How to Brand and Exhibit for Success at Trade Shows
Making the most of each event in terms of branding, marketing and sales is possible. We share a few tips to help you make a resounding success of each exhibition and trade shows.
Exhibiting at trade shows offers the following benefits:
- Contact with thousands of potential customers.
- Extending your reach from a specific retail location to sales areas out of your normal sales zone.
- Ability to focus on specific products and services, and highlighting their strong points.
- Generate more sales leads.
- Build your contact network.
Costs you face when exhibiting include, but are not limited to:
- Labour
- Rental space
- Insurance
- Equipment
- Booth
- Marketing material
- Display products
- Transport
Use Portable Display Architecture
Setting up with portable display architecture should be your first priority, as such allows you to save on the costs related to design, brand and setup for each trade show that you attend. The portable display architecture is modular, lightweight, easy-to-erect and customisable to meet your particular stand requirements.
Visible Brand
Every visitor to the show should immediately be able to identify your brand, what it stands for and what you offer at the show. Branding shouldn’t be limited to the booth walls and counter. Extend it to the clothing that your sales people wear, the promotional items that you hand out, brochures, stands, seats, flags, banners and digital kiosks.
Social Media
Use the social media platforms to notify people of the specials that you’ll only be offering at the trade show. This serves as incentive for people to visit your booth and to buy at the trade show, since they’ll want to benefit from competitions, lower prices and personal attention. The social media platforms should also be used while you are exhibiting, in order to keep customers at these trade shows and at home informed about your activities and offers.
Hand Out Branded Items Worth Keeping
Keep in mind that most of the exhibitors will hand out marketing material. What will you hand out that will ensure that customers keep your information and promote your products afterwards? Hand out branded caps, shirts, key rings, brochures, discount vouchers, cups, folders, diaries, glasses, small technology-based items, screwdriver sets, balls or whatever your customers will appreciate and show around.
Offer Something Free
Give out free beverages while customers browse through your booth or provide them with light snacks. Demonstrations of products are free and attract attention. Do so with flair and involve bystanders. Let them play around with tech toys or create a lounge with a television where you provide informative video content about your products, brand or services.
Digital Kiosks for Interactivity
Your sales people cannot attend to each visitor once the trade show becomes busy. Don’t let any visitor walk through the booth without some form of interaction. Digital kiosks are great tools for more information, interactivity, self-help, online purchases and connecting your offline branding with online branding, such as your website or social media. Add digital polls or surveys to get information from customers about their perceptions, preferences, demographics etc. Provide incentives for completing the surveys, such as lucky draws or immediate discounts at these trade shows.
Be Ready for the Press
Don’t be caught off-guard by journalists. You’ll want your booth and sales people to feature in local and national newspapers, and on various websites. Be prepared for media visits. Keep press kits available to hand to journalists. Such kits should provide the key points about your products or services, your brand and the brand story. Have a pitch ready for press releases.
Attractive Displays
People are influenced by aesthetically pleasing displays. You want to add banners, graphic walls and stunning displays to captivate and inspire. Here you have to break the box instead of just think outside it. Think of unusual angles to promote and do so, as you need to stand out and only have one or a few days to do so.
At Podd Display, we provide you with all the portable display architecture that you need to create a stunning and highly efficient trade shows booth.
