Strategies for Trade Show Brochures

If you are planning to market your business at an upcoming trade show and need to hand out marketing materials here are a few things to keep in mind.

Give Yourself Sufficient Time

Most companies come to us at the last minute and fail to realize the amount of time it takes to get a good brochure developed.

Development time varies, depending on the design firm as well as your expectations, but you should generally plan on three to four weeks for concept, design, copywriting, revisions and approval. This does NOT include time for printing your brochure. A local printing firm will need about five to seven business days to complete your job. Add this to the time to finalize your design, and you’re looking at up to six weeks for a four-panel executive piece.

If you need to ship to a convention destination, be sure to factor in that time as well. If your company does all approval by committee it will take longer than if there are just a few people involved. If you have your final copy you will be in better shape than most, if not, you will need to add time for this process.

Prime Your Customers

Smart companies will send a mailer to attendees letting them know that they will be at the conference, perhaps giving them the booth number or location. If there is a new product offering this is a good way to announce it or give a teaser. It’s easy to get a list of attendees, however most companies fail to capitalize on this.

If you are designing a new brochure for the trade show, make sure the mailer uses the same, or similar design. Similarly, if you have trade show booth, the design of your brochure should be similar to the look and feel of the booth. Everything should be similar in design so that when you see either the mailer, brochure, or booth graphics, there is an immediate visual tie in. Clients should be able to see it, and relate the look back to your company in an instant. If your materials all look different, it can confuse your customers and leave them with an uneasy or unsure feeling about your brand and your company.

Think Big First

When it comes to trade shows, bigger is better. You want potential customers to spot your brand from across the room and be able to read the copy from several booths away. If you think you might want banners or posters at the tradeshow, make that decision before you start design of your brochure. It’s always easier to design a trade show poster that will match your brochure than vice-versa. One reason: the designer can reduce the large image used in the banner or poster with no loss of quality, but as soon as you enlarge a small image, quality is lost. Plan ahead, be consistent, and think big!

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