You’ve invested a huge chunk of your marketing budget to exhibit at trade shows, but fear you will fade into the background against the sea of similar exhibitors.
So, how do you get noticed among hundreds, even thousands of other exhibitors at the trade shows you exhibit at? Here are 10 proven steps you can employ to stand out at any show:
1. Design Your Exhibit for Greater Visual Impact
As trade show attendees wander down the aisles, they soon become overwhelmed by hundreds of competing exhibits clamoring for their attention. Plus, they often travel in groups, and are simultaneously in conversation with their colleagues. Or even worse, they are face down in their smartphone. You need a visual punch to break through.
Give your exhibit that necessary punch with:
· A concise message that gives attendees a strong reason for visiting you – often about a key benefit you offer
· Big, bold images of your products in use, the lifestyle you offer attendees, or your target audience in their work environment
· Bright colors that stand out and catch the eye
· Backlit graphics that add even more visual punch
· Staff dressed in branded attire that matches the professionalism level of your target audience
· Movement that makes attendees look to see what’s going on
2. Attract with Sound, Smell, and Taste
You are competing for attention with your neighboring exhibitors, so don’t limit yourself to attracting only with visuals. Leverage more senses than just sight to include sound, smell, and taste.
Attract with sounds such as music, or amplified presentations and demos (more on them later). Entice visitors with smells such as baking cookies or popping popcorn in your booth. Those goodies will also attract crowds with their taste, too. So will the smell of brewing coffee.
3. Offer Great and Targeted Giveaways
Attendees need a nudge to get out of the aisle and into your booth. Giveaways motivate them to take that crucial step. They also make it easier on your booth staffers, which keeps your booth staffers’ energy higher throughout the entire show.
Choose giveaways that make it worth their while, but also attract your target audience. What will your buyers value more than just the average person? What will matter more to someone of their demographics? Find giveaways that will be a hit with the type of people you want to visit your booth.
Half of your giveaways’ job is to get them into your booth. The other half is reminding attendees about your company after the show. So put your logo on quality giveaways that will represent your company well.
4. Bring enough friendly, motivated and trained booth staffers
While your exhibit may appear to be the most important aspect of your trade show success, it’s actually your booth staffers that matter most. They are the ones who entice many people out of the aisle, reveal your company’s advantages, and persuade attendees to agree to meet with your sales team after the show.
So, have enough booth staffers to handle the potential opportunity offered by your shows. Choose friendly booth staffers that welcome attendees like a good host. Choose booth staffers with a positive attitude about booth staffing, rather than reluctant naysayers. And train your booth staffers on your latest products, your buyers’ key challenges, and how to work a trade show booth. And, to put their smart phone back in their pocket until their shift is done. Consider looking beyond your sales team for these top staffers.
5. Demo Your Products
One of the major reasons trade shows are different than other B2B marketing mediums (internet, social media, email, advertising) is that potential buyers can see your products in person. So, take advantage of that difference to differentiate yourself with a strong product demo.
Demo your product in a way that makes its key advantages obvious. If it’s tech or machinery, make it a live demo that shows its workings or outputs its final product. Some exhibitors cut into their product to reveal what is better about it that would otherwise go unseen. If your product is new technology you want to prevent competitors from seeing, only demo behind closed doors to known prospects. But more likely, you want to feature your demo in a prominent place, right on the aisle, or up on a stage.
6. Use Technology to Attract and Engage
While your exhibit can succeed with only graphics (especially backlit graphics), you attract and engage even more with technology, such as:
· Energetic videos on flatscreen monitors or even LED screens for more visual impact
· Touchscreen monitors that let attendees or your booth staffers take visitors on a tailored audiovisual journey based on their specific needs
· Augmented reality, mixed reality, or virtual reality that can highlight and emphasize your story and advantages with more compelling and memorable visuals and interactivity
7. Give Educational Presentations
Here are a few solid reasons to give presentations in your trade show booth:
· Buyers attend trade shows to see what’s new, so make a presentation about your best new products, or even about what’s new in their industry
· If you are introducing a new technology or methodology to an industry, giving a presentation about it will help you educate many potential buyers simultaneously
· Introverted attendees may be reluctant to engage one-on-one with your booth staffers, but would be willing to listen to a presentation about your technology or advantages as an ice-breaker first
· If your company is seen, or wants to be seen as an industry thought-leader, educational presentations from your in-house experts will reinforce that perception
Just be sure to be ready for when the presentation ends, to approach and funnel the best potential leads into the next step in the buying cycle within your exhibit.
8. Gamify Your Booth
Most people are hard-wired to be competitive, greedy, and to have fun. Leverage those desires with contests and rewards.
· Host a game that offers cool prizes to attendees who score the best for learning about your company and products. These can be digital games that improve your perception as a modern company.
· Host a contest where attendees compete for the fastest time using your products to perform an important task for their job. The goal is to demonstrate how your product accomplishes this process far faster than alternatives, and create a contest that will attract attention.
· Tell your booth staffers there will be prizes and recognition for the booth staffers who take the highest quantity of qualified leads (not just badge scans – otherwise you may reward them for the wrong behavior).
9. Hire Professional Booth Staff Help
While your own company employees should know your products and customers best, there are four functions often best served by professionals you hire:
· Presenters: Your own employees may not have the stage presence and charisma to hold a crowd’s attention for 5 minutes, over and over again
· Crowd gatherers: Your own employees are likely not extroverted and fearless enough to fill seats for product demos or presentations all day long for two or three days
· Performers: If you go even further and want to have a magician or artist to entice crowds, your own crew almost certainly lacks these skills
· Overseas booth staffers: When you exhibit internationally, consider hiring local booth staffers from an agency – staffers who can be trained on your company and products, but already speak the local languages and know their customs, and do not require an expensive plane ticket
10. Exhibit At Shows Where Your Best Buyers Congregate
Your booth will stand out even more when it’s at a show with the highest concentration of your best buyers. That means knowing what your best buyer looks like, and finding the shows they attend.
So, look at your customer list. See what industries spend the most for your products. Identify the job titles of buyers who spend the most. See if there is a sub-group among your clients that buy far more than your average customer.
Then, research the more than 10,000 trade shows to find shows for exactly these top buyers. While they may be the same main industry show you’ve always exhibited at, there may be a pleasant surprise when you find them at a smaller show you’ve never heard of before.
We Can Help Your Stand Out at Trade Shows
We hope you’ve been inspired by this list of 10 proven steps to make your exhibit stand out. We love helping exhibitors achieve greater results through smart strategic and tactical moves. If you want to brainstorm about turning these ideas into reality for your company, contact us at www.exhibitexpressions.com/contact-us/.
