Print Marketing Essentials for Your Next Marketing Event

When you have an event to attend, bringing the right promotional marketing materials is essential to making the most out of your efforts at the event. You have a limited time to make an impression and people often forget names and who exactly it was that had various offerings.

So, what should you bring to your next marketing event to keep your services on the tips of attendees tongues? (say that 5 times fast!)

Examples of Top Promotional Event Materials:

Visual Marketing Materials

Stand out from the crowd with eye-catching signage that looks appealing and catches the attention of passers-by:

• Custom Event Tents
• Custom Table Covers
• Custom Table Tents
• Custom Event Banners

Promo Material Handouts

Keep top of mind during and after the event by distributing print promotional materials such as:

• Handy Book Marks
• Informational Brochures
• Relevant Bumper Stickers
• Professional Business Cards
• Branded Buttons
• Custom Calendars
• Product Catalogs
• Memorable Magnets
• Convenient Note Pads
• Straightforward Pocket Folders
• Informational Rack Cards

Learn more about all of the print materials Third Angle can assist you with.

Good Promotional Materials for Marketing Don’t Just Look Good 

Marketing events, tradeshows, and industry conferences are full of noise in all shapes and forms – auditory, visual, and tangible. 

The best marketing event materials not only look good, but will convey a message that deeply resonates with your target audience.

The best possible scenario for your business while at one of these events is to have brought with you a message that resonates so deeply with passers-by that they stop in their tracks, take a longer look, and initiate a conversation with your team members who are present.

When the message is right, it strikes a chord with attendees and the rest of the noise in the room will fade away. That’s the true sign of event marketing materials that work. 

To get promotional materials that will cut through the noise, you need to hire a more qualified team than just hire a quick printer.

Work with marketing professionals who can help you to clarify your message first AND then deliver high quality print materials that will make your business stand out.

Good Printed Promotional Materials Align With Your Brand’s Digital Footprint

The buyer’s journey is much more complex these days, as what researchers find online about your brand will inform how relevant they perceive you and your offerings in solving their problems. 

To compliment any printed collateral that they receive at the event, it’s up to you to align digital touchpoints to reinforce your brand message and inspire visitors to take further action. 

Most event attendees are there to gather information, make new connections, and explore new innovations in the industry. When they are not there to make a purchase day of, you need a way to keep them engaged with your brand.

Consider deploying the following tactics to bridge print and digital marketing mediums:

Business Card in a Jar Prize Contests

Host a prize contest with the entry requirement being a business card and consent to be emailed. Be sure to follow through after the event and add these contacts into your CRM; send them an email letting them know what kinds of content they can expect to receive in the future. Some event planners will have an option, for an additional fee, that allows you to digitally scan attendee information as well, so consider if that would be a better option for your team.

Setup QR Codes

Use QR Codes on printed collateral that makes it easy for attendees to scan the physical page with their smartphone’s camera and be directed to the corresponding website page. With this method, you are re-engaging attendees with your digital footprint and can guide them to relevant lead captures to grow your email list.

Offer Social Media Giveaways

Increase social media following by offering additional giveaways to new social media followers who tag your brand in a post. If your audience would make use of it, you can setup a photo booth to deploy this tactic. When attendees post and tag your brand on social media, you have a dated confirmation of the attendee’s engagement with your brand and your message spreads farther among their network as well.

Gamify Collecting Print Materials Throughout the Event

This tactic will work best at events where many of the attendees already have relationships with one another and where the forum allows for your game to be announced and monitored throughout the event. You could make a set of, say 9, different cards that are a piece of a larger puzzle and the first person to collect all 9, sometimes requiring negotiations with other attendees would win a grand prize.

How to Choose Which Promotional Materials To Invest In

Here are four factors to evaluate in your print marketing collateral before heading off to your next marketing event:

Branding

Business networking events introduce attendees to a flurry of new people and their various goods and services. It’s nearly impossible to remember everything, even if you have an excellent memory. Your task is to make your organization stand out against all the rest.

The key is bring an authentic level of branding. Your print marketing materials should feature your brand logo and tagline, but your company’s brand is so much more than a logo and tagline.

So what is a brand? One of the best definitions of a brand is from Marty Neumeier’s book, The Brand Gap: 

“A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or organization.”

Simple, right? And so much more than the logo on your business card. Brand is the entirety of emotions that a person feels from interacting with your brand. Here are some additional tips for how to brand your business.

Accessibility and Inclusivity

Did you know one of every four American adults has a disability? Their impairments may not be as visible as a wheelchair, but that doesn’t make them any less challenging in daily life.

For example, many people with various kinds of visual impairments struggle to see in dim lighting, which exists in some conference centers for aesthetic reasons. When designing print materials for your next marketing event, consider ways to use audio to complement largely visual presentations within your booth.

Still others who suffer from social anxieties have a hard time processing the non-stop stimuli at industry events. For these attendees, having materials available that they can review at a later time and in a quiet space will allow them to gather the information they seek without causing them undue frustration with your brand.

Variety

Far too many business owners stop at designing business cards and perhaps a brochure or two. However, these mediums are the most common and can easily be misplaced, or intentionally placed into the nearest trash bin.

Instead, consider a variety of event presentation essentials to take with you:

• For example, will you be pulling up in a vehicle that makes your services memorable with a vehicle wrap? 
• Do you have colorful event banners to direct traffic to your table? Can you coordinate an additional fee with the event planners to place these banners in other locations throughout the conference center?
• Do you also have digital business cards that contacts can immediately enter into their smartphones, ensuring they don’t lose your number? 
• Have you created multimedia videos or looping slideshow presentations to showcase on digital displays and TVs?

Making the Best Impression At Your Next Event

When you attend a business networking conference, your print marketing essentials and how those physical pieces tie into your digital footprint can determine whether the people you meet become clients or customers. 

Contact Third Angle today for more help with your branding and marketing message, print marketing materials, and digital marketing essentials to make your next event a successful lead generation venture.