If your company is willing to spend the money, time and resources to display a booth at a trade event, it’s vital you make the most of it. Therefore, the following five tips will help you host the ultimate successful trade show.
1. Location, location, location
Every business person knows the age old adage ‘location, location, location’. This is because the location of your booth at a trade show event is almost as important as deciding on a spot for your physical office.
Trade show organisers often offer prime locations for a slightly higher fee – and these are known to sell fast. If you’re willing to spend a little extra, you should look into acquiring one of these prime locations. Due to their limited availability, you may need to indicate your interest in advance. If you plan on attending the same trade show for a number of years, you could even consider paying long term.
2. Grab attention in three seconds
At every trade show, there are hundreds of rival businesses vying for the attention of the same customers as you; it’s therefore important you’re able to capture the attention of potential buyers in less than three seconds. In fact, you have less than seven seconds to create a connection with a customer that might result in a purchase decision.
One way to attract attention quickly is by going out of your way to make your trade booth as attractive as possible. Regardless of personal preference, customers are always attracted to a good looking design, whether it’s a trade booth, website or simple business card. So, don’t shirk the expenses when it comes to designing an attractive exhibition stand. Instead, engage an expert exhibition stands contractor who will be able to combine the right colours, lights and graphics design to convey your message as clearly and effectively as possible.
3. Go minimalist
You’ve probably heard that these days, less is more. This same principle should be applied to your trade exhibition.
There’s no need to cluster your stand with too many of the same items. Instead, focus on making your stand as memorable as possible. To do so, arrange products at different heights, using placement to emphasise importance.
One good trick is to place the less interesting items closer to hand and the ones with a high turnover a bit further away. Ensure that people who approach your stand will not be swamped with too much information at the same time. Wherever possible, reduce the paper content by using display devices to convey information. Customers find it more agreeable to engage with a less cluttered display, as it’s less confusing and makes decision-making easier.
4. Use competitions and promotions
Everyone likes freebies, whether in form of a prize or a simple giveaway. It therefore follows that offering some form of competition or promotion will attract people to your trade stand.
A good idea is to request participants fill out a feedback form or questionnaire before taking part in the competition. This way, you’ll have a way to contact them after the trade fair has finished. However, make sure that you don’t pester them with unsolicited information.
Just look for a way to keep the memory of your stand and business fresh in their minds. For instance, you can send an email, asking how they’re enjoying the gift they won and what they think you can do better next time.
5. Use Social Media
Even before the trade fair, you should have an effective social media marketing plan in place to boost your online presence. For the best results, this should complement an attractive website (as stated earlier) and cloud computing technology from rated providers for easier and more effective management of business and customer data.
For example, signing up on a cloud platform like https://www.umbrellar.com/cloud-platforms/umbrellarcloud/, allows you to be able to better store and manage information that social media provides you with about people who have checked in to the trade fair’s social media account or have made mentions of the upcoming trade fair on social media. Subsequently, you can invite them to your trade stand and use the social media platform to offer incentives. In fact, handled properly, you can attract hundreds of people to your booth using social media.
You can also use social media to discover people who attended the trade fair and connect with them, effectively keeping your business at the forefront of their mind.
Conclusion
So, there you go – five trade show tips you should consider following for having a successful participation. If you have more tips to add, please leave a comment below.