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Trade show "swag" or free goodies are fun to collect but swag also has a serious purpose: more business. It's the creative swag that succeeds in landing more potential customers.

The purpose of trade show "swag" is two-fold. Firstly, great swag makes attendees seek out your booth and secondly, great swag makes your company memorable AFTER the show ends.

We've all seen the usual trade show swag: the imprinted items, the pens, the magnets, the calendars, the rulers, the ball caps, the T-shirts, and the coffee cups. In fact, you probably have any number of these items cluttering up a drawer in your desk or stuffed into a bag in your closet. And that's the problem with this type of swag; it is very forgettable.

Some companies try the imprinted carry-all bag as the perfect answer but these bags, too, once the trade show is over, are shoved into a corner and forgotten.

Great swag must ensure a "call-to-action." Swag should encourage a customer or a potential customer to take another step, like dialing a phone number after the show to win further prizes or discounts.

Further, great swag should be earned. Trade show attendees should give something in exchange for swag like their business card with a good time to call them jotted on the back. Since the objective of a trade show exhibitor is to garner more customers, this will ensure leads.

Great swag should appeal to the current trends in fashions or collectible knick-knacks. During the Beanie Baby craze, a Beanie bear wearing an imprinted sash with your company name telling the customer to drop by your business after the show to get their "beary" good discount, would be great swag. The bear is collectible and the discount offers value.

Again, don't just hand out trade show swag; make your customers earn it. If attendees want a special item like the Beanie bear, they would be asked to spend at least 5 minutes filling out a new customer sheet. This step eliminates the unqualified leads because the trade show scavengers who are just after the freebies lose interest when they find out they must perform a task first.

When planning your company's next trade show, spend a little more on interesting quality items that encourage potential customers to qualify themselves by taking more action.

As to the ineffective imprinted swag items, leave them in a big bowl for the trade show scavengers. Let these people grab and walk away while you spend your time with qualified leads.

Learn more about this author, Sheree Zielke.
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