Create a Stand That Is Worth the Bend!

For some companies, exposing at a trade show is an interesting opportunity to meet potential customers and promote their products and services. However, to generate new business opportunities, it is necessary to attract a maximum number of participants to the stand, while keeping them long enough to explain how your products and services might be useful for them.

This is not always a simple task, participants are so busy that they rarely linger at generic and boring stands. In short, to attract crowds, an exhibitor must stand out.  As an event company, we offer several tips to increase your efficiency during your next participation in a trade show!

Do Your Research

Invest to qualify for booth space at an event allows a myriad of possibilities, but this is not enough. It is also important to invest time and talent to ensure a good return on investment.  Go to the Facebook and Instagram pages of your competitors to see what they do and make sure to create a completely different concept. If your competition has a huge colourful stand, powered by a large group of employees, bet on a small friendly, elegant, and refined stand that is offering a personalized service.   For more niche events, some exhibitors will eventually know well their customers. If this is your case, take the opportunity to ask delegates what they would like to see at your booth at your next meeting. For example, you could have them vote, in the event of your next show, on the kind of promotional tool that would be most useful for them. 

A Staff That Knows It All

The staff located at your booth is a determining factor for the success of your presentations. Remind them how the company and its employees will benefit from the success of the day. Feel free to set their targets to achieve and reward them for their good work! You could even organize a friendly contest with a prize for the employee that is generating the most business opportunities. This will motivate your employees to remain energetic during those long days. Train your representatives several weeks before the event and make sure they understand your products, your services, and their sales pitches.  Choose them carefully. They must be comfortable with the public and resourceful enough to talk about a variety of topics. Indeed, if the event planner makes it possible, encourage your representatives to attend some conferences to chat with participants on their learning of the day. Break the ice with a potential client is more easily done by talking about a topic of interest rather than awkwardly soliloquized a sales pitch.

An Attractive and Friendly Stand

Make sure that your booth is easily identifiable, that it represents well your brand and that all its components work visually with the other. Avoid having heavy signage. A mission statement or a slogan is more than enough to clarify your position and will be less intimidating for visitors. Create a design for a photo booth that aligns well with your brand. In a selfie-dominated world, a photo booth will help you attract the attention of participants. By incorporating an original and aesthetic backdrop – recalling your countless Instagram wall photos –, your stand will become an interactive experience and a source of entertainment.  The layout of the items on your stand plays a lot of interaction possibilities. For example, installing your representatives behind a long table creates a physical separation that can stop more timid people to come to chat with you. If the event organizer and your space permit it, create an inviting place to network. If you can, serve refreshments and offer people to charge their electronics. By providing these items, your booth will become a coveted destination. 

 

Bet on Interactive and Gamification

Interactive touch screens are a great way to start a dialogue with visitors. Using them, they can interact at their own pace with content preprogrammed by your business, whether it’s an interactive demonstration of your products and services, a short dynamic and informative video, a survey, a quiz or, again, an entry form for a contest.

Be original! Organize a treasure hunt or an escape room. Hide clues in your booth and encourage participants to cross your course for a chance to win a prize. Your booth doesn’t have to be huge. Hiding clues on your Parapostä or your interactive presentations will be enough. Your questions can be directly related to your products and services in order to make them known. So, you will join the useful with the pleasant and everyone will benefit from it.

As far as prices go, there is a way to assume it without making major expenditures. No need to draw a luxury trip. Rather, draw a service or product offered by your company. During a congress of teachers in Alberta, Orange Therapy did draw free monthly subscriptions for its sports courses to help teachers to stay healthy. This initiative was directly related to one of the main themes of the congress: a better balance between professional and private life.

 

Offering Useful and Green Promotional Items

Plastic flasks, cups, and pens produced in China have been overused in trade shows and several delegates regret the waste and pollution they generate. Think about what your delegates really need and invest in a gift that will truly be appreciated.   For example, you could offer laptop skins or supports, pretty keyboards cover, wallets for smartphones, candy mints, work socks, a nice quality tea packaging for the office, etc. Bonus points if the tools are green!

 

A Limited Offer

An offer specially designed for show’s visitors is a great way to close a deal the same day. Promotions generate enthusiasm and will encourage more people to visit you.

 

Charitable Donations

 

Find a cause that joins the mission and vision of your company and offer to donate a certain amount whenever a new delegate will participate in the activities of your booth.

People like to encourage good cause and make a difference.

Test these tactics at your next trade show exhibit and feel free to share your experiences with us! Our event coordinators will be happy to read from you!