Every trade show has its winners and losers when it comes to creating that booth everyone remembers once the final seminars have come to an end the convention center is completely deserted.
Those brands and companies who are on everyone’s lips usually wowed the year’s attendees with a booth that did everything right. That includes designing the right booth, providing the best and most comprehensive information, offering up some cool swag, and showcasing a product or service that had all the positive buzz.
Many booths are considered memorable for other reasons that aren’t so positive, those booths that offer flash over substance, loud bombastic music and portable display screens designed only to attract attention (and not the good kind). These are the booths that get people talking as well, about how impractical and overbearing they were when there should have been a greater focus on the product instead.
You can avoid making these mistakes by taking certain steps for building a booth that will hit all the targets for making potential clients remember your brand and wish to do business with you once the trade show has wrapped up.
After all, the goal isn’t about having the biggest booth or the largest trade show displays, your booth should represent your brand or product as accurately and precisely as possible.
Keep these things in mind as you create your booth and you’ll put your best foot forward for bringing in new business.
Practicality
Before you build a budget, select graphics, consider the swag you want to give away and who to hire, you want to simply think about what kind of booth you really need for the show. That means deciding on the size of the booth itself by taking into consideration what you plan to do in it.
Will you hold meetings there? Perform demonstrations? Gather information and data from potential future clients? How do you wish to conduct your daily operations each day of the show? Once you decide what you plan to do, then you can figure out how large a booth you need.
The functional capabilities can also extend to storage, a seating or lounge area, or maybe you need something much smaller where your employees can sit and greet passersby. Create your vision and then design and build your booth from there.
Eye-Popping Visuals
This doesn’t mean you need a loud and bright aesthetic, on the contrary. Good booth design relies on graphics that are clear and simple. Fonts that are large and easy to read. Don’t make visitors try to guess what you’re promoting; make it perfectly clear from the get-go.
Many brands try to create a sense of mystery by making visitors guess as to what product or service they’ve brought to the show. But your potential visitors don’t want to play games; they want a good, solid pitch as to why they must select you and your brand to form a business relationship.
The visual aspect of your booth is your first impression with visitors who are often working with a limited amount of time in which to get all of their meetings squared away. They don’t want to be left guessing who you are and what you have to offer. In most cases, they simply won’t care and they’ll walk right by your booth towards the guy next door who took a simpler approach.
Freebies
Most trade show booths have them, something to help the visitor remember their time in your booth by letting them take a hat, a tote bag, a pen, or samples of the product you’re manufacturing. Whatever you decide to hand out to attendees in your booth, you want to make that item something that will bring value and information to the customer.
Giveaways are a great way to be remembered long after the trade show has come to an end, but don’t let this part of your presentation get too gimmicky or misrepresent what your brand stands for in the marketplace.
The Pitch
When you get down to it, your booth is a large part of your overall pitch to possible customers. How that pitch relates to the visitor is up to you. Keep is short and impactful, go on too long with technical explanation and mind-numbing statistics and people will tune out.
Remember you want to attract foot traffic walking by your booth; hook them quick and fast with a short upfront proposal to get them to stop. Once they do, then you can expand upon your message, yet you still don’t want to bore them after they enter.
Your booth is essentially your headline; give them the rest of the story once they’ve stopped to take a look at what you’re selling.