A booth at a trade show can have greater success per marketing dollar than many other ways of advertising, with the higher ratio of potential buyers as attendees. To make the most of this, your booth needs to do two things: catch the eye of your most likely buyers and help them remember your business when they’re ready to buy. All trade show preparations should support those two goals.

The classic candy bowl sitting invitingly on a trade show booth is an important trade show item. We all like free candy, and we’ll look twice at booths with candy on the table(to see if the candy looks good enough to stop).

Choose an eye-catching candy container. In general, a big container catches the eye more than a small container. Clear is better than opaque. Bright colors are better than quiet colors. The container doesn’t need to be imprinted, but the candy should have an imprint on its wrapper, or be attached to imprinted materials. After all, your purpose is to have your business remembered.

Choose an eye-catching candy. Bright colors are important—they catch the eye and look more delicious. The candy should be wrapped and sealed (people do not want to grab anything unwrapped from a trade show candy bowl). Candy wrappers can be imprinted on lollipops, or bagged mints, or individually wrapped candies (and more). Or you can buy unimprinted candy and attach it to sales material. I like booths with a huge candy bowl to lure people in, and then with staff handing out sales material attached to candy—so people take the information with them.

Use these trade show candy ideas to connect to trade show attendees and help them remember your business when it’s time to buy.