What makes a trade show exhibit successful? If you’re thinking of the largest floor space or the flashiest booth, you’re wrong.
Around 81% of attendees have buying authority. That equates to 4 out of 5 people passing by your booth who are potential customers.
It’s not the gimmicks that will turn them into customers, though. What you need is a solid strategy. Keep on reading below to learn how you can turn your next trade show event into a success.
Determine Your Goals
Your goals are the backbone of your trade show strategy and they’re your measurement of success. Having goals allow you to prepare your booth for the outcome you want and getting your staff on-board.
Remember to set a clear target. Are you looking to make sales during the trade show event? If so, set a number as your goal, and make sure to gear your strategy toward that.
Another example is looking to get press coverage. Do you want an interview with your local news or do you want to appear in a publication? In this case, you must prepare something worthy of the news.
You must also keep your audience in mind. How many customers do you want to entertain and engage? Preparing to accommodate even more than you expect to is the norm.
These baselines should determine the prep that you should do. By doing so, it’s a great way to ensure success for your project.
Market The Trade Show Event
Marketing the trade show event doesn’t solely lie on the event organizers. You have to make sure your target audience is going to be there, too.
This is what will separate you from unprepared exhibitors; they would have done no or little outreach. It’s a surefire way to make people pass up your trade show displays without any notice.
Use social media and send email newsletters. Let all your current customers know about the event. You can also personally reach out to your network and even new contacts.
It’s a great way to generate leads even before the event starts. However, you should be careful not to oversell yourself. Doing so will only cause people to expect more of your trade show exhibits.
It will cause the first customers you get to leave almost instantly. You’re sure to generate bad leads in this case.
Make Your Booth Stand Out
In a sea of booths, you have to find a way to stand out and generate enough interest to attract attendees and make passers-by stop. You only have a few seconds as people today have a shorter attention span than before.
Not only do you have to think of something interesting, but you also have to make sure that the design allows customers to know who you are and what you do in an instant. Your brand should be in clear view, and to achieve all these, you need a good booth provider.
At Rockway, our process involves 3 Ds: Discover, Design, and Deliver. We meet with clients to make sure we understand your brand and your goals for the trade show. We then design the booth in line with your goals and strategy and deliver a high-quality booth to help you succeed.
Offer an Experience
To expand on that, consider how you can create an experience for the customers. Sure, your products and services are at the forefront but think of how you can make people spend time in your booth.
However, you also have to consider your customers and how they want to engage with the booth. Are they more likely to stop for a free coffee or a chance to win the latest iPhone? Can you lure them with a video presentation or a demonstration?
You have to cater to your potential customers’ wants and not force them into your idea of engagement. Why are they at the trade show? Understanding this is the key to offering an experience for your audience.
This is also the way for you to generate leads on the spot. Knowing the audience that the show attracts will help you understand what you can showcase to attract them. Prepare a product to tease them with, software to use to impress, or personnel to attract them to the trade show booths.
Train Your Employees
Speaking of personnel, you should also remember to train your staff. They’re a part of your booth, and whatever energy they’re giving will affect the way attendees will see your booth. If your staff, for example, looks bored and is always sitting around on their phones, the attendees won’t want to stop by to look around.
Brief them on your goals and make them motivated before the show starts. This will bring the right kind of energy to your booth.
Make sure they know the strategy inside and out so they know how to approach the customers. People will likely reflect the kind of energy you’re giving, so if you’re excited, they’ll become excited, too.
Develop a Post-Event Strategy
Your work doesn’t end at the end of the trade show. You then need to follow up on the leads you got during the event.
However, note that not all of those who gave you their contact information are warm leads. Some of them only signed up for the free iPhone. You need to know how to separate these from the ones with genuine interest.
Follow up with them by sending a thank you email, and give them a chance to further interact with you. You can, for example, offer your videos for a free download.
How you proceed from here will depend on the engagement you get from the respondents. If they’re active, engage with them more and promote yourself. These people are likely to buy from or hire your brand.
If you get weak engagement from them, then put them through a drip campaign. Keep sending them messages with keywords that can entice them into considering your brand. In time, they may reach out to you and avail of your services.
Track Your Strategy’s Success
After the trade show, how do you know your strategy is a success? What metrics are you using to measure your success?
Don’t forget to track the results of your trade show as this will help you get better at the next one. Learning from it means you’ll get something valuable out of the event even if you didn’t meet your goals.
Everything from pre-planning to your booth design will play into your success. Contact us today to learn how we can help you achieve your objectives.