(See Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, and Part 8 of this series.)

Have you been to a trade show in the last year? A print trade show, or even one for another industry, is wall-to-wall print. It’s the currency of getting your message to the attendees. At a print show recently in Las Vegas,one of the attendees mentioned that he had just been across the road to another trade show where his team supported a dozen stands with everything from banners to pull-ups to trifold brochures, as well as custom bags. He said that about half of his business was not supporting trade shows for those customers, delivering material all over the country. And it wasn’t a business he had planned for. It came because one sales team member had a relative working at a company, and they needed collateral for a local tradeshow. Flash forward a decade, andthe accidental sale has turned into a well-planned marketing effort.

The path to supporting trade shows took a few U-turns, and eventually changed the investment strategy for new equipment, but the payoff has been there. Once the first event was supported, they developed a marketing kit and started looking for similar companies. The common elements for most trade shows are easy to discover. Just go to a show. Your local Home and Garden Show, car shows, industry segment shows, hobbyist shows, and an amazing array of private events hosted for dealers are on the calendars in every event complex in the country. For the largest of these events,there are exhibit managers who hold the primary contract, and you may be required to get on their approved vendor list to provide banners and any other printed material that requires installation. Getting to know the local event centermanagers and their primary exhibit contacts is a great way to build your visibility. Ask for their event calendar since major shows are often booked years out. From there,you can build your owndirect mail campaign to make your pitch to types of companies who will come in for each show.