How to compile a trade show portfolio
Trade shows can be an effective sales and promotion tool for your business large or small, but they can also be a complete waste of time and money if not done correctly. Whether your trade show booth is a huge success or a complete flop depends on your advanced preparation. Get the best return on your investment by adding an organized trade show kit, price sheets, and strong promotional materials to your booth.
When exhibiting at a trade show, there are five essential items you need: your booth, trained staff, promotional materials, a laptop, and a trade show binder.
The content of the trade show kit, which is a reference guide, includes the tools and information your staff need while talking to booth visitors.
Here’s how to compile a trade show portfolio and what to include:
The three ring binder
Your trade display binder should be a three-ring binder with D-rings that can hold a large amount of materials. Choose a brightly colored folder that is easy to locate on your booth.
What materials will you need at the fair? Use the folder tabs to separate materials into categories. It will help your staff find information quickly. Make the tab labels as general or specific as you like. Major categories may include:
- Company Overview. Important people, departments, corporate offices and phone numbers.
- Training. Pre-show training instructions and materials. Cheat sheets with sales information and phone numbers for exhibit staff.
- Dirty. Lists up-to-date contact information for your sales office, dealers, distributors, and demo center in this section. This section will probably be used more often. List the names, phone numbers, and addresses of key people and facilities in your sales organization, and include locations in case a booth visitor asks, “Who’s your representative in Philadelphia?” Price sheets should be added.
- Product. Copies of all product brochures, spec sheets, photos, samples, and more.
- Marketing. Company and product logos, CDs, special fonts and all display graphics. If your graphics are lost, damaged, or incorrect, you can easily recreate them at the show.
- Staff. Place copies of your staff’s airline itineraries, hotel confirmations, and exhibit staff schedules in this section of the folder.
- Finance. Company earnings statements should be in this section. Staff may be asked for the latest annual report or recent news articles on the company’s latest earnings report.
- press kit. If the press stops by your booth, be prepared with a press kit that includes current press releases. If you’re planning a press event, save extra invitations in the sturdy sheet protectors in this section for handing out.
- Stationary. If you send leads to the office, include pre-printed corporate overnight submission forms. Place some fax forms and corporate stationery in sheet protectors at the back of the folder, including #10 and brochure-size envelopes. As you collect resources, talk to your sales, product, and marketing departments to find out what materials they find most useful. Lastly, set up a folder table of contents. You can color code this section to match the colored tabs used to separate the categories.
4 Tips for Trade Show Folders
- In each tabbed section, insert sturdy sheet protectors or interior pockets to store the documents you’ll collect. Alleviates the need to punch documents.
- Keep the folder in a central location in the cabin. Make sure staff members know where to find it and what’s in it.
- Updating your organized folder is easy. Keeping it up-to-date prevents your booth staff from answering “I don’t know” or time-consuming searching for someone who knows the answer when attendees ask tough questions.
- The information in the folder is confidential. You should not leave the information desk. Keep the book locked up when not in use.
Following these tips ensures that your booth staff is safe, efficient and productive.
Don’t visit a big retailer for your company’s trade show, sales, product, marketing and other department binders. Get a quality, durable three-ring binder the first time. Consult a three-ring binder specialist to help you find the perfect binder for the job.