If you’ve ever put together a trade show booth, you know how much time, effort, and detail go into its debut! The last thing you want to risk is wasting any of that effort into a booth that goes unnoticed. Furthermore, you don’t want to show a low return on investment (ROI). You want to ensure that every exhibit you put your annual budget towards yields new leads. If your sales team does not garner any new contacts from your sponsorship, your company will not continue to invest.
After all, the whole point of your trade show booth is to garner attention and help spread your association’s message. If you have a booth that draws attention to your exhibit, you’ll have a more significant opportunity to talk to new prospects. But, once you’ve captured your audience, you’ll need to keep your visitors engaged long enough to share your message.
So how do you ensure that you’ll attract visitors to your booth and maximize the value for your time? Let’s look at the top five ways to drive traffic at your next in-person event.
1. Get creative with the theme
To establish a booth that will make heads turn and make attendees curious, create a theme for your booth. This theme can be for fun or serve as an educational purpose. Try thinking outside the box when it comes to interpreting the theme, too. In addition, your theme may be relevant to the time of year, location, or a current social trend.
When brainstorming with your team for a booth concept, consider the theme already provided for the event. Is there a way to work it into the build or design of your booth? There are many ways to incorporate the event’s theme into your branding. This can include key phrases, color, booth construction materials, and decoration. Try thinking outside the box when it comes to the interpretation of the theme, too.
For example, if the theme of your trade show is “the future of medicine,” you could design a booth modeled as a medieval apothecary in a sort of ‘back to the future’ play on your theme. This outlandish kind of creativity draws in visitors. Most of all, a show-stopping booth can spark a conversation amongst attendees. Can attendees walk away from your exhibit and still associate it with your brand days after the event? Then you’ve accomplished your goal to leave a memorable impression. For more ideas, check out these creative trade booth examples from BizBash Tampa 2021.
2. Utilize social media and tech
One way to increase your brand’s awareness while attendees are not at your booth is to leverage social media. In addition to using your association’s hashtag, create a unique one for your booth and encourage visitors to tag their posts with it. Don’t forget to include the event’s hashtag and tag the event in your post. Most events planners will monitor their social feed to re-share any post submitted by attendees, exhibitors, or sponsors. As a result, you’ll also expose your company to the event’s followers. Create a little competition amongst the attendees to keep your awareness going. Host a social media contest using your custom event hashtag. For example, the attendee who uses your hashtag the most during the event will receive a gift card.
Make it easy for visitors to find your online presence by providing QR codes throughout your booth. Therefore, you can direct attendees to your social media pages so attendees can learn more and discover your latest content. Include a variety of new materials a month leading up to the event. Thus, your visitors will have something fresh and intriguing to click on while viewing your feed.
3. Make it immersive
Another fantastic way to drive traffic to your trade show booth is by having an immersive experience that will actively engage visitors. This can be as simple as hosting a comfortable lounge space or using mobile gamification to create a visual experience through tech. Consider establishing a cozy corner of your exhibit with couches and charging stations. People are always looking for a way to charge their phones, especially when they are out all day. Show your visitors how you can make their life easier by even sitting in your booth. Build out your dream booth space by utilizing a digital floor plan through an expo management software.
In addition, provide interactive videos, polls, and surveys on tablets for your visitors. Today, attendees are more willing to learn about your product if they can do it independently. Sometimes attendees do not want to have the pressure of having a conversation with one of your sales representatives.
There are even immersive social media solutions also, like going live on Twitter or Instagram. Provide a live overview of your booth and tell your attendees why they should visit. Live stream your exhibit to allow visitors to see themselves on a TV screen interacting with your staff. Additionally, create an immersive space by having the perfect place to take photos. Create a photo spot where attendees can take pictures using fun props or in front of an impressive backdrop.
4. Give away great swag
Sure, pens are great, but pens won’t bring word-of-mouth traffic to your booth. It’s time to re-think your swag! Great swag pieces that will get everyone to stop by your trade show booth are usually utility-based. What will be of use to your audience? Trendy swag categories include tech, self-care, and sustainable products. For instance, think of items you picked up from other events over the years. What have you held on to and still use today? If people are more willing to reuse your giveaway repeatedly, they’ll keep seeing your logo. Therefore, they’ll always have your company in their minds. Hopefully, they will then turn to you for a solution when presented with a problem your organization can solve. Think of phone charging banks, reusable totes, or fitness gear! See this article for more creative swag examples.
5. Have engaging personnel manning your trade show booth
Once you’ve attracted your traffic, the most important part of your booth is your ability to engage and inform your visitors! It’s vital to equip your trade show booth with friendly, knowledgeable, and welcoming personnel that will accurately represent your brand and messaging.
Capture more attendee information and increase your company’s ROI by purchasing lead retrieval. Electronic lead retrieval can capture an attendee’s complete contact information by scanning a barcode from their badge. As lead retrieval digitally stores the data, you won’t have to worry about hanging on to the attendee’s business cards. In addition, you can customize the field that you want your visitors to fill out. Furthermore, you can message and follow up with your new lead in real-time. Using the messaging feature can help you set meetings to have a one-on-one later at the event.
Need help planning your next in-person event?
These are just a few ideas to help increase traffic to your trade show booth. If you’re just getting back into the swing of in-person events, we’ve got a great resource to help you get started here. Expo Logic s here to assist you and your organization’s next in-person. We have engaging exhibitor management software for exhibitor assets. This includes organization contacts, invoices, outstanding payments, virtual booth assets, product offerings, and more. In addition, we provide digital lead retrieval services that can be captured by scanning attendees’ badges. Discover how you can pair these badges with on-demand badge printers. Contact us today to schedule a demo.
