So your business is about to present at a tradeshow, and you’re deciding how to set up your table or booth. A lot of decisions must be made between now and the date of the event, and the decision-making can get overwhelming. Add to that stress the desire to stay as eco-friendly as possible for the sake of your reputation and the way the crowd perceives your company, and things can get even more complicated.
No need to fret.
While going green for an event can add some extra hurdles, it doesn’t have to be as complicated as you might think. At Integra, we’ve prepared thousands of promotional and print on paper materials for events, and we’ve picked up lots of eco-friendly game plans along the way.
Today, we’re here to share those strategies with you so that you can plan with the confidence of tried-and-true methods at your fingertips. We’ll provide four key tips for keeping your tradeshow appearance branded, cohesive, engaging and, of course, ecologically sound, including best practices for:
- Pre-event messaging
- Branded decor
- Event signage
- Printed company literature
- Promotional giveaways
- Follow-up communication
And if you decide you want help coordinating these four pillars of successful eco-friendly event execution, we’ll gladly answer more questions or even step in as your print management partner to tackle the best steps for your business.
Before we dive in, we’d like to emphasize one critical rule of thumb when it comes to this type of values-based marketing.
A Word of Warning for Readers Thinking About an Eco-Friendly Print Strategy
We want to make sure you remember one critical rule before we get started on potential strategies: DO NOT OVERDO IT.
While we and every other printer out there would love to sell more products, we wouldn’t want to do so at the expense of your success. You don’t want to go so crazy with the eco-friendly offers and products that you start coming across as fraudulent or pandering. In fact, buyers can smell this type of disingenuous marketing effort from a mile away, and it can sow distrust about your company’s intent.
Plus, more materials invariably means more environmental impact, so make sure your chosen strategy is tasteful, reasonable and cohesive with your brand and business.
With that out of the way, let’s take a look at some tried-and-true strategies. First, how can you get the word out in an eco-friendly but effective manner?
Green Event Tip #1: Market Smartly for Your Appearance at a Trade Show, Conference or Job Fair
Paper in and of itself is a renewable resource, and domestic paper manufacturers take care to be good stewards of the environment. If you’d like to market your event via direct mail, you can take a number of steps to do so in an extra eco-friendly way, such as:
- Printing on recycled paper
- Using vegetable- or soy-based inks
- Selecting an Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) route to avoid extra delivery drives
- Carefully targeting your audience to limit wasted pieces
You can choose recycled materials and eco-friendly ink for signage components as well.
Combine your efforts with digital marketing by emailing customers on your house list and posting on your social media pages.
Green Event Tip #2: Brand Materials for Your Trade Show Table Without a Huge Carbon Footprint
This section combines branded decor, event signage and printed company literature into one, because the steps for going green will be more or less the same for each. Much like with direct mail pieces sent out before an event, you may want to take your environmentalism a step further with your literature, decor and signage by opting for recycled materials. Just keep in mind that you’ll likely pay more for recycled products since they’ll be coming from domestic sources.
The same goes for your ink usage. Feel free to slap your logo on every piece of signage, decor and paper handouts you can, but make sure your printer is using a vegetable- or soy-based ink. These inks are common in today’s print industry, so you shouldn’t have much trouble with sourcing.
Another way to cut back on waste is to avoid overdoing it with your materials. Estimate realistically for how many visitors you think you’ll see showing up at your display, and avoid the temptation to over-prepare. You can learn about the event’s typical performance by contacting the business hosting the event or looking online to find previous years’ attendance numbers.
Green Event Tip #3: Choose Eco-Friendly Promotional Giveaways and Merch
Depending on the number of attendees you’re preparing for, promotional giveaways can add up quickly in terms of materials tossed into a landfill after the event. Plan to take extra care with these items to avoid harsh environmental consequences.
We’ve written a full piece on the most popular eco-friendly promotional giveaways available, which you’re more than welcome to explore for more details. To recap, the top five giveaways with sustainability top of mind include:
- Bags
- Recycled notebooks
- Reusable drinkware
- Coasters
- Reusable file folders
If these aren’t for you, shop around a little. You’re sure to find plenty of other eco-friendly swag opportunities, from beanies made of recycled materials to biodegradable pens made mostly out of cardboard.
Just remember your goals as you plan. Whether environmentalism is your first or second priority, the other close item of importance is to make your stewardship clear to your audience. With some products, such as high-quality tumblers, you won’t have much trouble making your point — reusable = more eco-friendly. With others, such as recycled notebooks, you may need to request for your printer to incorporate a symbol, logo or phrase indicating that the products are made from recycled materials.
Green Event Tip #4: Stick With the Environmentalism as You Follow up With High-Value Leads
Finally, as you pack up your gear from the presentation and reflect on your experience, you may find yourself planning to send a follow-up gift to the attendees who seemed like great fits. But what’s the best way to go about that process?
Trying to give a full care package to every single person at your table is one of the top mistakes businesses make at trade shows that can drive both their costs and their carbon footprint way up. Instead, either:
- Keep some high-tier gifts tucked away nearby to hand out to interested parties you think may pose a big opportunity later
OR
- Collect the appropriate information from visitors, and follow up by delivering some eco-friendly gifts they wouldn’t have gotten at the event itself
Either way, this strategy will allow you to give a little extra TLC to qualified leads, encouraging them to build a relationship with you and your business. Consider a “green bundle” that features several eco-friendly products, but make sure those items differ from those you’re giving to everybody at the event. Remember, it’s meant to be special and stand out without losing the eco-friendly focus, so make sure it emphasizes how much you value the recipients.
Which Eco-Friendly Event Promos Sound Most in Line With Your Business?
As you thought about your upcoming table at a promotional event, you may have been worried about coming across as wasteful on one hand or uncaring toward visitors on the other. You want to catch their attention, but positive attention, and that can feel daunting.
Now, you have some ecological solutions at your fingertips for each phase of event execution. As long as you remember not to overdo it, you can pick and choose from these strategies, apply them to other popular promo giveaways or even find a way to implement each one in your own special way.
If you’re still wondering where you can source the print and promotional products for your next event or series of appearances, you may be wondering what it’s like to rely on Integra Graphics Synergy. Click below to learn more about how we help our customers, and whether or not we might be a good fit for your upcoming project.
