Participating in your industry’s trade shows is an important piece of the marketing puzzle that can reap great return on investment for your company and brand. Especially when you think of that nature of a trade show – a concentrated gathering of people that are, by nature, there to learn about your industry and business. Going into trade show season with a plan is key. You should carefully craft and implement your plan in an effort to get the most return on your investment.
Before the tradeshow, make sure that you know who you are as a company and what your brand is all about. Some questions to pose include:
- What is your story?
- What do you want visitors to your trade show booth to know about you?
- Why would they want to do business with you?
- What makes you stand out?
By answering these questions, and sharing with your promotional consultant, they can help you plan ahead and purchase tradeshow items that will support the story, message and brand you want to project – as opposed to pulling stuff out of the closet in your office to hand out.
At the trade show, your booth should be presented professionally – with tradeshow items, table covers and banners. These should all be consistent in colors, graphics and quality.
To stand out, there are two simple concepts that you can consider – the first is that you create some sort of interactive scenario (whether it’s a game, a photo app on a tablet, etc) that force people to stop and interact; the second is to offer things that are comforting during a busy day on the trade show floor – think drinks, snacks, chairs to rest in. With the second, you can even tie in your trade show items and including a branded water bottle or a branded food container when offering simple snacks and drinks.