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How do you leave a lasting impression with the attendees at your trade show?

Start by not letting them forget you! Sounds easier than it is… Chances are your attendees have seen every cheesy sales pitch and demonstration of how a product or service could possibly be used in a marketing departments' dream world. Try the old fashioned way. Mail out a personalized thank you card to prospects and current clients and create the warm and fuzzy feeling that goes with feeling appreciated. Sure they will probably throw your mailed card away as soon as they receive it, but they WILL see it. This will help them remember your name. Have your sales team follow-up not just to pitch a sale but ask questions too. Attendees like to feel as though their opinions matter- which they do! Listen to their feedback and let them know how their input helped your business.

To leave an impression with exhibit attendees appeal to all five of their senses at the same time as attendees learn, are entertained and persuaded by different methods. We will not lecture you about using boring graphics at your booth. If you would avoid your booth as an attendee, go back to the drawing board. It’s always a good idea to hand out a little literature about your business, but it should be interesting, people do not want to pick up PowerPoint presentation prints.

Provide refreshments like warm fresh-baked cookies. This can be a sweet reminder of home as your target attendees may have traveled over a thousand miles to see to attend the show. If you want a healthier option, try to offer trail mix or nuts to give them the energy they need to stay for the whole show! If you are allowed open beverages on the trade show floor, consider offering cold water or lemonade.

Even if your business is only in the cloud, figure out a way people can physically interact with your product. People like to reach out and touch so don't forget to appeal to the sense of touch. You can appeal to their sense of touch by mounting iPad with which they can interact with your service. Booths can be noisy- if you are doing it right, so have plenty of staff available to field inquiries, and listen to the attendees. Consider streaming a scheduled live audio presentation over the web to have exclusive access to the ears of your target market at scheduled times during the show.

Finally, have an after party, or dinner where your attendees can connect with you and each other about the show. Try not to talk too much about business, and don’t focus on pitching a sale. Building a strong personal relationship can easily turn into a strong business relationship.

It can be said that 20% of the booths attract 80% of the traffic. Why is that? The reason for this is quite simple: amazing design. If you get the design of your booth right, you can attract more traffic than you anticipated. To give you a few ideas of how to go about doing so, here are some examples from the masters. These are real-life trade show booth designs used by industry bigwigs in the recent past: The Android Promo Booth – Mobile World Congress (Google) Just like their search engine homepage, everything about Google’s marketing efforts screams simplicity. Yet, their trade show booths are the diametric opposite. This particular example is of their Android Promo Booth at the Mobile World Congress. There, you would see Google’s booth overflowing with gadgets and machines. Plus, there was a mascot, a slide for the young ones to play on and full-fledged product demos. Needless to say, the booth was a big success. The Ultra-Focused 5-Part Booth – MacWorld 2008 (Apple) This one is an older example but relevant nonetheless. Apple knows how to catch its customer’s attention and they did so through a five-part booth at the 2008 edition of MacWorld. The gigantic size of the booth could have been a PR disaster and a complete failure yet Apple managed to get it right. Each part of the booth focused on 1 product, with staff dedicated to that product serving attendees there. Simplicity paid off big time for the world’s leading IT company. Semi-Enclosed Rooms – ORGATEC (Herman Miller) Herman Miller’s furniture is known for its aesthetic appeal and quality of design. So, the company came up with a way to showcase their strengths at ORGATEC. They had the usual trade show booth bells & whistles, like banner ads and giveaways. However, the focus was on the semi-enclosed rooms they built for the attendees to sit in. Instead of just looking at the pieces, the attendees were able to sit down and relax in them. In short, it was a product demonstration and trial rolled into one. These are some great examples of amazing booth design. As you can see, each of these designs is innovative and creative but in ke

Like first going places you have never been before with a new flame, the seduction doesn’t begin at the trade show.  There are several ways to make your presence at a trade show a success. Woo your potential customers and leads months before by announcing you will be at the event via Twitter, email and other platforms. Then, once the show starts, follow these tips to make your presence a success.

  Give Value

Use Twitter to direct users to content that will give them value first. It could be links to information from noncompeting businesses your target market would find useful. This will encourage your company to be a connector, making money for your clients and put dollar signs in their heads when they think of you.

Mobile Hotspot

Create buzz by having a mobile hotspot and announce the password on Twitter. This will bring people to your booth looking to escape slow Wi-Fi networks or cellular networks even if the event organizer is providing internet access. Allow attendees to connect at the highest speed you can afford but keep the range of the connection reasonable. There is no need for your prospective customer to be able to access your Wi-Fi connection from your competitors’ booth across the hall.

Use unique and specific twitter hashtags

Your organization should register a specific hashtag to draw attention to your presence at the event. Your hashtag should be prominently displayed along with your logo and like the rest of your booth should attract attention. Once again do everything you can before hand to make attendees aware of your hashtag before the fun starts. Once your twitter hashtag has brought people to your booth it is time for your salespeople, presenters and other attractions to shine.

Tweet about fun demos via Twitter

Have contests, prizes and demonstrations that will attract attention to your booth via Twitter. Tease your attendees about this without being too specific before the show. The sweet nothings you whisper via their Twitter account will bring visitors to your booth.

Don’t neglect your other channels

Use what you post on Twitter with other social platforms as well. Facebook, used by almost two thirds of your attendees is the largest social network and a great place to cross-post tweets and draw attendees to your Twitter. Try to post content suited for each social network. Words and graphics should tell the story on LinkedIn, photographs and videos on Tumblr, and photographs for Instagram or Flickr. Have multiple social network accounts to give your target market more ways to connect with you.

Connect with your Twitter followers

At the event, have the participants and staff place their Twitter usernames on their name tag making communication even easier. Communication during the event from attendees can be handled by a combination of your on-site staff and off- site personnel so the on-site staff do not spend all of their time tweeting and losing face time with potential and current clients. This will give prospective clients another way to connect with you and a potential edge on your competition.

Tweet about freebies

Announce freebies and contests via Twitter worth the trip across the hall. Don’t announce free pens on Twitter, people can get those from anybody.  Offer Whitepapers to help them grow their business…with you. Give them a chance to win valuable prizes by providing you with their contact details and get permission to contact them again.

Follow up after the show

After the show don’t forget about your Twitter followers, keep them abreast of developments than can help them, don’t just send Twitter spam to your followers like most of your competition.

You promote your trade show presence, set up your booth and attract the people. Yet, if you fail to build relationships with trade show attendees, you have gained virtually nothing from all the effort you put in. A lot of time, effort and resources go into ensuring a successful trade show presence. Most businesses focus on getting the maximum number of people to visit their booth. However, that shouldn’t necessarily be your end goal.

Your purpose should be to generate more customers for your business to stimulate growth.

That is only possible if your efforts are dedicated towards building relationships with the people who attend the trade show. Here are some ways in which this can be done:The first thing is to make a good impression on the people that pass by your booth. Keep in mind that only people who are aware of your business and products will stop at your booth. The rest you will have to attract through other means. Make a good impression by setting up a visually appealing booth. Not only does this gets more people to your booth but ensures that the people who are attracted have a good opinion of your business.

Make each person comfortable when they come to your booth. Don’t launch into your elevator speech as soon as they come to your booth. Strike up a real conversation and let the visitor dictate the terms. Don’t try to lead them to a topic where you can make a sales pitch. Answer their questions in as much detail as possible. Also, look for common interests which you can use to further your chances of sealing the deal in the future.

This brings you to a pertinent point: focus on listening. The fact that someone took the time out to stop by your booth means that he/she is interested in discovering more about your business. If all they are going to take out of it is a giveaway and a boring diatribe on how your products can change their life, your time is wasted. To build relationships, you have to learn to listen. Train your staff to be cordial and speak only when spoken to.

It is a good idea to get existing customers of your business to visit your booth. Since they are familiar with your business on a personal level, it is easier for you to strike up a conversation with them. In fact, seeing you chat with a customer amicably might attract a few people to your booth. It would help break the ice and ensure that the visitor does not feel ‘cold’ towards your business.

Lastly, you should also ask a few questions. Make the visitor feel that you are interested in knowing more about him/her. However, make sure that you don’t ask irrelevant questions. The questions should be related to the person and relevant to your business. Otherwise you are going to drive the people away.

In the hustle & bustle of this holiday season,

we wanted to take a moment show our appreciation.

Happy Holidays and best wishes for a wonderful New Year.