Trade shows are events that bring together the members of a specific industry. These shows allow business owners to demonstrate, exhibit and discuss their products and services. Participating in trade shows is an efficient marketing strategy as it increases brand awareness, develops new business relationships, and provides ideas to improve your product or service.
Trade shows allow your business to directly interact with the target audience, distinct from online marketing. Therefore, exhibiting at trade shows requires proper planning and preparation. This article will offer you some tips that will help you ace your first trade show:
Ascertain who will be attending
Most of the trade shows prepare the list of attendees in advance. As a business owner, consider researching contacts that might be interested in your product or service. Send them an introductory email describing your business. This will encourage potential clients to drop by your counter.
Choose your trade show staff and train them
Your team can create an impression of your company as they will be the face of your business. Choose a team with friendly, professional, and motivated employees. Create a team with your best salesman, marketing specialist, PR pro, and tech specialist. Your team members must complement each other and an outgoing group to represent your company. Your team must be trained to answer an array of possible questions related to the product, service, or process. You can achieve this by providing your team with a list of potential questions and accurate answers.
Plan for an advertising display
The advertising trade show displays will communicate notable information regarding your business to potential clients. It helps develop a connection with the visitors by conveying the details about the product or service of the corporation, demonstrating product features and how they are used. Creating a visually attractive trade show display will capture the interest of the customers and will generate an appeal.
Include a lounge space
To enhance the traffic towards your booth, include a lounge space in your stall. This will keep the target audience around your booth longer and will allure the exhausted trade show attendees. You can also offer them a bottle of water or a cup of coffee to add a few brownie points to your account.
Give away promotional goods
Promotional goods can be in the form of discount coupons, freshly-baked cookies, pens, notebooks, keychains, or anything relevant to the brand. But don’t be afraid of giving freebies. These freebies will generate curiosity among the attendees which, in turn, will increase the traffic towards your booth. Giving promotional goods is an effective sales strategy and often makes consumers obliged to execute a purchase.
Conclusion
Preparing for the first trade show can be overwhelming. You need cooperation from your team, hard work, and a lot of planning to ace your first trade show. Trade shows are meant to build connections, hence bring an adequate number of brochures and business cards to extend the conversation post the show. Pay special attention to potential core customers and conduct follow-ups. A trade show is an acknowledged platform to grow business and build new business channels.
