: Many organizations begin cost cutting measures at trade show by giving a low quality hand outs. People who frequent trade shows are recognize such companies from a distance. It is advised that you develop cost effective communication material especially for trade shows so that you can save costs without looking cheap. The disadvantage of cheap handouts is that though you can get satisfaction of giving it out, no one is really going to read it much less file it for later reference.

Fish Bowl still works: Sometimes we may not be able to attend to each and every person who passes trade show booth. The old fashioned 'drop your visiting card in fish bowl for a prize', is still a good communication strategy. The value of contacts via fish bowl, however, can only be determined by a strong follow up right after exhibition.

The above mentioned strategies are not unique to any particular kind of trade show and can be implemented easily with any event, for any industry. There are of course a number of other strategies which work wonders in a trade show and we will surely cover it in our next article.