A trade show is a gathering of experts, investors, business leaders, enthusiasts, media, and customers—all under one roof. Unlike cold calling, trade shows provide a face-to-face marketing opportunity to connect directly with customers and prospects. Exhibiting at a trade show provides a multitude of benefits such as boosting brand presence, establishing customer loyalty, generating highly targeted business leads, and increasing sales. If you own a business or plan to establish a brand presence at a trade show, use these tips to get the most out of your experience.
Promote Your Attendance
Get the word out that you are exhibiting at a particular trade show with your website, emails, social media channels, etc. Invite your customers, clients, suppliers, and other contacts to attend the exhibition. Give them all the details, such as the location of your trade show and booth number. You can also contact the sponsor of the event to take advantage of the preshow marketing tools. Most of these tools will be available within the cost of your trade show exhibit space.
Design Your Trade Show Booth
When exhibiting at a trade show, make sure to keep the branding consistent throughout the entire booth area, including images, retractable banners, freebies, etc. The designs of your trade show displays should be bright enough to attract customers to your booth. You can also bring in digital signage and interactive touch screens to your booth for educating your customers, demonstrating your products, and engaging with your booth visitors.
Be Friendly to Attendees
Train your trade show staff to make visitors feel comfortable enough to stop and check out your booth. Greet guests and make eye contact with your attendees. You must also be mindful of the people near your booth and train your staff on ways to engage them with questions. Do not forget to thank attendees for spending time at your booth when they leave. You can consider providing food, beverages, and water bottles to those who visit your exhibit area.
Engage People with Activities
There are numerous ways to generate an audience to your trade show booth. Games such as trivia contests, casino-style games, prize wheels, jumbo board games, Plinko, matching contests, and quizzes can entertain your guests. You can also hire a musician, comedian, and other artists to make your booth stand out from your competitors. Close up magic, wire bending, digital caricatures, balloon twisting, and the human statue are some compelling forms of entertainment that help to generate a buzz and attract customers to your booth.
Engage in Mindful Networking
When networking at trade shows, engage with people and make new business contacts. Have enough business cards with your company information and contact details so that you give potential customers something to walk away with. Get to know the meeting points at the venue or reserve a small space in your booth to offer a private networking experience to potential contacts and customers. Instead of staying within your circle of acquaintances, start conversations with strangers to expand your networking circle.