A trade show strategy - how to combine business cards, brochures and a portfolio?

A conversation at a trade show is short and has clear parts: the moment someone slows down, the moment they really listen, and the moment of saying goodbye. A business card, a brochure and a portfolio are not three versions of the same material - each of them works in a different one of those moments. Handed over in the wrong order, they can get in each other's way.

The most common mistake at a stand looks innocent: someone walks up and you immediately hand them a catalogue. The conversation never starts, because the person has been given something heavy and their first thought is how to politely walk away with it. Material handed over too early closes the conversation instead of opening it.

This text is not about what to print, but about when to offer what and why. The three basic materials have three completely different jobs, and you gain the most when each of them does only its own.

Three moments in one conversation

A meeting at a stand can be split into three parts and each has a different goal. The first is about getting someone to stop at all. The second - about them understanding what you do and whether it concerns them. The third - about them leaving with something that will remind them of you a week later, once the excitement of the show has faded.

Printed materials serve exactly those three moments. Trouble starts when one piece tries to do everything at once: a business card describing the whole offer on the back, a brochure with every project ever done, a portfolio meant to replace the conversation. Each of these ideas sounds thrifty, and in practice weakens the whole. When those few extra sentences really are missing, reach for folded business cards - closed they are still 90×50 mm, and opened they give twice the room of the reverse alone.

The business card: it opens the conversation and outlives it

A business card does not sell. Its job is to enable contact and to survive in a wallet or a drawer longer than anything else someone brought back from a show. That is why everything that harms its legibility works against it: type that is too small, four phone numbers, a marketing slogan put where the name should be.

You hand it over twice: at the start, when you introduce yourself, and at the end, together with agreeing the next step. That is not repetition - the first time it is a formality, the second time it carries something written by hand. It is worth ordering business cards with a finish you can write on with an ordinary pen - the calculator also offers a version with no lamination at all.

The back matters more than you think

An empty or nearly empty back of a card is the best place for a note: the phrase you discussed, the name of the product that caught someone's interest, the name of the person you should get back to. Anyone returning from a show with dozens of cards remembers only the annotated ones. Two words written in front of the person, before their eyes, do more than the prettiest print.

The brochure: a tool in conversation, not a handout

A brochure is best used in your hand, not on the counter. You open it in front of the client, point to a specific page and talk about what that person has just asked. Then it is what it should be: an organised argument that gives the conversation structure and saves you from telling the whole story from scratch to every next visitor.

A simple design conclusion follows: the order of pages should match the order of questions that actually get asked. Not the company history and not the structure of your departments, but what the client wants to know, in sequence. How to arrange that on the technical side we covered in our post on how to plan and prepare a product catalogue and brochure for print.

• One topic per spread - so you can open the brochure at a specific place and point straight to the answer.
• Photos instead of long descriptions - in the noise of the hall few people read paragraphs, but everyone looks at a picture.
• Room for a note - a margin or a light area where you can mark what applies to this one person.
• Careful with figures - a number printed next to a photo can bury all the other arguments and turn the conversation into a comparison of tables.

You hand brochures to selected people - those whose conversation went further than an exchange of pleasantries. A brochure left on a stack by the entrance stops being a tool and becomes purely a cost.

The portfolio: proof, not a catalogue

A portfolio answers a different question than a brochure. The brochure says what you are able to do. The portfolio shows what you have already done, and it is that proof which convinces people comparing several suppliers. That is why a portfolio does not have to be complete. It has to be relevant.

Splitting it into two versions works well. The first is the display copy: one, solidly made, in a sturdier form, which stays at the stand and passes from hand to hand across all the days of the show. The second is the take-away version, which the client opens after returning, calmly, at their own desk.

The take-away version does not have to be paper. A drive with a presentation, a film and documentation weighs little, fits in a pocket, and lets you leave behind a set of files chosen for that particular person. When such a solution makes sense we explain in our post on which industries benefit most from a flash drive with a ready company portfolio. It is then worth making sure the drive printed with your logo looks like part of the brand, not like a random spare from a drawer.

Who gets what - a simple order of decisions

There is no time to deliberate at a stand. It is worth settling the order in advance and rehearsing it with the whole team so that everyone reacts the same way.

1. Everyone who stops gets a business card - and nothing more, until you know whether the conversation is going further.
2. Ask one question about what they do - the answer decides everything you offer later.
3. The conversation develops, so you reach for the brochure - you open it at the right page and leave it in the visitor's hands.
4. A specific need appears, so you show the portfolio - two or three projects closest to what they are describing.
5. Agree the next step and write it down by hand - on the card or on the brochure, in front of that person.

This order has one more advantage: it protects your materials. A kit sized for a few dozen conversations will last the whole show, provided the brochures do not disperse to everyone in the first hour of the first day.

What should happen after the show

Material that does not lead to the next contact is only a souvenir. That is why it is worth asking one question about every element of the kit: what should happen when the client finds it on their desk a week later?

• The business card - it should enable contact without searching online. The name, phone number and address have to be legible at arm's length.
• The brochure - it should let someone show your offer to a person who was not at the show. Very often the decision is made by someone other than the person standing at your stand.
• The portfolio - it should provide an argument in the client's internal discussion. A project close to their own situation works better than declarations.
• Your follow-up - a short letter on company letterhead attached to the materials you send stands out more these days than yet another message in an inbox.

If you are planning several events in a season, prepare the materials as a modular set: the core stays the same and only an insert or a single page changes. We described a similar approach in our post on how to plan a series of several leaflets instead of one overloaded one.

A business card, a brochure and a portfolio do not compete with each other - each works in a different minute of the same conversation. The card opens and closes, the brochure guides, the portfolio convinces. When each does its own job, you need fewer of them and they work harder.