Recent surveys have revealed that the exhibitors invest the majority of their exhibition budget into the space rental at the event. While this may seem logical at first glance, it’s easy to understand why so many businesses fail to turn out a good ROI with this approach.
You see, being at the trade show is one thing. Standing out at a trade show is an entirely different beast.
With consumers and other businesses hungry for engagement and entertainment, your brand will have to do a lot more than ‘be present’ to make an impact. Luckily, custom exhibit booths are designed to produce the lasting and impressive impact you’ve been hoping for.
From standing out to creating an engaging experience for your visitors, follow along to discover how to design and leverage custom exhibit booths for success at your next trade show.
Set Your Goals
The first step in creating your custom exhibit booth is carving out the exact goals and objectives you hope to achieve.
Are you attending to build brand awareness? Boost sales? Gather leads? Whatever your goals are, knowing them ahead of time will help guide your exhibit booth design for success.
Your objective may change what kinds of elements to use to attract visitors or even what design layout to choose.
Knowing your goals can also help you determine an accurate trade show budget to ensure you get the highest return on your investment. If you plan to bring in the majority of your income from these events, your budget for exhibit booth services and design should reflect this.
Tell Your Brand Story
The next step to create an exhibit booth that packs a punch is to find a way to tell your brand story. This is a crucial element that many exhibitors forget about that can seriously cost your business.
There may be hundreds or even thousands of other booths set up at your exhibition event. With so many exhibitors, chances are someone else will have products that are relatively similar to yours.
This isn’t a problem if your branding is on-point. However, if you focus too much on products and not enough on promoting your brand, you’ll be easily forgotten.
Your logo, brand colors, and story will be what set you apart from your competitors and make you memorable. Leverage this by ensuring your branding is strong from start to finish on every custom booth project.
Design for Your Space
As we mentioned above, space at exhibits is expensive. Fortunately, having the largest square footage isn’t the only way to take up ‘space’.
By designing for the unique space you have, you can make even a small booth create a massive impact.
Consider what elements you can use to add height, dimension, and make the most out of the space you have. A great rule here is to eliminate borders and obstacles that cut visitors off from your staff. Open concepts and strategically placed stations can make even a small booth feel comfortable and approachable.
Choose One or Two ‘Wow’ Elements
When creating a custom exhibit booth, designers can often get carried away with having ‘wow’ elements. These are the pieces of your design that grab attention and make visiting your booth so desirable.
This may be something like an engaging LCD display, a live demonstration, or even a creative interactive element. While we highly recommend choosing one or two of these awesome crowd-pleasers, it’s important not to overstimulate visitors with a busy booth.
The same rule goes for your product displays.
No matter how many awesome products you have to show off, you should never clutter your booth with merchandise. Instead, use clean and effective product displays to show off the amazing benefits of your brand without overdoing it. You can then store overstock out of sight to keep your visual effects impactful.
Leverage Color and Graphics
The last thing you want to do at an exhibit is blend into the background. While neutral colors may be easy to repurpose for future use, they make your booth look boring and unappealing.
Instead, use punchy, eye-catching colors and bold graphics to make it impossible not to notice your booth. This doesn’t necessarily mean everyone will ‘like’ your colors or graphics, but they won’t be able to ignore them.
Don’t Neglect Lighting
Let’s be honest, trade show lighting sucks. Instead of hoping you’ll wind up under a perfectly placed light, take matters into your own hands by planning and placing your lighting to perfection.
Use lighting to draw the eye through your booth to featured product displays and even make the space feel more inviting. If you are unsure of how to leverage lighting, consider investing in exhibit booth designers to fully take advantage of this game-changing element.
Trust us, a strategically lit booth can do wonders over a dim and dingy display.
Prioritize Customer Experience
No matter what you decide to feature in your booth, your primary goal should always be to design a unique and memorable customer experience. The best way to do this is to map your customer journey.
Take note of what they will see when they first enter your booth, the sounds, smells, and visuals they’ll absorb, and even where they’ll naturally move to as they continue on. All of these elements can help you design a layout that will capture your audience and keep them around for longer.
Custom Exhibit Booth Design
Now that you know how to create a custom exhibit booth for success it’s time to set to work. From setting your goals and selecting key elements to investing in exhibit booth services, we’re confident you’ll see impressive results at your next trade show.
Ready to make a splash but unsure of where to start? Get in touch with us today to discover how we can help you transform your budget exhibit booth and finally earn the traffic and attention your brand deserves.