The Exhibit Source Blog

B2B marketers continue to rate trade show events as their most effective marketing tactic (71%). However, to make the most of an event, and see real return on your investment, you need to create a solid strategy and execute.

If you’ve been to a trade show, half of the exhibits seem to be effective, attracting large crowds, and the other half seem to generate no interest and are filled with employees who look bored and envious of the booths around them.

Some companies benefit from trade shows, and others wonder whether their time and money was worth it. With some proper strategizing and planning, your trade show efforts can get the results that you need it to.

Here are important steps to an effective trade show marketing strategy.

Plan far in advance

Many times companies register far in advance for the trade show, and then forget about it; or they’re last-minute and reactionary when picking the trade shows they participate in. To do trade shows right, you need to begin your planning long in advance. Planning should be a very strategic process, where pre-show, during-show, and post-show are all meticulously tied back to a strategy and aligned with your business goals and objectives.

Determine trade show goals beforehand

What are you looking to accomplish at the trade show? What’s your purpose for being there? Determine in advance, long before the event, what it is you actually are looking to accomplish. Everything you do related to the trade show should be connected back to accomplishing your objectives. Be sure to set specific, quantifiable metrics for measuring the success of your trade show.

Design your trade show booth and messaging to make an impact

With all those trade show booths, you have seconds to attract a passerby to your booth. So, creating a powerful visual impact with simple and clear messaging is very important to lure people in. Your booth is intended to be a backdrop, not a brochure. This can’t be overstated: people walking by should be able to instantly recognize who you are and what you do. It’s your trade show booth staff’s job to take it from there. Also, be sure your brand is prominent and consistent with your other marketing materials.

Make your exhibit space open and inviting

Know your trade show exhibit setup in advance: the dimensions of your space, where it is in the room, ceiling height, access to lighting or electricity, etc. This will determine how you set up your presence. Having a table across the front of the booth space can make it appear closed off and uninviting. Instead, create a space where people can enter without feeling trapped. You can create different stations in the space for people to learn about your company and products or services.

Make sure your staff is engaging

Your booth should be staffed with energetic and enthusiastic employees who enjoy connecting with trade show attendees and are implementing the strategy you defined long before they arrive. There should be no working on computers, no smartphones and no sitting. Your staff is there to work the booth, so that should be the primary focus.

In addition to having engaging conversations, consider something else to lure in an audience and create some hype like contests, promotions, and giveaways. But it’s more than just giveaways, you need to have a plan of action for generating conversations, identifying legitimate leads and capturing their contact information through a scanner or landing page. This will be helpful when beginning the lead nurturing process after the event.

For more information on effective trade show marketing booths and strategies, contact The Exhibit Source.

B2C

Many new, small and medium-sized businesses wrestle with the decision of paying to attend a trade show.

While it could reap rewards through exposure to potential clients and investors, having a solid attack plan and an eye catching trade show exhibit in order to achieve your goals is extremely important.

Here are five tips from trade show experts that could bring in the results you’re aiming for.

1. Set pre-show goals

Setting pre-show, achievable targets for your trade show presence is essential for success and for future business.

It’s important to consider who you’d like to do business with and think about inviting those prospective clients along – this is a great chance for some face-to-face time with clients in a more relaxed environment.

Sending formal invitations with a small gift prior to an event can really boost attendance rates.

Keep your trade show team motivated by setting some realistic goals, such as collecting a certain number of email addresses, approaching a certain number of attendees, or handing out a certain number of brochures.

2. Attract attendees to your booth

Think about how you can engage the visitor using all five senses. Visualize the feeling you want to deliver to attendees when they step into your booth space.

Keep your exhibit area clean, open and inviting. Book a large enough space to properly display your information or ensure you design your booth and produce signage with your stand dimensions in mind.

If space permits, create a casual area to sit down and have deeper conversations. Don’t overstaff, as attendees can get intimidated if they have to approach more than three staff.

Create eye-catching trade show exhibits with outstanding signage with simple text and/or illustrations. Don’t provide a long list of what your company does in your signage.

Strategically place lighting within your trade show booth space to highlight logos and graphics or create fading motion.

Be sure your design communicates (1) Who you are (2) What you do and (3) How you can help.
 
Use interactive technology and have products on hand that the customers and touch, feel and sample.

Appeal to the other senses (smell and taste) by providing a complementary coffee or fresh snacks that will attract extra attendees.

3. Once you've got someone to your booth, know what to do with them

Firstly and importantly you need to have the best people work in your trade show booth to achieve your objectives.

You need people that can easily communicate with potential customers, who can quickly assess if the customer is a hot, warm or cold lead, and decide whether they have the power to make a decision to purchase your product or service.

Have a system that can record this information.  

Train your staff on how to connect with people, ask the right questions and then quickly disconnect with the delegate and move on if that person will waste their time.”

4. Make your trade show exhibit booth an experience to remember

The idea here is threefold: First, it gives attendees something to do when they visit your booth. This encourages them to stay longer in your space and hopefully have more meaningful conversations with your staffers.

Second, it provides an experience they can't get at a retail store.

Finally, people tend to remember experiences much longer than they remember casual conversations or static product displays.

5. Your work isn’t done when the show finishes

Throughout the day, your team will probably have picked up a good number of business leads – make sure you have a meeting with your team at the end of the day to gather this information.

Follow up with your leads by arranging a meeting at their convenience; send your information to them by way of an "icebreaker’ email and follow this up with a phone call.

Social media is playing an increasingly bigger role in exhibitions and trade shows.

For more information on creating and designing trade show exhibits, contact The Exhibit Source.

StartUpSmart

A trade show is effective when you are able to share knowledge and receive unexpected knowledge that helps your business. A trade show is about building new relationships that help generate new business. Use the following tips to organize effective trade shows to help promote your business.

1. Stop thinking about trade shows in terms of sales and earnings and think rather in terms of cementing customer relationships, building networks and advancing marketing goals.
2. Forget about flooding your trade show booth with people – rather, focus on the quality of your interactions with your attendees.
3. Keep your trade show exhibit clean; your message and your images must be simple and easy to digest. Remember that while complex layouts and flashing lights may garner attention, people will miss out on your brand message and show purpose.
4. Do some brainstorming very in advance and create marketing initiatives to put in place before, during, and after the event. Doing this will help you better engage people, build relationships and generate leads.
5. Evaluate your trade show display booth based on visibility, prominence, size, marketing requirements and your budget. Make sure your booth is big enough for a comfortable show, but not so big as to make you look like a laughing stock.
6. Work with top graphic design providers to create effective graphic elements for your exhibits. Your graphics must effectively portray your key messages, thereby fulfilling your brand communications requirements. Establish design parameters for modular exhibition stands, brochures, banners and so on.
7. Try to make your trade show booth stand out from the others. You can try elevating it by a few feet above others, or build a mock-terrace for your event models and so on. This will attract more prospects to your trade show display area.
8. Design costumes for booth staff using your brand colors; embroider or print your brand logo on their t-shirts for instant recall. Make sure your logo and byline are prominently displayed on all sides of the booth.
9. Research what kind of giveaways or promotional products people like. Look for cost-effective giveaways that will both complement your company image and have high-perceived value among your target prospects.
10. Train your booth staff to be courteous, informative and professional. Hire a professional event modeling agency to staff your booth and train event models to represent your company, secure sales and generate leads.
11. Print sufficient brochures and marketing materials for at 1.5 times the number of people you expect. Train your staff to point out valid points in the brochure while they introduce your brand and product to prospects.
12. Set up a screen and display still shots of your company and its top people along with their names and special quotes from them. Break up this display with a few of your company’s top TV Ads to grab people’s attention.
13. If possible, take help of professional event models and  brand ambassadors to represent your products and services in effective way.

For a more effective trade show display, contact The Exhibit Source.

B2C

A great way to increase brand awareness and make new connections is attending industry trade shows . Of course, your competition is there too, and so are a lot of other companies. And everyone is battling for brand awareness and competing for the same clientele. You need your company to stand out from the pack.

You only have about 3 seconds to make an impression when someone is walking by your trade show display. A surefire way to draw attention is to think outside the box with your trade show booth. Do something unconventional, surprising, or out of the ordinary, and bigger is better. Your trade show exhibit needs to grab qualified prospects and draw them in.

Your salespeople or employees who are working your trade show booth should be having fun too. Having fun stands out. Let them know they can have fun with the passersby. All of them are potential customers, and some of them are customers. Give them a reason to stop at your booth.

The Exhibit Source understands the importance of your trade show exhibit, we offer numerous options of display styles, contact us.

If you are looking for a low-cost trade show display that is sure to stand out from the crowd, look at “Glide”. Glide has an unusual oval-shaped graphic background that will set your trade show exhibit apart. But just as important, it's the first portable exhibit that was designed to support a large-screen LCD monitor.

The 8' tall tower not only holds the video monitor and a shelf, but also provides integrated locking storage. Mounted to the sides of the tower is the large oval background banner, illuminated by a compact fluorescent edge lighting or optional LED lighting.

Experience the Portable Strength of these trade show displays. Built around a strong central tower, Glide blends true portability with incomparable strength and function.

No other portable trade show booth can support a TV screen this large! This trade show booth display is the Winner of the Best New Product Award at the Exhibitor 2009 Conference and The Only Portable System to receive an honor.

• Supports a 36” Monitor
• Integrated Locking Storage
• Choose the innovative oval shape or traditional rectangular fabric banner
• Sets up in less than 30 minutes
• Packs in one small, wheeled case weighing under 100 lbs.
• Save on shipping and storage costs!

Available for rent or for purchase. Contact The Exhibit Source.

Is your business one of those where potential clients are regularly coming to your offices for workshops, seminars, meetings or information? If so, you need a way to set your office space apart. Your clients and potential clients need to be impressed.  While you are at it, create a motivating and welcoming atmosphere for employees, and showcase certain areas to guests with The Exhibit Source.

The Exhibit Source is a leader in trade show booths and exhibits offering a complete selection of event marketing and trade show exhibit solutions. But that is not all we do. We can help you create the corporate interiors you are looking for. With the Exhibit Source as your interior design partner, we can create corporate interiors that add inspiration, and promote your brand and message.

ImageWalls prints can turn any design - photographs, unique design, logo, illustration or quotation - into wallpaper for your workspace. Custom wallpaper has never been practical before. But ImageWalls can produce custom wallpaper for one wall or all your walls for an affordable price.

The Exhibit Source creates dynamic corporate interiors, transforming reception areas, conference rooms, training centers with large-format digital graphics and custom wallpaper; Contact us.

You have made the commitment to attend trade shows. You have hired and paid the staff, expensed the travel and in some cases lodging, you have purchased the uniforms and you have a captivating trade show display. Because of it all, you have gotten some great leads. Now you have to follow-up on those qualified leads. This is the challenge.

Trade show lead follow-up has long been a problem. Why go through the effort and expense of exhibiting at a show with no follow-up plans in place. This is such a waste of precious marketing dollars.  However, it is done all the time by companies who must think that this activity is just not that important.

Lead Follow-up Problem Overall

Here is a breakdown of companies overall approach to leads, not just trade show leads.  One statistic shows that the majority of leads are never follow-up.

Does Your Company Qualify Leads for Sales?

• 58% No
• 42% Yes

How to “fix” this problem?

The root of the problem is “accountability.”  Senior management needs to require this information from their staff.  When there is a mandate from senior management, performance measures are normally in place to gauge progress.

Forward thinking exhibition managers tackle this issue with excellent results.  Sometimes they have tied it into calculating a return of trade show performance or they just want to streamline their internal marketing/sales processes.
 
Getting A Sales Person Involved

Have a key sales person in the planning process of the lead qualification form that you will use at the trade show.  Having their fingerprints all over the thinking process and the lead scoring parameters ensures they are more willing to follow-up.  This sales person can communicate to his/her peers the measures which are in place, so the teams knows their time is not being wasted with all of the non-leads.

Business 2 Community

Trade shows allow businesses a setting in to find new business leads, new clients and to attend to existing customers. In theory, trade shows provide one-stop-shopping with hundreds of potential clients under one roof. Seems like the perfect opportunity right?
   
Face to face contact with companies is a more efficient approach than calling or emailing prospective clients.   

The reality is very different.  The scale of many events and exhibitions can quickly overwhelm those very clients you are trying to attract. The right trade show exhibit can help. Exhibitors attend shows to reach sales targets, your trade show display needs to attract people to your booth so you don’t have to go looking for them.

Trade shows are great opportunities to network, build relationships with customers, and invite prospects to explore your goods or services. Try to plan your space and use your location to your advantage. But most importantly, promote yourself before the trade show. Let  your potential and existing customers know where you are going to be and offer them a show special.

For assistance in creating the perfect trade show booth, contact The Exhibit Source.

When you exhibit at trade shows, it is important to have a well-place dynamic trade show exhibit that draws people. For companies investing money in trade show exhibits, it is important to do it right.

Trades shows are a great way to meet new potential customers, and interact with existing customers. But first, they need to be able to find and be attracted to your trade show booth.

Picking a great spot for your booth is important too. An attractive trade show booth and the right location within the trade show is a solid exhibit strategy, especially for a smaller company. The opportunity for face-to-face contact that a trade show offers cannot be replaced.

A small or medium sized company can attend a show with a memorable trade show exhibits without breaking the bank. It is surely possible to outfit a 10x10 trade show booth display on a small budget, small enough to make a attending a trade show a great decision for many businesses.

For information on designing your trade show exhibit, contact The Exhibit Source.

If you are heading to a trade show, it is important to make an impression with your trade show display and get the best return on your investment as possible. When go to a trade show on a tight budget, this may be even more important.

Purchasing a pre-owned trade show exhibit can offer savings of as much as 50% over the cost of a new display - and many still have the manufacturer's warranty. Pre-owned trade show exhibits can be customized with your graphics and tailored to communicate your marketing message.

If you are spending the time and money on a trade show it is important to do the show right with memorable and captivating trade show booth. Our inventory of pre-owned exhibits changes often. For current availability, and information on pre-owned trade show exhibits contact The Exhibit Source.

FREE graphic header with the purchase of a pre-owned exhibit!