From booth rentals to salaries and travel expenses of the employees that you send to the cost of promotional materials, trade shows aren’t cheap. To make the most of your investment it’s important to stand out and get noticed. But how do you stand out in a crowd of dozens of other vendors hawking the same merchandise, materials or services you are? The first step is to create a booth that gets noticed. Here are 4 tips on standing out at trade shows.
Use Videos
The first and most important aspect of standing out from the crowd is getting attention and nothing attracts attention more than movement. To that end, if you are a manufacturer of widgets created on an assembly line, don’t show a video of your manufacturing plant or assembly line. The point is to show something with enough “wow factor” to make people stop and pay attention. If your business happens to be manufacturing snowboards or offering aerial tours of spectacular locales, then, by all means, show a video related to your business. Otherwise, show a video that gets noticed, not necessarily one that sells your product.
Practice Hospitality
If you were to invite someone into your home or office, you would most likely offer them a place to sit, something to drink and maybe even a snack of some sort. If you want visitors to visit your booth, then extend some hospitality. One thing that is often in extremely short supply at trade shows and conventions is a place to sit. If you fill your booth with comfortable seating, you might find your booth filled with people. While they may not all turn into customers, they will be far more likely to remember you and recommend you to someone else or turn to you when they do need your product or service.
Be Useful
Trade shows are never short on promotional materials, but people often leave with bags full of items they will end up shoving in a drawer somewhere. While you, of course, want to put your logo, phone number, address and website on everything, you will probably actually get far more mileage out of a usable product with just your logo than something with all your information on it. Work with a company like Schilling Graphics to get your info printed on something unique and useful. If your promotional product remains where they can see it, they can always look up your information. Once that pen or magnet ends up in a drawer, however, it’s generally “out of sight, out of mind.”
Be Enthusiastic
Trade show booths are often filled with people that look bored to death and like they would rather be anywhere but where they are. If your employees are not enthusiastic about your product or service, why should or would anyone else be?
If you’re going to invest the money to be at a trade show, you want to get the most bang for your buck. Like any other kind of marketing, trade shows aren’t about selling products, they are about building rapport with your potential consumer base. Like the old saying goes, people may never remember what you say, but they will always remember how you made them feel. You can stand out by creating positive regard for your business or brand in the minds of your consumers.
