With a trade show every other week and thousands of conventions held in Los Angeles every year with probably hundreds or more exhibitors per event, it could be a bit of a struggle getting your booth noticed in the crowd. But don’t let that intimidate you, all you’ll really need to take your booth to the next level is a little creative thinking, some elbow grease, and maybe a few bells and whistles. Here are some ideas you might want to try.
1) Go for quality, not quantity, when it comes to foot traffic – Sure, it’s great to get lots of folks to your booth but real business is done by enticing the right people. Invite your target audience by using relevant marketing materials and making sure they get to the point. If people know what you’re all about right away, there’s no doubt that people who need your goods or services will zone in on you immediately.
2) Use your print materials wisely – There are many different trade show materials you may choose from to make your booth stand out. Here are a few of them and some ideas for using them:
Another bonus is if you’re in an outdoor convention, you can hang your large-format vinyl banners around the tent to keep the sun or rain out. Retractable banners have portable banner stands also ready for outdoor use.
Items like these, business cards, flyers, and pretty much any printed marketing material you have which involves one-to-one interaction when you hand them to trade show-goers definitely go with item #3 on this list.
3) Be inviting! – It’s essential that your booth staff are always ready with a smile and know how to make eye contact. Nothing turns a potential customer off more than being faced with a Grumpy Gus or a Debbie Downer. Make sure that the staff manning your booth are well-dressed, approachable, very knowledgeable about the product (and handy with Google, if necessary!) and conscientious about keeping the booth clean. The latter may seem simple but it will make the experience of visiting your booth more pleasant. Offering some candy, swag, or even having a water dispenser may also do the trick!
4) Be smart about allocating your budget – Of course one way to make sure that all of these work out is to make sure you’ve covered all the bases financially. Generally, the booth will take up a huge chunk of the budget. After that, you’ll have to consider your staff, marketing materials, food, transportation and the like. Luckily, printed materials don’t really have to be so expensive especially if you have them printed locally and pick them up or have them delivered right to the event hall or to your hotel concierge. So if you’re running a trade show booth in the Los Angeles area, you can definitely have SLB Printing do this for you to cut down the cost of transporting your high-quality posters, banners, stickers and more.
5) Learn from the experience – Finally once it’s over, meet with the staff to find out where things went right or wrong during the experience starting from the preparations, to the actual convention floor, and even during the packing-up period. That way, you’ll know which strategies were well-received by the target audience and which ones to avoid for your next trade show. We hope these tips help turn your trade show outing a success!
Remember, it may sound like hard work but conventions can also be a lot of fun so don’t stress out too much. If it looks like you’re enjoying yourself, it will rub off on people. Good luck!
References:
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/sep2009/sb20090911_550656.htm
http://www.inc.com/ss/8-tricks-trade-show#1