Ever wonder what to bring to an event to actually make it worth your time and energy? Here’s how to make the most of your marketing collateral at an in-person event—without overspending.
Start Here: Setting, Audience, and Goals
This morning a client asked me:
And the thing about me is, not only am I going to answer you with my suggestions, I’m going to turn it into a blog post because this is a gooder!
There are three things I want to know before suggesting any marketing materials—event or otherwise. Actually these are things I want to know like, always, if we’re being honest LOL
- What’s the format or setting?
- Who’s the audience?
- What’s the goal?
Consider the Event Setting
The biggest factor here: do you have a physical space or booth?
If it’s a trade-show style setup (vs. a casual networking event), you’ll likely have a table, backdrop, or booth area to work with—which means you have visual real estate to make an impression.
This opens the door to larger signage and interactive materials versus just slipping a business card into a goodie bag.
Know Your Audience
If you’ve already said yes to an event, there should be alignment with your ideal client (side note: do brand strategy with me so we can get into the nitty gritty on this). We want to consider the attendees the event and how we can get their attention, resonate, and be remembered.
- Who exactly is attending?
- What are they interested in, or what are their pain points that we can help with?
- What will stop their scroll—or in this case, stop them in their tracks?
For this specific example, the audience is health-conscious folks attending an event at a gym. That gives us some immediate cues around physical wellness, functionality, and everyday use.
BONUS: Events like these are also prime networking opportunities to connect with fellow vendors, build relationships with other practitioners, and potentially lead to referrals and collaborations.
Clarify the Goal: Awareness vs. Conversion
This event in particular is more about building awareness—getting your name out there, creating that first touchpoint, and planting the seed of curiosity. (I yell about this a lot when I talk about content creation, as it’s often overlooked when managing expectations between brands and creators or influencers).
Once you know your goal, you can design your marketing materials to match the stage of the buyer journey your audience is in through clever copywriting, highlighting a specific offering, etc.
So, my top promo/print suggestions?
Based on what we know so far:
📍 We have a dedicated physical space we can utilize
🧘 We’re targeting people in the wellness space, specifically those interested in their physical health
🎯 This is a first-touch, building brand awareness marketing goal
For these kinds of goals / audience, I say:
1: Retractable Banner (Your Brand Billboard)
These are great when you have a physical space to use as it acts as a backdrop and billboard in one, and could even be put up in a brick + mortar location between events.
Design tips:
- keep it clean, and if you want it for multipurpose use, more general
- prioritize emphasis on your branding (logo, name, tagline), like the top third or so
- if you want to include photos, a service-in-action photo, your space, a product… something that communicates the experience of working or buying from you
- social handle / website, maybe a QR code
These can be budget-friendly with options like Vistaprint’s banners.
2: Postcard Takeaway (Memorable and Actionable)
Having something people can take with them to refer back to later is great here, and there’s a few reasons I lean towards the postcard:
- a 4×6 postcard stands out more than a business card, without being as annoying as a tri-fold brochure
- you can utilize different paper stocks and/or print finishes to stand out in the tactile department, get them with the senses
- you have a bit more space to add more of that brand story and personality—your mission or values, your why, what make you different, and highlight your services—without getting too busy and cluttered
Jukebox’s 16pt postcards with soft-touch coating (here’s the link) have been a fav of mine for years.
Design tips:
- add a discount or special offer to prompt them to take action
- add a QR code to make it really easy, especially if you have a trickier URL or want them to go to a specific sales or landing page
- these could be customized to the event with a special code, or a space for a sticker or for you to fill in
- having a bunch of these printed that are more general works too if you’re ballin’ on a budget!
- if you don’t need a ton of space for info, designing them into something that doubles as decor is a great way to keep yourself top of mind—think something someone would put up on their bulletin boards or gallery walls
3: Promo Items That Stand Out by Being Useful
If you really want to take this to the next level (and have $$$ to spend), you could do some giveaways or promo pieces that suit the audience. Think something useful, not yet another branded pen (unless it’s a good ass pen—but even then, people are picky about their pens).
What are things your audience actually uses, and maybe more specifically, when they’re in that space?
Low-Budget Ideas:
- Stickers with a message that resonates (take your place on their coveted water bottle collage)
- Magnets work too, I made ‘be kind’ ones for my fridge and stick them on my car LOL
- customized note or planner pads (like mine above) that again, suit your audience. Something specific to your services or client experience is great
Higher-Budget Ideas:
- Branded sweat towels or KT tape
- Small padlocks for gym lockers
One of my favorite branded items I ever received? One of those coin things you put in shopping carts. The first car Steve and I bought from a dealership had these, and my heart broke when the keyring finally snapped off after years of use LOL. This would obviously be dependent on location/audience too though—is your audience ever near a store that charges you a dollar for a cart? Do they even do the grocery shopping?
Bonus Tip: Collab for a Co-Branded Giveaway
These could also be a great opportunity to team up with another local business that may have a similar audience to you and do a co-branded giveaway item.
tl;dr – What Makes the Biggest Marketing Impact?
- a clear message that matches the event setting, audience, and goal
- marketing pieces that are visually strong, practical, and reusable
- thoughtful design and copywriting that gets a reaction—builds curiosity, makes them laugh, inspires, feels personal
Okay this was fun! Also makes me realize how many things just like live in my head that I can apparently write an entire blog about… Noted LOL
If you found this helpful let me know, especially if there’s other q’s like this I can answer! And of course, if reading this made you go “okay this was great but now I need help with mine”—I got you.
Book a Brainstorm Session with me, or we can dive right into a VIP Day to create everything we talked about above—from strategy to print-ready design.
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