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Exhibit marketing is challenging, but very viable when done correctly. If you are spending money on a trade show booth, employees, marketing materials and travel, make sure you spend that money on the right trade show.

Bigger Is Not Always Better

Just because the trade show is bigger, does not mean that it contains more ideal customers. If you target based on the challenges that your ideal client is facing, see if the show targets that audience, too. You are better off at an event with 100 attendees where you know 30 of them are your ideal client, than an event with 5,000 attendees with 50 of them. You have a narrow chance of finding the one percent in the larger event. But, you'll have a better chance of finding many of the 30% at the smaller event. Creating the right trade show display will grab their attention, the rest is up to you.

Focused Message

Answer the question, "Who would be most interested in what we have, and why would they be excited to meet with us?" If you don't know the answer, your prospects likely will not figure it out either. Your messaging then becomes, "People facing one of these two or three issues will have interest in what we offer."

Once you know your message and the problem you solve, be honest about how many attendees at that conference would care about your two or three messages.

Ask Your Best Clients

Where do your existing customers hang out? Which events do they attend, or where did they attend when searching for your solution? Take a look at their suggestions as there is a chance others facing similar issues to them might be at these events.

If you want to create your own event, plan a special event for your existing customers to invite three of their colleagues from other organizations who might be facing the same challenge your great customer was facing. At that event, do not show your "stuff." Instead, highlight customers who faced challenges and how they solved them, maybe with your stuff. Make the customer the star, not your stuff. Don't worry -- even though you do not show off, they smart prospects will seek you out.

Know Your Goal for a Tradeshow

The goal of most trade shows is NOT to close a deal on the floor. Reps often spend too much time with one or two prospects. Teach a "catch and release" program to attract prospects, qualify, and then schedule follow-up after the show. Hot prospects should have a calendar entry on their smartphone before they leave the booth. Warm ones should be contacted electronically within a day, and then in person within three days of the end of the show.

For more information on trade show marketing, contact The Exhibit Source.

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Here are some ways to make trade shows an investment instead of an expense:

Design

We are seeing more straight-line architecture in trade show booths, which is easier and less expensive to set up than designs with shapes and curves. Colors are cooler, and clients are starting to incorporate light wood tones. Lounge spaces within the trade show booth, with phone charging areas and comfortable seating, are becoming more popular: whether clients want to foster brand awareness, build advocacy, or close sales on the exhibit floor, it’s important to have a comfortable, well-equipped space for meetings that provides an appropriate amount of privacy. As for materials, fabric, plywood, and laminate are increasingly being replaced with more textural and “real world” materials that provide a comfortable, familiar, and authentic experience.

Budgets

The economy has imposed leaner budgets on many exhibitors. The result is smaller, more efficient exhibits and an increased focus on R.O.I.. Simpler  booth designs from aluminum frames with lightweight fabric graphics are more common. Exhibitors benefit from smaller, lighter packaging that results in reduced shipping and labor costs. Several businesses have ‘scaled back’ in order to ‘scale up’. They are really looking at the shows they attend to see if they are actually good shows for them or if they were just going because they’ve always gone or because their competitors go. They have also looked at their booth space sizes and gone smaller when possible. This has allowed them to cut back on the number of shows they attend and the amount of money they spend on booth space, allowing them to spend more money on cool booth designs for the shows they do go to.

Technology

Some businesses have been leaning towards electronic picture frames as a way to display product information, rather than a static graphic. It saves money in the long run and it’s green. As the cost of LEDs and digital signage continues to drop, more exhibitors will make use of these products since they can be updated easily and reused from one event to the next.

For more information on what is trending in trade show booths, contact The Exhibit Source.

business2community.com

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Trade shows are viable and reliable marketing opportunities for new and established businesses. But, in order to boost sales through trade shows your trade show booth needs to capture the attention if attendees. – This can only be accomplished with an effective booth design for your company, product and services.

The Exhibit Source offers companies the ability to bring highly impactful trade show booth displays to their exhibit marketing event. We pay attention to every element that impacts the buying decision: graphics, color, sound, laminates, fabric, furniture, flooring, audio visual, and media.

Additionally we offer rental trade show exhibits as well as custom designed and pre-owned exhibits. We have the capabilities of getting your trade show displays off the ground and transported. As a competent, professional and experienced exhibit services provider our trade show displays are creative, attention-grabbing, and dynamic. Well done and captivating trade show booths will effectively represent your business and brand in front of potential and existing customers.

For more information on rental, pre-owned or custom-designed trade show booths in any style contact The Exhibit Source.

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1. What do you most want people to know when they walk by your trade show booth

You don’t have a lot of time to catch a person’s attention at a trade show. So, you need to make sure you pinpoint what people MUST learn about your company in that moment that they see your booth graphics. Should the graphics feature a product or a corporate message? Should the graphics pick up the look of your ads or should they be different? What should your message be? All of this needs to be thought over carefully so that your booth will create the biggest impact possible.

2. Think about lines of vision

A common mistake is to place important graphics or copy too high or too low on a graphic. This of course defeats the whole purpose of having well-designed trade show booth graphics. If people can’t see your message they can’t react well to your message.

3. Don’t burden your trade show exhibit graphics with lots of copy

People are not going to have the time or inclination to stand outside your booth for five minutes so that they can read your masterfully crafted copy. When it comes to copy for booth graphics, less is more. Let the images you select speak for themselves.

4. Make sure your images will hold up in larger sizes

Often times there is an image that you have used on a website or in an ad that you think would look great in a booth graphic. However, make sure the image you want to use has the proper resolution so that if you need it bigger it will still look ok. Few things will make your graphics look worse than a fuzzy image that is not meant to look fuzzy!

5. Make sure your trade show booth graphics reflect the rest of your marketing

It is very important that your presence at a trade show or conference reflects the message you are promoting across all other marketing channels. If you are promoting a new product in your advertising or in your social media marketing, that new product message should appear in your booth graphics somewhere. If you have developed a new corporate theme for the year, that should be reflected in the booth graphics.

For more information on trade show booth displays, contact The Exhibit Source.

B2C

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