When it comes to handing out promotional gifts at trade shows and conferences, you might feel like you are running out of original ideas. Everyone is handing out pens, so yours will just go into the bags that your competitor is handing out and be forgotten. You handed out mugs last year, and your promotional mouse mats are a great item for home distribution, but don’t seem like the right item out in your booth. So what are you going to do this year for your round of conferences and trade shows?

Keyrings are great promotional items since they are small, portable, and can come in many useful forms. A keyring does not have to be a plastic square that covers your company name and logo and offers nothing else to the client. In fact, if this is all you are offering, then you might just find that your clients are not interested in taking a keyring at all unless your logo is very interesting.

Unless that is the case, you should be looking for something that is unique and fun to look at to attract your customers and make them want to use your keyring for their personal keys or even for their work keys. Your keyring could contain a whole variety of useful features, but steer clear of anything that could not easily make it through airport security. Your clients will not take kindly to having to toss or check their keys, after all, and they will not want to remove their keyring just to get through security.

Now that the pocket knife is out, start thinking about other useful items like a pocket torch. Many keyrings come with a built in LED light that is safe, rarely needs new batteries, and helps with tasks like getting into the house when it is too dark to see the lock properly. These LED lights come in useful in lots of situations, and your company name engraved on the side will only serve to remind them of what a great job you have done in providing them with something that they will use again and again.

Your promotional keyrings could also be a simple but classy design that attracts your customers to it. Leather printed keyrings are great for this purpose as it is easy to make a leather keyring look dressed up for men and women alike, and the leather will last without being brittle or easily damaged the way that plastic can be. You might also want to look at lanyards for a similar reason. While they are less durable than leather, they are attractive in their own way, and might be unique enough to really capture your customers’ interest as they pass by your booth at the next trade show or conference.

Another great product that attaches easily to keys is a pocket mirror for the ladies and the gentlemen alike. These mirrors fold closed for safety, and can be flipped open like a cell phone (only smaller) to check makeup or make sure that nothing green is hiding in the teeth. Whatever use your customers find for them, they will appreciate the thought that went into such a nice gift, and your company name on the outside of the mirror will remind them of who they can thank.