It’s okay to say it: Your brochures are stunning. Your business card would make Patrick Bateman sweat. Your SWAG? Everyone wants it. When you’re at your next trade show, you know that attendees will take home your branded assets. However, shipping marketing assets is expensive, and when you’re balancing your marketing budget, sending a bunch of marketing materials your team won’t use doesn’t make sense. It’s also extremely cumbersome to deal with excess materials at the show. To help you out, here’s how to ensure you bring just the right amount of marketing materials to your next trade show.

Estimate Your Foot Traffic

First, you’ll need to know how many people will attend the trade show. The number of attendees is a big selling point for trade show companies, so it’s easy to learn. One way is to simply estimate your predicted foot traffic based on the number of attendees. Another is to do the math around your time. For example, say the event is one day, the exhibit hall is open for six hours, and you have a team of five. Together you have 30 man hours. Now say the average conversation with a prospect takes ten minutes. That’s six per hour. So you could reasonably assume you will need at least 180 assets.

Consider How You Use Your Marketing Collateral

Different marketing assets serve various purposes and have varying distribution rates. You will present everyone with a business card, but only some people want your branded stress ball. So it goes to follow, you will want to bring more business cards than stress balls. Also, consider some of the other activities of the event. You should get even more business cards if your team plans to attend many networking events. However, if your team plans to do a reverse expo, bring extra brochures.

Build In A Buffer

Shipping costs are high, but it is better to have extra than run out and lose the chance to connect with a prospect. Consider including a 10-20% buffer above your initial estimation to ensure you don’t run out of essential collateral. If you don’t want to ship more materials, you can also create back-ups like digital alternatives. QR codes, NFC tags, or interactive touchscreens allow attendees to access digital versions of your brochures, product catalogs, or additional information.

With these tips, you will calculate how many brochures you must bring. For more trade show expertise, tips, and advice, sign up for our Newsletter. The team at Lighthouse Exhibits is here to help ensure tour trade shows go smoothly.