It’s not always easy to set yourself apart from the crowd at trade shows. There’s a lot of competition for short attention spans. However, enticing bigger crowds to your booth is your ticket to trade show success. The more you understand the way your audience thinks, the better prepared you are to attract bigger, bolder, more attentive crowds to your trade show booth. These 10 tips will help.
1. Consider Your Layout Carefully
Too many trade show booths are set up with a table between them and their audiences. This creates a dividing line. A barrier. It makes your booth uninviting, and many trade show attendees will simply move along to the next booth instead unless you have some other major draw for their attention that has gotten around by word of mouth. The key is to invite people to come in, have a conversation, and learn about your goods, products, and services.
2. Pay Attention to the Visuals
Selling in a sea of bright shiny objects can be an incredible challenge. Your displays and other visuals, though, can make a world of difference for the effectiveness of your efforts.
There are two key elements you must include when displaying items for sale at trade shows:
- Easy visibility for the items
- Transparent pricing displayed for your items
This will not only let passersby know right away if they are interested in the items you have for sale, but also eliminate endless questions about prices from those who would never manage to swing those prices. It does all this while drawing those who are interested and willing to pay the price into your booth to ask questions, get information, and ultimately make purchases.
3. Create an Interactive Setup
By using games, hands-on activities, and other fun stuff to draw audiences in, you’re one step (or more) ahead of most of your competition —especially if you offer prizes as incentive for participation. Don’t forget the power of having videos running information about your products and services while the games are going. That way, people waiting around for the next game to begin can get a solid education about the different products or services you can offer them or their businesses.
The thing that makes this most successful is the ability to draw in large, somewhat captive, audiences while the videos are playing on a loop. This means that wherever they come into the video, they can just pick up their education when the loop begins again.
4. Choose Giveaways That Matter
While everyone and their brother is giving out branded pens, thumb drives, key chains, water bottles, etc. if you choose to give out something like a branded reusable canvas bag, it allows them a medium in which they can carry their bounty that advertises your business to everyone who uses it. It’s a clever and highly effective marketing opportunity that far too few businesses take advantage of in trade show situations.
Choosing an item like this, however, can make your booth the first one they seek out early in the day, while their minds are fresh, so they can get rid of the loads they’re carrying around. Try it for one trade show and see for yourself why they are consistently among the top promo products for trade show giveaways. The most important thing, though, is to make sure you have sufficient gifts on hand for the trade show crowd.
5. Use Social Media Throughout the Event
Social media is an important tool for business. But live Tweeting or conducting Facebook or Instagram live sessions are amazing tools to draw in bigger crowds for your trade show booth. You can even offer special gifts or goodies to people who visit your booth within “x” number of minutes of your Tweet or Live sessions and mention the offer. Make sure these items are of higher quality than the items you give out to the masses like a custom jute tote bag or a wholesale insulated bag.
6. Host a Charging Station at Your Booth
Hosting a charging station where people come to your booth and charge their devices helps you to draw large crowds, giving you an opportunity to hear your message, see your products, and view your educational materials while waiting for their devices to charge. It’s also a convenience that brings goodwill from your visitors and will invite amazing word of mouth reviews whenever they hear about someone requiring a charge for their devices.
7. Keep Plenty of Marketing Items on Hand
The only thing you need as much of as giveaways and prizes for your trade show booth is marketing materials. You need to have as much as possible on hand, without causing unnecessary clutter or getting in the way of movement, as possible. That is, after all, while you are there – to spread the words about your amazing products or services. One wise plan is to keep them under long, table-clothed tables inside your booth, so they are out of sight but within reach and refill them throughout the event as needed.
8. Keep Actual Samples on Hand If Possible
Even if they can’t be used in the trade show setting, life-sized samples of products can help visitors see what they will actually get if they purchase your goods.
9. Keep it Clean
You have no idea how many booths are passed up because they look cluttered or are littered with discarded coffee cups, water bottles, etc. It is worth your effort to tidy up the area consistently so that clutter doesn’t have an opportunity to become a turn-off for potential visitors. Even if it feels like a never-ending chore.
10. Market Your Show Attendance Before the Show
Let customers, email subscribers, and social media followers know you’re attending the conference well ahead of the actual conference date. Build up excitement among your audience by announcing potential giveaways, inside product information, and other fun details about the trade show and why they’ll want to attend.
Don’t forget to use your own wholesale trade show bags and totes while you’re out and about running errands at the trade show. People will seek to have a bag of their own and make a point of finding your booth. Some may even make it a priority.
Ready to develop your own custom printed tote bags for your trade show? Let ReuseThisBag.com help. Talk to an Account Rep now at 877-334-5323.