The Power of a Bookmark

It’s Amy time! How is everyone? Crazy with end of year and holiday plans? Me too. I’m trying to work on marketing plans for next year, and my brain is fried. I’ve been thinking about we can use print pieces as marketing tools in unusual situations, and I wanted to share this story with you.

A while back, I was asked to give a presentation at a tech conference for women. You know the conference drill — interesting topic, slide presentation (extra points if you use Presi), some good takeaways, maybe a hand out, on to the next speaker.

I knew I wanted to do something different, but I didn’t quite know what. I kept thinking to myself that I didn’t really need any sort of slide presentation. My presentation was more workshop-ish, less lecture. I needed the women to remember only five main points. I knew I wanted to leave them with a reminder of those points, but I didn’t want to give them a boring hand out that probably wouldn’t make it into their suitcases. 

That’s where the team at CustomXM came in. With only a few days to spare before the conference, I settled on the idea of giving the women a bookmark with my presentation highlights on it. I figured that would be kind of useful and less likely to get tossed. I also included my contact information on the bookmark, of course. I have no eye for design, though, so the Custom crew took the conference logo and color scheme and designed the bookmark around that. I was traveling prior to the conference, so we did proofs via email, and they shipped the finished product to my hotel just in time for my presentation. It was an inexpensive and easy process.

The bookmarks were a success. I had women tell me they loved that I didn’t have a slideshow, because they could focus on what I said, rather than being distracted by images. They also loved that they had an eye-catching and meaningful reminder of what I talked about. The conference organizers were pleased that I had incorporated their logo on the bookmarks. And the best part? I still get inquiries about my presentation from people who weren’t even there, because someone passed the bookmark along to them.

The whole idea was a test. I had no idea if my presentation style would be effective, or if people would like the bookmarks, or if anyone would laugh at me for relying so heavily on a print piece at a tech conference. I was thrilled at how everything turned out, and I’ll always be amazed at the power of one little piece of paper.

(Here’s a peek at one side of the bookmark.)