A trade show is an effective marketing tool for tradies due to the consumer interest it generates and the number of visitors it attracts. Trade shows present them with an excellent opportunity to market their products to potential customers.
But doing so is not easy. Trades shows are fiercely competitive due to the attendance of a large number of businesses. There would be businesses with eye-catching displays participating in trade shows. To get the ultimate ROI, you will need to stay ahead of them. But with hundreds of exhibitors participating, how can you ensure that you attract maximum traffic your way?
One way to do so is to start with pre-show marketing, where you can send key targets an offer that they can redeem at your booth.
Here are some other suggestions for you to stand out at a trade show:
- Be Different
- Host a Contest
- Leverage Social Media
- Announce Giveaways
- Be Dynamic and Engage
- Show Your Credentials
- Create a Targeted Offer for the Trade Show
The best way to get noticed at a trade show is to make sure that your booth is different from that of all the other exhibitors. Using eye-catching and easily recognizable banners will help grab visitors’ attention.
It helps to brainstorm innovative ideas to make your trade show display stand out. Try to develop a concept that relates to your business. Create interactive displays that showcase your work and highlight them on a projector screen or a whiteboard. You can even offer hot coffee and cookies to visitors.
Implementing such tactics will attract people to your stand. This will give you a chance to interact with them and show your wares.
Contests encourage people to talk about a company, thus spreading the word about its products and services. An in-booth contest at a trade show is the best way to attract visitors to you. A smartly executed contest will bring you a huge crowd and will give them a chance to learn more about your company.
An exciting and innovative contest will lead to heightened consumer interest and consequently a greater ROI from your presence at the event. Make sure your contest is well advertised with pre-show and at-show promotions. Hosting a contest at your booth will give you the opportunity to talk to visitors about your service in a fun and informal way.
Social media is all the rage right now. Consumers with smartphones in their hands are accessing social networks on the move. Social media can work for you during the event.
If people are tweeting about the event then you could use a monitor to display tweets from the event hashtag on your stand. Businesses create massive queues outside their booths by putting up a live Twitter stream display.
Create and launch effective trade show giveaway promotions at your booth to attract visitors. Giveaways need not be expensive, but should be unique, memorable and attractive.
For instance, you can use an LCD screen to play a loop of magic trick. All those interested in learning how to do it themselves will be emailed the instructions provided they leave their details with you. This may generate a lot of traffic around your booth as visitors would cluster around the screen to try to solve the trick.
Tradies should come up with such simple, creative and cost-effective ideas to generate massive interest and increase leads. If you have the budget for it, announce random winners from the business cards collected and give away an enticing freebie, such as an iPad. This will attract others to your booth and help you build your marketing list.
Visitors to your stand will love the giveaways, but giveaways don’t help create a dialogue. To further boost the traffic, engage with your audience. This will generate more opportunities for your business.
Find out the kind of people attending the event beforehand. Based on your research, talk about the things that surround your industry, though not specifically your product, and something that the visitors would find interesting. Your challenge is not only to make the audience want to listen to you but to help them understand, remember and act on the information or ideas you share.
Don’t just demonstrate or sell your products. Listen to the queries of your audience and solve their problems. Ensure your trade show salespeople are warm and friendly with booth visitors. These presenters will determine if your trade show participation is a success or not.
Demonstrating your credentials is a very important part of marketing and branding. Display your credentials proudly and prominently at your trade show booth. This will inspire confidence among the attendees, and mark you out as an established, legitimate and trustworthy company. Credentials will entice visitors to know more about your services.
Generate a QR code and add it to the collateral you distribute at the event. Configure the code to send people who scan it to a dedicated landing page that will allow them to download an e-book or a whitepaper that relates to the theme of the trade show. This will not only help you generate a crowd at your booth but will also give you a way to track the results from the event.
These 7 awesome suggestions will help your business stand out at the next trade show and make a lasting impression on event attendees.
