Make sure your exhibition hand-outs are totally ‘Mint’!

When you’re exhibiting, you’re paying for your stall with two-sides of a coin.

On one side, you get to be in front of ‘X’ number of potential clients without having to compete for their attention against the distractions of their day-to-day job.  On the other side, you’re competing against all of the other exhibitors.

Lets be clear on what you’re competing against the other competitors for:  You’re competing for short-term memory space.

Why, because as anyone who has attended an exhibition as a visitor knows, it’s tiring, boring, and when you get home the whole thing is simply a blur.  Very few things stand out in your mind.

This is why firms spend thousands of pounds on impressive displays, and they water their stalls with their best-looking staff and flashy gizmo’s.  Basically, they’re all jousting with each other for this valuable part of the exhibition visitors’ brain matter.

What separates the ‘men from the boys’ in terms of exhibition marketing though, is what’s provided for visitors after they’ve visited your stand at the exhibition.

Firms that focus purely on the size of their stands are, in my opinion, throwing away good money – unless they’re coming up with something really spectacular.  They’d be much better off investing in promotional material that visitors can take away with them or use throughout the day.

Sturdy bags with your name, logo and number on are a great example – people need somewhere to put all of the cards, fliers, samples and catalouges they collect throughout the day.

I attended a networking event last week where approximately 150 local business people attended.  The purpose was to introduce new BCC (Birmingham Chamber of Commerce) members to each other and more specifically to around a dozen or so exhibitors.

Here’s a ‘pick of the bunch’ of the promotional giveaways…

Why this works…

• It’s unusual

• It’s pockets sized

• It has all the contact information you need on (nothing more, nothing less).

• It actually has real value – anyone who attends stuffy all-day events has been on the receiving end of Mr ‘I’m dehydrated and have stale coffee breath’.  It’s never pleasant and it reduces the odds of doing business (we do business with people we like, not with people who smell).  With this handy little gizmo you’re immunized against this little problem by turning a business card into a ‘fresh-minty-breath-maker’ – leaving you to woo your potential clients with minty clean breath!

• For all of the above reasons, this promotional give-away is a creative and original way of ensuring victory in the ‘Visitors Short-Term Memory Stakes’!.

The organisation in question is City College | Birmingham.  I spoke with a really helpful lady called Tracy who told me all about how they help improve workforce skills of a wide variety of businesses by creating customised training solutions, you can follow this link to find out how City College can benefit your business.