9 Ways to Prepare to Market Your Business at a Trade Show

Getting ready for a trade show is a complex process that requires you to use a broad range of trade show marketing ideas to generate new clients. As with many areas of business, the key to success is to plan everything so that you can stay organized and have everything ready by the day of the event.

Have a look at some of our trade show marketing tips to ensure that you are adequately prepared to get the best results.

Understand How You Will Add Value to Attendees

Attending a trade show is no simple task. You will need to create signage for your booth, travel across the country, and spend weeks or months preparing. Before investing valuable time, effort, and money into attending a trade show, you should know what types of customers you are trying to attract.

Therefore, the best way to ensure that attending a trade show will add value in your situation is to know your customer avatars.

If you do not already know, customer avatars are a fancy way of describing the target personas that your business seeks to reach. You should start by creating a customer avatar checklist to understand each persona well enough to convey value in a relevant way. Once you know each customer avatar better than your own best friend, you will be able to build your trade show marketing strategy around the people who you are trying to reach.

Make Reservations Ahead of Time

Have you ever heard of a concert that sold out in a matter of hours? Trade shows are no different because they have a limited amount of floor space. Additionally, event organizers often reach out to former attendees, email subscribers, and VIPs before announcing booth sales to the general public.

You should not, therefore, expect availability if you do not promptly reserve a booth. As soon as you find out about an event on social media or through other channels, you should quickly decide whether to attend the event so that you can avoid missing out.

Purchase Tangible Items as Soon as Possible

When you get ready for a trade show, you will need to organize a broad range of visual aids that will help you to get attention and explain your value proposition. As with all purchases, it may take much longer than you initially expect for certain products to be sourced from a vendor. Since you will need hundreds of items in many cases, delays in shipping, even a couple of things could make finishing your preparations difficult or impossible.

In the early stages, you should make a list of the essential items that you will need. If you are working with a team, you should get everyone together in a meeting to discuss what items you plan to bring. Some team members may be able to point out a few of the things that you forgot to include or provide some ideas for alternatives. Once you finalize your list, you should proceed to purchase each item as quickly as you can to minimize the chances of a shipping delay wrecking your plans.

Consider Your Future Trade Show Plans

Before moving on to investing in the gear you will need to make attending a trade show a success, you should try to assess whether you will use trade shows on a routine basis in the future. If you are attending a trade show for the first time, it may seem too early to determine your future. You can usually estimate whether trade shows are likely to be beneficial to your business by reaching out to a trade show marketing agency. Many agencies have the experience and industry data to assess whether trade shows are likely to earn your business a return on investment.

Once you know the importance that trade shows are likely to play in the future of your business, you can decide how much to invest in preparations. For instance, one of the most effective trade shows marketing best practices is to invest in digital signage that can get you more attention when people are passing by. Digital signage can, however, cost thousands of dollars to purchase and configure so you may want to consider other trade show marketing approaches if you think that you will only attend one event.

Create Literature, Signs, and Other Materials in Advance

As part of your preparations, you will want to finish all necessary materials long before the event begins. One of the keys to success at trade shows is to customize everything so that your brand is genuinely memorable and stands out. Customization does, however, require working with marketers, designers, and printing companies to produce the displays that you will need.

As with other areas of preparation, you will need to make an organized plan to ensure that everything will be customized on time. You should be sure to consult with everyone who is involved in your preparations to understand the estimated turnaround time for each product. There may be instances where you discover that products will take more time to prepare than you have available. You may also get bogged down when actual items take a long time to ship to your designer. Therefore, upon completing your customization plan, you should implement it immediately.

Get the Word Out and Build Excitement

You should remember that trade shows are highly interpersonal activities. You will need to do everything you can to stimulate conversations both during and after the trade show to ensure that you get the best results.

If you are attending a highly anticipated trade show in your industry, make sure that you get the word out about your attendance as early as possible. When other people expect your participation, plans can be made to meet up. Additionally, the buzz about your attendance can spread, and this can lead to more foot traffic in your booth during the event.

Arrive as Early as Possible

It can be tempting to fly out to a trade show on the morning of the event, but doing so is a recipe for disaster. You will need to unpack all your gear before the event begins. Many people bring tents, electronics, large displays, and other items that can take several hours to set up.

Nothing is more embarrassing than having to finish setting up your booth while a trade show is going on. Some event organizers will kick you out if you are not fully set up on time. If you are new to trade shows, you should strive to at least arrive a day before the event so that you will have time to set everything up, make changes, and cool off before the big event begins.

Plan on a Frantic Run to the Store

If you have attended a trade show before, you know that event organizers can sometimes make substantial last-minute changes that force you to change your approach fundamentally. You may be moved to a different location than you initially expected, or you may discover that something you are trying to do breaks the rules. Moreover, even the most meticulous planners often find something that they should have purchased ahead of time.

You can save your team from potential disasters by knowing who is responsible for making a run to the store. You should also make a clear transportation plan and go online to organize a list of the best stores in the area before setting out.

Make Friends with Your Neighbors

It is easy to perceive the people staffing the booths around you as competitors. It is rare that the vendors near you will be offering the same products and services. Additionally, by simply being friendly, you can often get your neighbors to recommend that their patrons visit your booth before moving on.

In some cases, you can work out a deal with your neighbors to work together to keep foot traffic lingering in your area as long as possible. You may even develop a strong relationship with nearby entrepreneurs that could eventually lead to a big sale or partnership. You never know where a new relationship can take you, so perceive everyone as your friend throughout the event.