If you’ve been on a business trip to a conference there’s a good chance you’ve finished the day with a bag overflowing with brochures, booklets, and articles. What did you do with them? If you say you read each one before neatly organizing them on your shelf, forgive us if we don’t believe you. Maybe that’s when you realize it might be time to think about digital options.

On the flip side, if you’re the one having these documents made, you’re probably familiar with the costs. The first cost is design, which you’ll need no matter what. But if your materials are supposed to print, that’s going to cost too. You’ll only pay once for printing, assuming you printed enough the first time, but transporting them to your next event is another story. Shipping to an event can be a one-time expense, but if there are multiple events on the docket, you’ll pay for roundtrip journeys.

Maybe it’s time you made a plan to give attendees digital collateral. No printing or shipping costs is a great incentive, but there’s more.

One of the best ways to benefit from delegates and attendees downloading your content is to gather basic contact details from them. Now your material isn’t just filling up someone’s bag. Instead, you’re tracking every download and getting useful contact information for marketing and sales. Additionally, your delegate will have the document waiting in their inbox, so they can read it when they’re ready. Delegates are happy to trade a bit of contact details if they can get information they’re looking for. This means that the information you’re gathering is also qualified and relevant, these are people interested in your product.

The next time whether you’re deciding whether to go digital remember to think about the costs of printing, the cost of shipping, and the ability to gather information, and track downloads.