It may seem like a no-brainer but the key to having a successful trade show is great marketing. But the marketing strategy is certainly not the same across the board for every company. That is why you should have a strategic event plan. Every booth should have at least two people. One person would be overwhelmed.
Have an Exhibit Marketing Plan
You need to decide what you wish to accomplish at the show. Are you introducing a new product or service? Are you seeking out new customers or trying to sell more to existing customers? Try to focus on one specific strategy so that you don’t get overwhelmed. This isn’t to say that you turn away new customers if you plan to focus on current customers.
You also want to come up with a trade show budget. Your goal is to maximize profits while still getting a booth that will attract customers. You will also want to factor in any kind of giveaways, brochures, business cards and budget on employees that will be manning the booth during the trade show.
Have a Great Exhibit
Your booth can be flashy and colorful but if it doesn’t explain what you do and include your brand, you’ve wasted your money. There are many booths out there that look like they’ve spent a lot of money on them but you want people to remember you for your unique product or service not just that bright purple booth with the flashing lights. People are going to be passing by quickly so you need to make sure you highlight your product or service so that it gets noticed. Your panels should incorporate your brand and logo but you might also consider photos of your products or services. People are very visual and remember photographs.
You also want to consider a budget when considering a booth. What size can you afford? Do you have someone in-house to design it or do you need to hire an outside agency to do the graphic design for you? Make sure that you give yourself enough time before the show to design and order the booth so that it will be ready on the date of your trade show. A designer will need at least two weeks to design the booth and you will need a few more weeks to have made and shipped to you. This also applies to any panels that you plan on having if your budget allows.
G&W has designed some great booths, panels and giveaways. Here are some examples of what we can do for you for your trade show:
Implement Powerful Marketing Tools
These marketing tools have to be implemented before during and after the show. Don’t just limit yourself to these strategies during the show. You will want to advertise your show for a proper time before the show to attract current customers to the show. In addition to advertising you will want to prepare the brochures that you will be handing out to customers and plan on the giveaways and contests that you will be using during the show. You need to decide if you will be designing new brochures or using ones that you may already have at the show to advertise your brand and company. Many times the existing ones will suffice. Using existing materials will also help you stay within budget.
Select cost-efficient giveaways. If you plan on giving away a more expensive item like a bag rather than a cheaper pen, you may want to keep them behind your booth and only give them to the really interested customers who spend a lot of time talking to you about your products and services. Your giveaways should also reflect your company’s image. Here is where you can get creative. Remember the idea of giveaways is to have your brand be noticed well after the show is over. Choose something that will get a lot of use from your customers. We recently ordered tissue boxes as a giveaway. The client gave the tissue boxes to doctor’s offices and the office placed the tissues at the front desk. This provided a ton of exposure for the client because every customer that came up to the desk and got tissues saw the name of the client. Think your giveaway through thoroughly for maximum exposure.
A great idea to get names and numbers of potential clients is to giveaway something expensive such as an Ipod and have customers fill out an entry form and drop it in the box. This will only cost you a couple of hundred dollars but generate a ton of leads that you can follow up with later. Don’t forget to get phone numbers, addresses and email addresses.
Choose Trade Shows That You Attend Wisely
Don’t be hasty and just choose any trade show haphazardly. You want to make sure that the trade shows that you choose to attend have a history of high attendance and that the customers that attend will utilize your services. You don’t want to attend a gardening show if you sell pet items. This is a very obvious example, but you get the hint. You can contact the show beforehand and ask how many attendees they had in a previous year and how many they expect to attend at the show you will be attending.
Make Sure Your Employees Know Your Plan
You want to make sure that you bring your employees up to speed well ahead of time about your plan at the show so that they have time to familiarize themselves with the strategy, giveaways etc. You don’t want to send them in blind and have them just “wing-it.” You will want to have at least two employees manning your booths. One to talk to customers and the other to help with brochure and promotional giveaways. One person manning the booths will not be enough at all and will likely get very overwhelmed.
If you keep organized and plan well in advance you will have an extremely successful trade show and should get plenty of leads to follow up with. Don’t forget to try to land the sale at the show too! You will be much more successful if you get the customer to buy on the spot. Once they leave without a purchase you will have less of a chance of getting the sale. Contact G&W today to get started on a brand spanking new trade show booth sure to attract tons of customers at your upcoming show.
