Youve put months into having your trade show booth designed. Now its finished or very close. You walk around your new booth like a proud parent when it suddenly dawns on you; you need promotional handouts to go with it! Where to start, though?

The key to a great promotional handout for a trade show event is that it provides needed information about you and your business. But for it to stick, in other words, not get thrown in the trash, it has to have something a little more than just information.

One of the very best ways to make sure your trade show booth handouts dont get thrown away but will stick is to put an offer or coupon of some kind in them. Coupons that a person can use after the trade show event practically guarantee your handouts wont get thrown away. After all, your customers will want to use the coupons!

Sweepstakes and raffle offers also work well and assure your handouts will be read, kept and, better yet, used. To get someones attention these days means you usually have to give them a little more than just information. They want STUFF. And so having a simple sweepstakes or raffle offer in your trade show booth handouts means that your handouts are more likely to be read and held on to.

And heres a great tip that many people forget. By using this sort of trade show booth handout, you have the opportunity to gather names and addresses. And its so easy! You can use them for follow up using direct mail, email newsletter and other marketing promotions long after the trade show event is over.

This is an important part of marketing, using any venue or medium. Follow up is essential. What? You thought youd just do a trade show event and make some sales and that would be it? What about the potential customers who only need a little nudging or who may not need your product or service now, but will in the future? Are you going to just let them get away?

The truth is that normally it takes six to seven times (and sometimes many more) to get a marketing or advertising message across to a consumer and make a sale. Thats why there are so many avenues for advertising and promotions to begin withto give businesses more opportunities to get their marketing messages across.

So the last thing you want to do is think a trade show booth event is all you have to do to make a sale. Use a sticky handout that allows you to gather contact information and by continually reaching out to those people who have shown an interest in you, youll ensure they show a return interest in you!