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I've just found out that I will be presenting my startup, mokabla at an Entrepreneur event in ATL in less than a week. There will be about 200 people attending. Since this event doesn't have sponsors, I've also been given the opportunity to do a promotion if I give away some swag.

I want to run a promo relevant to my startup - but so far the only promo I could come up with is to have attendees sign-up for our Beta and give a prize to a randomly selected signee. My startup is a site where users will eventually be able to find any comparison, the content will come from user generated comparisons. Any suggestions for promo & swag I can quickly drum up highly appreciated.

P.S: I don't have a big budget & expect to get the invite only Beta up and running on the day of the event!

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2 Answers

up vote 2 down vote

I think your promotion idea sounds good. Here's what I would do.:

Get 25 t-shirts made and have a drawing for who wins them. People love t-shirts and if you do them right, they will actually wear them.

There are three reasons why people will actually wear your t-shirt in public:

  1. The shirt is funny and a good talking point
  2. The shirt is comfortable (and not lame)
  3. They know you're company really, really, really well and want to support you

We use CustomInk for printing and get them done on American Apparall shirts. It costs a little extra than normal shirts, but the first thing people always say is, "Wow! This shirt is soft!". The bonus for us is people actually wear our shirts in public too (free marketing!) Also, if you can afford it, get lady specific "scoop next" shirts so women are actually comfortable while wearing your shirt (trust me, they'll notice and appreciate it).

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up vote 4 down vote

Prize drawing are always popular, but you need to target your prizes based on your budget and your audience. In addition, you will get better results if you do some sort of screening on prize contestants.

Ipods, from nano on up through iTouch are always popular. Head phones, ear buds, etc.

You should work on a way to qualify your leads. Don't let them just drop in a business card to a jar. Have them fill out a short form, asking enough questions to make a decision as to whether or not to invite them to your beat. Anyone can win the prize, but not everyone gets the beta invitation.

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