Tradeshows. It can be a great opportunity for businesses to grow and show off the new products and services they have to offer.

In 2023, there are nearly 7,000 tradeshows already planned in the United States.

If your business is planning on being in one of those tradeshows and you do not have experience in these shows, you may be wondering how to stand out. What do you have to do to get ready for a tradeshow?

These nine tips should point you in the right direction.

1. Promote Your Booth

One thing that you are going to want to do is promote your booth before you even get to the tradeshow. This may take either an email marketing campaign, a video marketing campaign, or a social media marketing campaign.

The point of this is that you should let anyone that has a potential interest in your business know that you are going to have a booth at this tradeshow. It can allow people to plan to stop at your booth and it may give others extra incentive to attend the tradeshow in the first place.

Essentially, make your presence known and let people know your business has something to offer at this tradeshow.

2. Use Good Visuals

The next thing that you are going to need is good visuals for display. You want to pop out amongst the crowd. Keep in mind that there are likely going to be a lot of booths at this tradeshow, so you have to give people a reason to stop and look at what you have to offer.

Think of it like a curbside appeal for your business. About 95% of customers say that the external appearance of a business (in this case a display) influences where they will do business. On top of this, 40% of customers will not even stop at that business if it does not look like somewhere they would normally shop.

So, make sure that you have something that will stand out.

3. Bring Your Best Team

These tradeshows can be a unique opportunity for your business to network with other businesses that can benefit you. You may not get this opportunity again for another year.

On top of that, if you blow your first opportunity to make a good impression networking with another business, you may find that the business is not open to hearing what you have to say in the future.

For these reasons, bring your best staff members to this tradeshow. This gives you the best chance of making a good impression at this tradeshow.

4. Have Giveaways

There is an old saying that the best things in life are free. That applies to your customers as well, because they will likely appreciate receiving something for free.

So, what can you do here? Have giveaways that will allow customers to receive certain items from your displays.

You can make it a game by allowing customers to spin a wheel to see what prize they are going to win. You can give them a goodie bag with several items to make them remember your company.

Another thing that you can do is have a contest, where a winner will be revealed either at the end of the tradeshow or at a later date. Regardless of which route you go with, this can help get people to stick around.

5. Offer Places to Sit

Something that can help you keep people at your booth longer is offering a couple of chairs to sit down. Not many people would stand when they can sit, especially when they are likely walking around a large tradeshow all day.

It can give people skeptical of your booth a chance to get off their feet and people that are seriously interested in your product or service a good place to discuss further details.

6. Know Your Audience

Get a good idea of who is attending this tradeshow in advance. This could be other businesses and certain people representing those businesses that you wish to network with.

Or, these could be regular consumers that are into a specific niche. This can be anything from travel to the amusement park industry to sports, etc.

7. Bring Brochures

This is another product that you can give away to someone once they leave your display. It is a momentum that can make them not forget your business and it can help them have a better idea of what you can offer to them.

8. Bring Business Cards

This is something else that you can bring to hand out to people that visit your booth. You do not even have to bring a lot of cards, but it can help to have something to give to people that you have a good conversation with.

The business card can let them know that you are open and available to answer any questions that they may have.

9. Be a Speaker

Finally, use this as an opportunity to take charge and speak in front of a room. There are normally presentations at a tradeshow that can allow a speaker to talk about a certain subject or promote a certain product.

Try to get someone from your business to be a speaker or the very least, have someone actively talking and promoting at your display.

Master Your Tradeshow

These are just some tradeshow tips that can help improve your chances of success. Make sure that you have your best staff with you and a display that will draw some attention.

On top of this, bring something to your tradeshow booths to give to people such as brochures, business cards, or even giveaways. If you do all of this, you should see an increase in business.

Do you need help with tradeshow preparation? Book a strategy call with us today.