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5 Tips for Exhibitors to Maximize Your Impact at Trade Shows

5 Tips for Exhibitors to Maximize Your Impact at Trade Shows

Trade Shows are a great opportunity for your company to establish professional partnerships and increase your pool of prospective customers. Given that most trade shows and conferences are only a couple of days, it’s important to make sure you’re maximizing your team’s time and monetary investment by planning thoroughly in advance. This article will review 5 recommendations for how to effectively plan for an upcoming event.

1. Sign Up In Advance.

 Depending on the show size, prestige, and tenure of a conference or trade show, an event can sell out a year, or months before the show. Make sure your team connects with the show organizer to understand when is the best time to sign up for the show. 

Additionally, scoring a booth with a good location at an event is typically dependent on when you’ve registered, making it advantageous to sign up for shows as early as possible. Having a good booth location can be the difference between meeting that target prospect as they enter the conference versus at day’s end once they’re tired from talking to vendors and learning about new products/services all day.

2. Advertise Your Presence. 

Make sure your team is telling customers and prospects that you will have a presence at the upcoming show. Do this by publishing an announcement on your website or company blog as well as through social media posts, email blasts, and phone calls. Encourage contacts to set up a meeting before, during, or after the show to ensure you’re getting facetime with the contacts you’re particularly interested in seeing. 

3. Coordinate With Show Vendors Early. 

Usually, event organizers will send your team over a tradeshow login or list of to do’s months in advance. Deadlines creep up, and they creep up fast! Make sure your team is looking at these assets to avoid any surprises, unnecessary stress, and ensure you’re taking advantage of any early-bird special pricing for booth furnishings, electrical, advertising, and more!

4. Know How You’ll Be Tracking Leads. 

During the event, you’ll be shaking lots of new hands, so you’ll want to make sure your team has a system for how you’ll be tracking who is visiting your booth. This can be a sign-in sheet, collecting business cards of anyone stopping by, or utilizing a lead retrieval app, if offered by the show.

Regardless of what method you use, what’s most important is that your team has a plan for how to record who is visiting your booth to ensure easy follow-up with visitors.

5. Don’t Forget to Follow Up! 

Whether they’re a current loyal customer or a potential prospect, follow up and make it personal! During the event, the contacts you’ve connected with likely connected with dozens of other new people as well. Follow-up reminding them of the conversations you’ve had, what excited them about your company, and be prompt sending over any product samples or company assets you discussed at the event.

Overall, the key to a successful experience exhibiting at an event is planning, planning, and more planning. This way when it comes time to attend the show, you can focus on making the most of the event, and have a (somewhat) stress-free experience.

Good luck with your next show!