Swag that Slaps: The ROI of Good Promotional Giveaways

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Priscilla McKinney: Hello and welcome to Ponderings from the Perch, the Little Bird Marketing Company podcast. I'm Priscilla McKinney, CEO and mama bird over here with you as always. And today we're going to talk about a really fun subject about promotional giveaways.

Now I love swag that slaps, but we need to talk about what the ROI is of these promotional giveaways. And I need to tell you about what I call the stress ball epidemic. So you know exactly what I'm talking about because you been to these conferences where companies are handing out stress balls, pins, keychains, and stuff that ends up in the trash before you even leave the hotel, right?

I've always wanted to ask the hotel workers what they think about the most commonly left item in people's rooms after a conference is, but here's the reality. About 90 % of conference swag does end up in the trash and that's not just wasteful, it's also a massive missed opportunity. Companies are spending thousands of dollars on items that nobody wants, nobody keeps, and really nobody remembers.

So think about the last conference you attended. How many of those promotional items did you actually bring home? Now, how many of those are still in use today?

Probably none, or maybe there's one or two, but that's the problem we're gonna talk about today. The interesting thing is that there is an actual psychology behind why people keep certain items and brag even about others. It's not random.

There are specific reasons why some promotional strategies create genuine brand connection while others literally create garbage. So today I'm gonna walk you through how to shift from wasteful swag to strategic giveaway campaigns that actually generate measurable ROI. Are you ready?

So let's start with where companies are throwing money away because you can't fix a problem until you understand what is really broken. The bulk mindset is killing promotional budgets across every industry. Companies think that they need to have something for everyone.

So they order 3,000 cheap items instead of 300 quality items. The math seems to make sense until you realize that 3,000 items that get thrown away immediately have zero value, while 300 items that people actually want can create real business impact. And I'm talking about generic branded pens that don't write well.

Good God. Come on now. I do love how I get chased down hallways for our little bird marketing lapens, right?

So I'm not like ditching pens altogether, but you need to think about your brand name, your logo, the thing you've worked so hard for, for so many years, being on an item and your brand being tethered to the quality of that item. I'm talking about those stress balls, right? That literally scream, please throw me away later.

And they have no connection to your brand. And it's what the audience needs in their everyday life is to think about, okay, I don't know what this is saying in this paragraph, hold on. So yep, I'm talking about those generic branded pins that don't write very well.

Now, I'm not giving pins a hard time because I do get chased down the hallways at events for people asking me for more Le Pens that we do with our brand on them. I'm talking about you, Mark, right? But I'm talking about those stress balls, those keychains, those really crappy pins that people get and all it's doing is giving them an errand.

It's basically saying to them, please throw me away later. So don't go about just slapping a logo on the cheapest thing that you can find and hope that that counts as marketing. That might get marketing done, but that does not accomplish any of your goals.

And really, here's what actually costs you beyond the line item in your budget. Some of these things are actually creating a negative brand association because people then associate your brand with cheap useless stuff. You're contributing of course to environmental waste, which I don't really like, thinking about things heading directly to landfills.

And that's incredibly terrible if your company talks at all about sustainability efforts. But most importantly, you're losing the opportunity to make a genuine brand connection that could have happened if you'd been strategic about this. So let me tell you about the psychology of free.

Done right because this is where it can get interesting. People keep items in general that actually serve a purpose in their everyday lives. I'm thinking of Carlos Avia, you know, every time I'm with him somewhere around the world he's showing me our little bird marketing power bank and how he's still using it, right?

So that's a great secret. Get something that's useful. They'll keep it.

If it's not useful, they'll throw it away or give it away to someone that really has no connection to your brand. So quality over quantity creates perceived value in a way that that quantity alone really can't now that's pretty obvious I'm gonna really teach you something even more deep in this particular podcast Because we know that when someone receives something that is very high quality they think This company gets it rather than this company is cheap And items people use become advertising that gets seen every time they pull that out, okay.

Now let me introduce you to something I call the three live strategy and I hope this will change how you think about promotional giveaways. Life number one is the event experience itself. This is where most companies stop thinking, but it's actually just the beginning if you do this right.

So instead of generic handouts where you give everyone the same forgettable item, think about strategic giveaway campaigns. So here's a budget comparison that makes this crystal clear. Let's go back to that same budget of $3,000 now, especially in B2B marketing.

That is not much budget. But can you find something really cheap and maybe get 3,000 koozies and hand them out to everyone? Or can you buy two high-value prizes and use them to capture email addresses and generate actual leads?

It also creates anticipation and excitement at events through strategic giveaways that are like something that somebody is genuinely wanting to win. There's a little bit of scarcity attached to that and exclusivity and it builds more desire. People want things they even may not get, but they don't want things everybody already has.

That's just basic human psychology, but it works every time if you do it correctly. So let me give you a couple real life stories. Once upon the time, I was the fractional CMO for Knowledge Hound and now they were bought out by YouGov.

Hey, success story. But they were merging with Crunch and so we did a campaign about how these two companies were going to be better together. And we had a lot of fun talking about how some things are just better together.

Peanut butter and chocolate. See, you thought I was gonna say jelly there, but okay. Mac and cheese, cheese and crackers, whatever it is, you get the picture.

But let's take that up a notch. We did a giveaway of a Louis Vuitton purse with the Louis Vuitton travel perfume. They go better together.

Now, of course, who doesn't want a Louis Vuitton purse? And I bet you're thinking that men don't want that, but that's where you're wrong. Because when your target market is B2B professionals, they recognize this brand and they've just now associated that elevated brand with your brand.

And even if it means winning it for their wife or their daughter or a friend, Seriously, everybody wanted it. Another cool story is when Nailbiter let me do a year round campaign where they gave away a $2,000 AmEx card and we themed it up as a travel voucher. And we were talking about how they are going global and they do this important global work.

And as we went around the globe with the conference, that was a part of the message. Like we know you're traveling, we know this is your experience, we know you're going to check on your brand in a different market. And so really wanting to connect with those insights directors and marketing executives who manage those global brands, it was really offering something desirable and it helped us build the email list.

Multi-connections. I've already mentioned Karla Zavia, but let me bring up Jill Kushner-Bishop from Multilingual Connections. We did a fun Kindle giveaway and actually the story came because she was traveling in Turkey and a waiter there had never seen a Kindle and commented it and she was like, it's where I read books and it just was sparked a really cool conversation and she thought, know, Kindle is not necessarily something that everybody around the world has.

And so we did a cool Kindle giveaway and we added an Amazon gift card so someone could load up this new electronic book, but we made it even better. We tied it into the theme about how their work takes them all over the world and that's what books do, right? They take us from our own comfy reading chair and take us to expose us to different cultures and different languages.

And it was also a chance to introduce her team as all of them got to share their book recommendations that we put with the giveaway. And so that created a lot of really fun social media and so we got so much more ROI out of that over time. My gosh, hun.

Okay, let's start over. Right there. I love talking about this stuff.

I have so many examples. Gazelle Global let me put together a book club that highlighted a lot of authors right within our own insights community. And several winners won a whole stack of autographed copies of these books.

It was so multifaceted because they supported industry authors and hey, I even donated my book free to the cause, but also Rob Volpe and Pepper Miller and Melina Palmer and so many people like that. And there was a brand tie in in that their work supports the industry. And so this book club was supporting the industry.

So when talking about it at conferences or on social media, there was more of a story behind it and it made all the difference in the memorabilia. So which company do you think generated more business from that $3,000 investment I talked about? Of course, it's just not even close.

Company B, who now has 500 qualified leads that can nurture through their sales process. Company A has nothing but an invoice for 3,000 koozies. I know this sounds oversimplified, but I think this is where you really need to use critical thinking about how you're spending your marketing budget.

In this light. This brings us to life number two, which is the social media gold. Now I've already hinted at this a little bit, but this is where strategic giveaways really start to pay off in ways that traditional swag never can.

Winners naturally talk about quality prizes. They share it. We actually can post about it on social media and no one posts on LinkedIn about receiving a stress ball.

But they absolutely will post about winning an iPad or a premium gift or Bose headphones, right? That's user-generated content that can amplify your reach without you having to pay anything additional for it. Quality items get photographed and they photograph well because people want to share them across their social platforms, right?

When someone wins something valuable, they want their network to see it and it creates a little bit more FOMO for people who missed out, which means they're more likely to engage with your brand at the next event or the campaign. And you're not just getting one person's attention anymore. You're getting their entire network's attention through organic social sharing.

So here's what I call the brag factor and this is real human behavior we can predict and plan for. People don't post about receiving... Okay, I would just set all of this.

So skip that. Here's what the Bragg factor skip that. Okay.

Life number three is evergreen brand love. And this is the long-term play that most companies never think about. Items people actually use.

Okay, let me do this one again. Life number three is evergreen brand love. And this is the long-term play that most companies never think about.

Items people actually use create ongoing brand exposure every single time they use it. If someone wins a high-quality backpack from your brand and uses it for the next three years, that's three years of brand exposure. Compare that to the stress ball, right?

Quality products reflect positively on your brand. Okay, we've already said this. I've already said that.

Long-term brand recall is just something you can't buy with traditional advertising. It's not about immediate disposal anymore. It's about creating something that becomes a part of someone's life.

And I love seeing people plugging their phones into our portable Chanji. This creates long-term brand recall that you just can't buy with traditional advertising. And it's not about immediate disposal anymore.

It's about creating something that becomes a part of someone's life. Like I mentioned, I love seeing people plugging their phones into our portable charging banks while we're at shows, while we're at a happy hour, you know? And I always like to keep a few of those with me because someone's phone starts to die after a long day at a conference.

And in just a few minutes, it's amazing to their face when you've rescued a colleague with that charge. My gosh, what is this sentence? Okay, try it again.

This creates long-term brain recall that you just can't buy with traditional advertising. It's not about just getting beyond that immediate disposal anymore. It's about creating something that becomes a part of someone's life.

Now, I mentioned our charging bank and I love seeing people plugging their phones into our portable charging banks while we're at shows. And I always keep a few with me because someone's phone starts to die after a long day at the conference. And wait for it.

Just a few minutes into the happy hour, someone's scrambling and I love coming to their rescue with that charger bank right but they can keep it forever so let's talk next about the inflammation doing here. Okay, here we go. I think you get the picture.

So now let's talk about the implementation strategy because understanding the concept is one thing, but you need to know how to actually do it. The quality over quantity shift starts when you audit your current swag spending across all events and campaigns and find ways you can consolidate and dream up new ideas. Add up what you're spending on promotional items right now because I guarantee you it's more than what you think it is.

And then you need to reallocate that budget from quantity to strategic impact. Take that same total dollar amount and redistribute it over fewer high value items and strategic giveaway campaigns. Choose less items, right?

They need to be aligned with your brand, your brand values, and your audience's lifestyle. And for example, if your audience is busy executives, what would really be useful to them? If they're creatives, what would with their daily work.

So if you go with a series of nicer bigger prizes be sure to set up systems to track that lead generation from your giveaway campaigns. You'll really think yourself later on that. Email capture requirements for an entry are to me a non-negotiable because that's how you turn a giveaway into a lead generation tool.

One finer point I really need to make is that when you're doing a giveaway campaign at a conference, don't post about it on social media. What? Did I hear you right, Priscilla?

You don't want me to post about it on social? No, because that is not your target audience. You don't want everyone who didn't connect with you to be entering to win.

You want new connections coming over to you, talking to you, and then entering to win. So don't announce it in your email newsletter, right? You already have those people's emails, silly.

So this is a case where I say, you know, be careful about where you post it or where you communicate about a giveaway. Just, just follow the logic. It makes a lot of sense.

But if you don't understand the form... I'm going to start that over on one finer point. One finer point I really need to make is that when you're doing a giveaway campaign at a conference, don't post about it on social media.

What? Did I hear you right Priscilla? You don't want me to post about it on social?

No, because that's not your target audience in that moment. You don't want everyone who didn't connect with you or maybe isn't even at the conference to enter to win. You want new connections who are there, who can see your brand, and will make the effort to come over and talk with you to enter to win.

And also don't announce it in your email newsletter. You already have those people's emails, silly. But if you understand the finer point, you'll understand that it can certainly be used on social connection messages and DMs to introduce yourself to people on your wish list.

You can ask a coveted connection if they will be attending the event. Brack about this great giveaway and give them the link to enter in advance. They might write back and say they're not coming to the event, but they may still enter to win and it will give you a much bigger reach with the right audience.

Again, this is you controlling who gets that message, who gets the link to enter to win. So once the winner or winners are drawn, by all means post about it on social and include it in your email newsletter, Celebrating a win is great, but remember what the purpose of the expense was for. And that will help you make sure that the places where you broadcast it are totally on point.

Now, I've already mentioned my book, but in case you don't know anything about it, it's called Collaboration is the New Competition. And guess what I love? A good collab.

So don't miss the opportunity to go in together with another brand in your industry and create a bigger win. Do you have a $2,000 budget and they have a $2,000 budget? Guess what?

You just got yourself a $4,000 budget. Map out a timeline and agree on the impact you want to make and the engagement that everybody's going to do around key industry events. It really can be a huge win and I'd love to see you do it.

So let me talk real quick about measuring that real ROI because this is where a lot of companies get vague and they get maybe hand wavy. But lead generation from giveaway campaigns is measurable. That's one of the things I love about it.

How many email addresses did you capture and how many of those were exactly your most ideal client? How many of those then turned into qualified leads? Do you see how measurable this is?

Social media engagement can also be measured. And you can look at those reach metrics, and you can tell how far your message traveled beyond the people who entered. This is really easy to measure, right?

Most importantly, calculate the cost per qualified lead compared to traditional methods. If you spent $3,000 on a giveaway campaign and generated 500 qualified leads, that's $6 per lead. If you spent $3,000 on traditional swag and you cannot point to a single lead at generated, that's don't know infinite cost per lead, right?

Math matters here. And I'm not saying that everything can be measured. Some things you do because they're right for the brand.

I get that. But when you can, it is imperative to do so. And if you switch to this new system, make sure you come back and look at this math because different giveaways or different conferences will perform better than others.

And you can make it even more fun by showing your team what leads and ultimate what revenue was brought in by the last giveaway campaign and challenging... Most importantly, calculate the cost per qualified lead compared to traditional methods. If you spent $3,000 on a giveaway campaign and it generated 500 qualified leads, that's $6 per lead.

And if you spent $3,000 on traditional swag that you can't point to a single lead from, that's a, I don't know, infinite cost per lead. The math matters here. And I'm not saying that everything can be measured.

Sometimes you do that are just right for the brand, but when you can, it's imperative that you do. So if you switch to this new system, make sure you come back and look at this map because you'll find that different giveaways and different conferences will perform better than others. And you can also make it even more fun by showing your team what leads and ultimately what revenue was brought in by the last giveaway campaign.

And you can even challenge them to help you make it a little bit better year upon year. Again, not everything can be measured, but let me talk for a minute about client appreciation gifts. I think you didn't know we were gonna go this direction, but I might as well bring it up in the same podcast because client appreciation gifts that get remembered create loyalty that drives repeat business and referrals.

Employee gifts that build genuine loyalty, improve retention, and create internal brand ambassadors. Partnership gifts that strengthen business relationships, open doors. And those are doors that traditional outreach just can't open.

Customer milestone celebrations that surprise and delight them turn satisfied customers into raving fans. But I'm all about value and I'm going to give away one of my big secrets to my success. I don't like giving holiday gifts.

Am I a Scrooge? No. But the noise of gift giving over the holiday can be a real thing.

Instead, I like to do the unexpected. I've done a customer love strategy for Valentine's Day. I've done a box of my favorite things for my favorite day, my birthday, which just happens to be St. Patrick's Day.

Christmas in July and I've done Thanksgiving gratitude for my clients. These arrive less expectedly and have bigger impact. Think about it this way, when you send a client a meaningful gift to celebrate a business milestone, that creates an emotional connection.

When you give employees something they actually want for hitting goals, that creates motivation. When you surprise a long-term customer with something thoughtful, that creates stories they tell their network about your brand, even when you're not in the room. So, in this podcast, you've received a little extra bonus beyond talking about swag that slaps and got a good talking to about other gifts that can be meaningful and drive revenue growth at the same time.

Wait Priscilla, how does client employee and partner griff's drive? No, no we don't need to say that. Wait how does that?

No, okay. So. Here's what I want you to take away from this.

Please stop buying forgettable items and start creating memorable experiences. Your swag budget is a marketing investment, not an expense line item. And when you treat it like an investment, you'll start measuring the return.

When you treat it like an expense, you just try to minimize the cost. But quality creates conversations and quantity creates waste. And that's the fundamental truth you need to internalize.

So do you need some clear next steps? Let me repeat it. Audit your current swag strategy, add up what you're actually spending across the stress balls, pins, key chains, generic items, and take that total budget and reallocate it for impact.

And what's great about this is that you don't need to spend more. Design one strategic giveaway campaign using the three life strategy framework I gave you and measure the results against what you were getting before. And I'm telling you, the difference will be dramatic.

So. What do you do with what you have? Find a clever campaign to bring more of it together and give it away.

I love having welcome boxes for new employees and new clients, and we can always add a few more items in to mix them in and change things up, right? So don't go throw away what you had. You can use it up at the next conference or simply donate it somewhere, but whatever you do, make it more meaningful.

And if you're heading to a conference and you realize you need help thinking through the strategy, then this is exactly kind of work we do at Little Bird Marketing. Our peeps would love to talk about conference strategy because that service includes helping clients think through promotional strategies that actually generate leads instead of just generating trash. We bring strategic, organized, accountable, and repeatable approach to everything we do and we like to extend that to how you show up at events so that your brand can soar.

Get it? Soar. Strategic, organized, accountable, and repeatable.

S-O-A-R. Anyway, we can handle it all for you from ideation to pipeline building. From all the peeps here at Little Bird Marketing, have a great day and happy marketing.