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Trade shows are a busy time for everyone, making sure you meet with your potential customers, explaining any questions they might have and answering questions about the performance of the product or service you are showing. This face time at trade shows is great for your product and the reputation of your business, but how can you ensure that your customers are taking your words away from the booth in a great reminder of the quality of your product? The answer is promotional wall calendars.

A wall calendar is a great idea for getting your visitors to take the idea of your product and use it every day in their home, since a calendar is something most people need at some point during the day. Keeping track of schedules and writing down important events has a constant appeal to keeping people organized, so imagine the impact you could have on a potential buyer if they are faced with your products each day.

The Benefits of a Promotional Wall Calendar

Wall calendars are great promotional tools because they are present for an entire year before they are useless. Other common promotional items such as pens and pencils are used up or lost before then, so the “shelf life” of a calendar compared to the investment in purchasing other items is definitely longer.

Aside from the extended value, traditional promotional calendars have 12 different panels that you can specifically design to feature your products, or scenery related to your products. This sort of subliminal messaging is great for keeping your product in the mind of your customer while they use the calendar, or even as they walk past it every day.

The Types of Promotional Calendar

There are several different styles of calendar you can utilize in your marketing scheme. Traditional calendars that are typically designed to be the most useful are those that are called flip page calendars. These dedicate an entire page to a month, with a picture above it, allowing dates and events to be written within the boxes to remind them of important events. Unfortunately, this type of calendar is also the most expensive to produce, because each month’s picture must be separate.

If you are interested in handing out calendars but you are looking for something a little more economical, then you might want to consider the 12 month display calendar. These cheap promotional wall calendars usually have a picture at the top printed with your business information including phone number, while providing a quick overview of the 12 months in a year. This type of calendar is not as useful as the traditional wall calendar because it is not designed to be written on, but it does serve its purpose to display dates.

Costs of Printing Calendars

The cost of getting your calendar printed depends on several factors. You need to determine how many calendars you want to distribute, what images you want to include, as well as the style and overall look of the calendar. If you are going with the traditional flip calendar, you will need to provide your printer with 12 different images in the correct resolution needed for the calendar, as well as the business info you want to include. Prices generally cannot be quoted in this situation as quantity and the style of pictures you have chosen play an important role. However, printing these calendars at more than $6 per calendar might not be an economical investment for you.

The other option is the 12 month calendar that only has one image with your business information. These static calendars can usually be printed for under $2 with all of the pertinent information, but keep in mind since your customers cannot use them to keep track of special events, they may just roll them up and toss them out.

Finding a balance between providing a useful tool that contains your advertising and the cost of providing said tool is key. You can usually get cheaper prices on all of your promotional needs by ordering in bulk, but since calendars contain time sensitive information, you do not want to order so many that you cannot give them away before they are practically useless. To solve this problem, order only as many as you are sure you will need and if your business expands or grows in the future, then you can expand upon the amount of promotional tools you are using.

In short, promotional wall calendars are a great option for having your customers promote your business outside of the trade show environment because they provide something useful that your customer will need. The only downside to this promotional tool is that it tends to be more expensive than handing out something as small as pens. However, it is still a cheaper option than giving away t-shirts or something larger, such as messenger bags with your logo.

By its very nature, a trade show is an excellent marketing opportunity for virtually any business in any industry. The show floor is a target-rich venue, often packed with potential new buyers, clients or customers. Getting and keeping their attention is vital to a company’s existing as well as future business. One of the best ways to accomplish that during the trade show – and, in fact, keeping their attention long after the show – is by giving out promotional desk calendars. The desk calendar can be customized to feature any industry, business, individual company, hobby or interest. They can also be produced in bulk for just a few dollars each, making them a perfect trade show “giveaway”.

A good rule of thumb in business is that anything which will keep a company fresh on the minds of that company’s potential new clientele is good business. Promotional desk calendars fit the bill perfectly, and are a relatively inexpensive way of keeping the company in front of the client. A calendar has a “shelf life” of a full year meaning that the client or potential new client will be turning the page on the company advertisement 365 times – each day of the year – and depending on how interesting the design or theme of the calendar, an existing or new customer will be looking at the company name several times each day as appointments are made and schedules are maintained.

The benefit is the subtle, long term effect. Truly effective advertising is that which, over time, creates a belief in the mind of the advertising target that a company featured in the ad is the very best in that particular field – the “go to” company when the chips are down or the expert when it comes to that industry. Each time the client or potential client looks at the calendar, a subliminal message will register in the mind of the client making them believe that they do not have to go anywhere else for their business needs; the company on the calendar is the answer. In other words, if it is an existing client, the message will be a reinforcement of the strong, existing business relationship. If it is a potential client, the message will be an ever present suggestion – “Why not give us a try?”

Obviously, providing existing clients with a desk calendar is a “no brainer”. When they show up at the trade show, thank them for attending and, during the course of the conversation, offer them a new calendar. They realize they are not the only customers getting the gift, but the personal touch reinforces the relationship.

Of course, the real trick here is not in simply giving the desk calendars away, but deciding to whom the desk calendars should be specifically given. Even though that trade show floor looks as if it is full of future clients, many of them are simply not. Qualifying the potential new client can be something of challenge, particularly with so many people roaming around and so much happening everywhere at the show.

So the very first thing to remember is that the best people to give the calendars to are those who seem like the ones who will actually use them. After all, some people will take anything handed to them just because it is free. And in many cases, it just ends up in their hotel room trash basket or given to their Aunt Mildred as a last minute birthday gift…and chances are Aunt Mildred won’t actually be doing much business with the company.

So, while at the trade show booth, the bulk of the calendars should remain out of sight of those just strolling past. Don’t stack a bunch on the exhibition booth table with a sign that says “Free – Take One!” For one thing, it makes the calendar appear cheap – and if they don’t seem to mean much to the company then they won’t mean a lot to those grabbing them up like free lottery tickets. The calendars should only be handed to those who actually engage in conversation about the company or the exhibit. This is still no guarantee that the recipient is good prospect for new business, but is does weed out the trade show “swag” collectors – “swag” standing for “Stuff We All Get.”

Keep in mind that the same person who comes into the company booth or exhibit area is also a potential client for every other company in the trade show. Indeed, by engaging the potential new client directly and sincerely, then handing them a promotional desk calendar personally – along with a business card – the likelihood of another chance to talk with that person and perhaps land a contract or score a deal is increased exponentially.