Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

Why not create car with a URL to the materials that are posted online. Not only will you have a lot of money, you will be demonstrating a GREEN attitude. Also the call to action on the website would be to sign up for an email list or to have a rep call.

My experience has been that a large number of brochures provided at Trade shows get thrown away before the people get home.

The reality is that people visiting shows grab too much information, and generally toss most of it out before they even get home (particularly if they are flying).

What companies I have been with do is bring just a basic handout (like a single page flier) to trade shows and hand that out. You then scan cards from all those who are interested, and send information to them. Better yet, before you send, have someone call and qualify the person whose card you scanned (if you are set up to do this - should be a qualifying call, not a sales call). You generally do bring a few sets of the full literature, and try to just use it for showing purposes (not to give out).

The rule of thumb is to scan their badges and agree to send them stuff after the show. Harry and Peter have explained the rationale pretty well.

Literature handed out at a trade show is almost as worthless as the pens and candy some folks still give out, thinking that the "gifts" are somehow generating awareness and/or a positive attitude toward the company.

I would like to nod in agreement with these people.

People would just normally read those handouts, then throw them away. A follow-up would be a much better alternative.

While in agreement that it's been documented that most handouts are thrown away (for shows people must travel to, especially) I disagree that this means do not have anything to hand out.

Go with 1 page flyers, and on the floor select the right one(s) based on your conversation with your prospect.

Offer to send fuller packages after you have gathered information on what they need.

If some of the people will insist on more information on the spot and they are qualified, it doesn't hurt to have a few fuller packages. In cases like this, we recommend (and sell) those Z shaped literature racks, so the more expensive "packets" are hidden in the back pockets for you to selectively provide, and the "anyone can have" handouts are on the front.

The bigger question is - are you giving anything away "for free"? Whether they pick up a flyer or not, you want to talk to them, qualify them AND GET their information.

It is useless to hand out ANYTHING without getting contact information, PLUS asking qualifying questions and, when they are qualified, engaging in a short conversation to determine next steps.

Now, back to your original question about quantity.

In addition to telling us how many visitors there will be - we'd really need to know how long the show is, how many hours the floor is open, how large the booth and how many booth staff members there will be on average and how long the qualifying conversation takes, to give you a real estimate on how many prospects your clients will interact with.

For a real rough guess, for a small booth in a large show, figure 5-10% max will pick anything up. This is assuming they ignore the advice to pre qualify, which most people do, and simply leave things out.