Trade Show Tips and Essential Marketing Products
- Futech Staff
- Dec 20, 2019
- 5 min read
We are getting to the end of 2019 and that means it’s getting close to the 2020 Trade Show season! Trade Shows are a great way to meet potential clients, show off what your business can do, and make connections with other businesses, business owners, and professionals. They’re all about presentation and spreading brand awareness.
Trade Shows require a lot of prior planning and preparation. You want to make sure your booth is catchy and will draw people to you and this will require you to put a lot of though into how your booth will be set up, what products to display, if you will have a theme, and also decorations to jazz up your booth.
Picking the Right Staff
You're also going to want to prepare the staff you will have working the booth and make sure they are well educated on your services/ products and are up to the task of talking to many people throughout the whole day. Having the right staff do the job is key. If you have an introverted staff in control of the booth you may not get as many sales or talk to as many potential customers as you would if you have an out going extrovert. Giving this job to an introverted employee may also make them feel very uncomfortable and stressed depending on the person. Extroverted sales people are great for Trade Shows. They'll thrive talking to many different people and will be more likely to draw people in if they are energetic (but professional).
Planning Your Display
Your business's display needs to be attention grabbing, there will be so many other booths at the trade show that you have to stand out from your competitors and other businesses. The display theme you pick should reflect your business and show off your products or services in an aesthetic way.
For someone in a creative industry maybe add some flowers, greenery, or other small embellishments to compliment your work but not overshadow it. Also make sure to arrange your products in a way that people can get an idea of what they are from a distance but they need to come a little closer to get a full look of what you are selling.
If you are someone who is not in a creative industry and maybe you are selling equipment or more serious products compared to luxury items like art you may want to keep your display more sleek and minimalistic. picking between a minimalist booth and one full of products on display also depends on your businesses' brand image. You can be in the creative industry and want a sleek minimal design if it matches your brand's image or your preference.
Essential Marketing Products to Bring
So you have your staff picked out, and now what you'll be doing for a booth display. Next is to make sure you have all of the marketing essentials to help clients remember your business. The top products I would recommend are business cards, brochures or flyers, something with your logo, banner stands, and display stands.
Business cards and brochures are key to getting your contact information and what you provide to the potential customers. Many people at Trade Shows will walk around and just collect flyers or business card of companies to look them up later. So make sure you have plenty on hand to get out. To go with your business cards and flyers/ brochures you're gong to walk something to display them and keep them organized. Just having them stacked and sitting on your table is asking to make a mess.
For your logo it could be 3D cutout letters, printed on a sign or canvas, really this is up to you, your budget and the overall feel of your business. If you have a higher budget then custom 3D lettering or a LED sign would be an amazing touch to your booth. There are tons of ways you could display your logo.
Banner stands are another way you can display you logo. These you can put near the front of your booth and even slightly into the walkway to grab people attention who maybe haven't looked into your booth yet. They can be customized and include more information than just your logo. Banner stands are also a cheaper alternative to the signs mentioned above. They come in a variety of sizes, including ones that retract and are easy to transport, set up, and take down at the end of the day.
The last product that I believe to be important for trade shows are display stands. Display stands are great for keeping your products organized and making your booth look clean and professional. The type of display stand really depends on your business. If you are selling jewelry you might want to have stands with lots of small storage compartments for different pieces of jewelry or hand and necklace forms.
There are near endless ways to display your products at Trade Shows. It really depends on a few things; what you are selling, how much space you have, your available budget, what is allowed at the show, and the theme you are going for with your booth. Here are a few more great idea for display stands that could make your booth really pop at shows.
Giveaways
Giveaways are something that the majority of business offer at trade shows. They are a great way to bring people to your booth and start talking to them about what you offer. Another use for giveaway is to build a social media following. You can say that people who follow you on Instagram or like you on Facebook will be given an extra entry. Doing this will not only build your audience but will make your social media profiles more likely to be seen by people they are friends with and other potential clients.
You want to make sure your giveaway will be work the people time to enter, but not so big that it will hurt your company. One other thing to consider is the majority of people would rather have a small free gift than a large discount off of a future purchase.
A great way to do the giveaway is to have people put their name, phone number, and email address onto a piece of paper then enter it into a random drawing. Some people feel they normally will have a better chance at winning something if it it luck based rather than a contest or criteria based. Also, by collecting this information you have now expanded your mailing list and have more customer information. Just make sure to disclose that by entering the giveaway they may receive emails from you. Ballot boxes are great products for collecting giveaway entries and will make the giveaway look very official.
Those are all the tips for trade show that I have for you today. I hope you have enjoyed this blog post! Make sure to subscribe for notifications on new posts if you'd like to be notified when a new post has been made!
Have a great day and Happy Holidays! :)
Images & Work Sources:
Image 10: http://futechinc.com/en/449-3d-letters
Image 12: http://futechinc.com/en/5-banner-stands
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