Trade Show Displays Blog

Are We There Yet?

Is your trade show booth strategy working? How do you know if your trade booth or display elements are working? You’re meeting your goals for new leads, awareness, or connections!

For many exhibitors, more time goes into the logistics of getting to the conventions than goes into designing a marketing strategy to make the most of your time at conventions. If you’re not hitting the numbers you want, whether it’s generating leads, increasing awareness of your brand or product, or making connections and forming relationships with clients or partners? Then it’s time to plan ahead for your most effective trade shows ever!

The very first thing to do for an effective trade show experience is to identify your marketing goals. Once you set those goals, the strategy becomes clearer. The next thing to do is assign a booth staffer to track your numbers, goals, make notes on shows…all so you have the facts and figures you need to improve on your success each year.

Here are some great tips for each of the three most common trade show goals: Leads, awareness, and connections.

Leads

Generating leads is a numbers game. You need to maximize booth traffic to generate the most leads possible at each event. Here are important tips for getting the most passive traffic, actively attracting traffic, and turning traffic into leads.

• Passive traffic requires attention to detail and planning ahead. Choose booth locations where walkers will be: Near stages, at intersections, and never in a dead-end.
• Active traffic are the attendees who seek out your booth. How do you drive active traffic? Your booth needs to get people talking, attract attention, and have attendees searching for it. Desirable promotional items, visual impact of graphics and booth elements both generate buzz that draw attendees right to you!
• Turning traffic into leads is most effectively done by engaging and well-trained staffers, who can not only turn captivated passers-by into new leads, but they can then multiply that effect by creating more buzz and active traffic!

Awareness

Increasing awareness of your brand, service, or product is about increasing active traffic and informing and engaging with the attendees. You may only get 5-10 seconds to make an impression or to entice that foot traffic into a quick and memorable conversation.

• See above for active traffic
• Turn your staffers into subject matter experts, at least on the surface level, to engage and inform the attendees who are attracted to your booth.
• Use graphics and booth elements designed to customize your booth for each show. Swapping out smaller elements to attract specific audiences while keeping the larger elements the same not only maximizes your budget, but your traffic, too!
• To increase awareness, you need to add layers of information and attention. An attractive promotional item can entice attendees to re-engage with your company by searching for information online. Ads on social media or trade publications promoting your booth at the event can create buzz beforehand. And arranging for your representatives or advocates to speak at the show will create more awareness before, during, and after the convention.

Connections

Making connections and deepening relationships with key clients or partners at a convention or expo requires a different focus. Set up your booth with seating, so that conversations and deeper connections are fostered, and the small group you are focused on actively attracting are enticed to stay awhile and enjoy their time with you while they take a deeper dive into your content/connection.

• Focus promotions to targeted individuals. Spend more per target to make the promotional memorable and meaningful.
• Use management or top-notch sales staff as booth staffers…these are connections who need to feel valued and special.
• Make plans to spend time outside the event, where you don’t have to compete with other booths or vendors.
• Use graphics and booth elements to honor key partnerships and clients, to celebrate your connection and your years together.

Are you excited and ready to begin strategizing your event calendar for 2018 and beyond? BERLINdisplays would love to partner with you to create traffic, buzz, and deeper connections with your target audience. We display you at your very best. Contact BERLINdisplays today to begin planning your marketing success.