No More Pens. Here's How to Get Strategic with B2B Marketing Swag.

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When you walk into a trade show and see lines of tables with the same tired lineup of branded pens, USB drives, and keyrings, are you excited to bring that stuff home? Probably not. Would you share it on your social media? Heck no.

If you’re anything like me, you might walk around politely accepting everyone’s pens without much thought for the brand that provided them.

Let’s call this out for what it is—checkbox marketing. Marketers know they need something to give out, so they whip out the swag catalog and pick out the usual suspects. Pens? Check. Branded mugs? Check. Unimaginative and uncreative? Check, check.

In episode four of This Meeting Could’ve Been a Podcast, Josh and I break down Vector’s unconventional swag strategy. You’ll hear how Josh ended up with 500 custom decks of Cards Against Humanity in his house, why swag and gifting should be creative and memorable, and how we built a three-tier swag system that gets people talking. 

What you’ll learn 

• Why boring swag is a symptom of "checkbox marketing"
•  How our three-tier swag system balances cost-effectiveness with brand impact across the funnel
• How to choose and design swag that people actually want to take home and talk about
• What to do when you’re not the target demographic
• The unexpected impact of great gifting beyond events
• How to use swag strategically for customer appreciation and influencer partnerships

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TOP THREE TAKEAWAYS

Takeaway 1: Think shareability first, logo second

How do you get people to pick up your swag at an event, not just out of politeness, but because they genuinely want it? The secret is thinking about shareability. What’s something so cool and unexpected that people would actually want to share about it?

This was probably the most important of Josh’s three criteria for Vector swag: 

1. Small enough to travel with
2. Unique enough to grab attention
3. Have a viral factor that would get people talking

His lightbulb moment: custom Cards Against Humanity decks. They’re familiar, fun, and they’re perfect for posting about on social media—they have built in shareability. 

And we started seeing it play out exactly how we wanted. People tag us on LinkedIn with photos of their favorite card combinations.

Why does this work better than checkbox marketing? Because it was unique and the merch wasn’t focused on showing off a logo. It was all about creating something different that people wanted to engage with and share. 

When you focus on shareability first, brand awareness comes naturally.

Takeaway 2: Build a tiered swag system that serves different purposes

Your swag shouldn’t resemble a low quality all-you-can-eat buffet. There’s zero point in picking up a bit of everything just in case. Instead, it should be more like a high-quality, carefully designed, memorable 3-course meal.  

We built our swag strategy on three distinct tiers. 

Tier 1: Least expensive, small, and easy to ship or travel with

Swag: Marketers Against Humanity card gameThe cards cost around $3-4 per unit, so they were ideal for handing out at events to anyone interested, or shipping to select prospects, customers, partners, or influencers

Tier 2: Mid-range cost, something a marketers could bring home for their kids

Swag: Custom ghost-in-a-funnel Legos

A bit more expensive, these custom Legos were about $20-25 per unit and were targeted to people like Josh who look for something to bring home for their kids after a trade show. 

Tier 3: Most expensive, apparel, exclusively for top customers and prospects

Swag: Custom crewneck sweatshirts with subtle branding

We knew we needed some kind of apparel but slapping the Vector logo on a hoodie wasn’t what Josh had in mind. While a bit more expensive, he wanted something high-quality with subtle branding that people would actually want to wear.

I love that each tier solves a different problem or need for both Vector and our audience.

It’s all about intentionality. Anyone can just hand people stuff. Instead, we’re trying to embody the Vector brand in the items we give away.

Takeaway 3: Know your persona down to their real life

 “Potential customer” isn’t a job title. Your prospects are real people with real lives. You’d be surprised how easy it is for marketers (including me) to forget that.

Josh knew that his audience wasn’t just “B2B marketers.” They’re majority women, many with families, trying to balance work and life, and happen to trend toward being “chronically online.” 

The custom Legos were based on his own experience of visiting trade shows and looking for something to bring back to his kids. The Legos do two things: reinforce our brand messaging and solve the nagging “What souvenir am I going to bring home this time?” problem. 

Josh took the same approach to the apparel in our top swag tier. It would’ve been much easier to order a bunch of Vector-branded sweatshirts, cross that off the list and call it a day. 

Instead, he looked at Vector’s target customers, mostly female marketers between the ages of 25-45. Not fitting that demographic himself, Josh realized he needed to ask for advice. He asked the women in his life for ideas on what kind of apparel we’d actually wear. He also asked LinkedIn. 

Understanding your customer persona goes way beyond demographics. If you want your swag to avoid ending up at the back of a drawer gathering dust, think about what they’d find useful or fun, their family situation, and their apparel preferences. 

Build swag for them, not just to show off the company logo.

Because when a gifting strategy works, people fall in love with the brand. And when they fall in love with the brand, they’re way more likely to fall in love with (and purchase) the product. 

Catch the full episode (and subscribe to This Meeting Could’ve Been a Podcast!) on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform.