Why Hiring Promotional Staff is Still a Great Investment in 2019

It sounds so wonderful – you pay professional promotional staff to do their thing on your trade show stand and you watch as the clients come rolling in and your profits go up and up and up.

And yet, there are so many times when the promises don’t deliver and the guarantees fail. Thus, you’ve ended up spending even more of your already-under-pressure marketing budget on a trade show that didn’t deliver what you were expecting and needed.

We’ve started off negative because it’s an important lesson – promises and guarantees mean diddly-squat if there is no substance behind them.

And yet in spite of what we’ve just said, investing in promotional staff is a great investment IF you need the right promotional staffing agency with the right people to deliver on your expectations, goals and objectives (‘cos you have them, right?!).

Why bother hiring promotion staff in 2019?

Why bother to hire promo staff for your next trade show or expo especially given that we are living in the digital age and most marketing is done online?

This is why: in a recent article on event marketing trends 2019, 93% of marketers believe that today’s consumers are looking for a ‘buying experience’. What this means is that digital marketing is all well and good but that’s all that it is: marketing.

Maybe we’ve become bored and tired of the same-old, same-old anonymous online marketing and, as consumers, we want to connect with brands again. This means giving your brand the ‘human face’.

Purchasing decisions – what entices people to buy?

People – That’s the short answer. There is an old saying that people buy from people, probably a one-liner that came from the advertising industry of old but it’s an adage that remains true.

Aside from people, there is price point, quality and company ethics and values. Yup, you read that right – company ethics and values is part of the purchasing decision.

Our director recently shared a story about Green and Black’s and their sampling success story. Green and Black’s needed to make inroads into a competitive confectionery marketplace where there is huge brand loyalty to certain types and brands of chocolate.

There were other hurdles to overcome. Many years ago, fair trade stuff being seen as gimmicky and so labelling their products as being fair trade and using sustainably sourced ingredients meant instant suspicion. How times have changed!

Today, consumers are actively looking at brands for not just their eco-friendly credentials but other ethics and values too. Fast fashion is falling out of fashion, for example, with consumers no longer willing to accept that their cheap t-shirts are made in sweatshops in far-flung climes.

Promotional staff, briefed with this knowledge prior to an event, can make sure that your consumers are educated about your company values.

Consumers are not parting with their money so readily these days

Austerity, budgeting, call it what you want, consumer behaviour is changing when it comes to price point too. How they spend their money is one part of the equation and on what is another. Add into this how much they are willing to pay for something and you have a complicated set of ingredients in the recipe that produces a sale.

Yes, promotional staff can increase sales. And despite being a booming industry, the event marketing industry is finding that clients in the mid-price range are having a tougher time making sales than their budget and premier priced counterparts.

In summary

Promotional staff need to understand all of the above. They need to understand the psychology of consumer buying decisions but also understand the current climate and it affects what people buy, when and for how much.

And so for promotional staff to be a great investment (and to put a smile back on the pug’s face!) they need to be briefed on every aspect of your business, including values and ethics. They need to understand your consumers and your price point. They need a deeper understanding of consumer behaviour and the part they play in making more sales for the client.