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Four Great Tips to Drive Traffic to your Trade Show Booth.
3 min read
Companies use a wide variety of interesting tactics to draw traffic to their trade show booth. We've all seen the magicians, booth babes, contests, free food, and giveaways. While some of these tactics may be appropriate (i.e. if you have a food company then you should definitely consider giving out samples), many of these tactics are so broad in their appeal that you’ll attract a lot of low value traffic that may discourage your high value prospects from dropping by. The best tactics are those that drive the right traffic to your booth not just any traffic.
As with most things in business, the best way to drive high quality traffic to your booth involves planning ahead. Don't rely on the show organizers to generate your traffic, and try to stay away from the latest gimmicks. Ruth Stevens, a business to business marketing consultant, recommends taking a two-pronged approach.
The first is to contact your in-house file of customers and prospects. An in-house list is generally the most valuable and by involving your sales force in the contact effort you’re much more likely to drive attendance. The second is to contact the list of registered attendees of the show. This list is generally available to most exhibitors through the show organizers. Contacting these attendees prior to the show and letting them know about any new product announcements or promotions is a great way to ensure that they make a note to stop by your booth. While using email to contact a list of prospects is always very cost effective, sending postcards via snail mail not only works but is often considered to be the gold standard for lead generation. Data from the Direct Marketing Association says that direct mail still reigns supreme with response rates of 1.1% to 1.4% compared to 0.03% for email (source: https://hbr.org/2013/05/make-these-changes-to-help-dig ). Also be sure to get the word out using all of your social media channels. Social media is a great way to spread the word so be sure to use it.
Scheduled presentations at your booth and live demos are also a great way to drive booth traffic. The traffic generated thru these activities is very targeted since only your target audience will be interested in seeing your presentation. And by posting your presentation schedule and offering a seating area you can get attendees to sit and wait for the next presentation and/or get them to swing back later for your next demo. Theater seating areas are always popular since trade show attendees are generally tired of standing and walking around and welcome a chance to sit for a few minutes. Lastly, to get people to come into your booth be sure to create a warm and inviting environment.
Think of your booth as a retail store or restaurant that you want people to walk into. You only have a few seconds on a crowded trade show floor so make sure that your messaging is clean and straightforward your booth staff is inviting and friendly and make sure that your booth design is open and inviting and not closed. By making your booth an inviting sanctuary within the chaotic trade show floor environment you invite attendees to come in and explorer.