How Exhibition Booths Can Increase Your Profit

There are many ways for a company to earn profits. One of the simpler ways is using exhibition booths. It’s not as simple as setting up the booths and having people line up. Like any other attempt to get more customers, thought and planning are involved. Carefully prepared booths will attract attention and get more customers than DIY booths or booths designed and installed at the last minute.

Start Promoting Your Booth Before the Event

The company that hosts the show will do some advertising. Still, do some advertising of your own. Try to contact the attendees at least several weeks before the event. Identify attendees who have “rank,” like company presidents, research directors, and board members. Schedule appointments with them during the trade show. In some cases, you can make appointments at your booth before the trade show starts.

Arrange appointments with decision makers, like company presidents. When the time is right, you can ask if they would they refer you to other decision makers, specifically, those who are not attending. Let your reach exceed your grasp. Contact decision makers in the US and consider contacting them in other countries.

You can still use a time-honored technique to get more traffic to your booth. Advertise in trade show publications before the event. Include your contact information in the ad.

Event Protocol

When the trade show occurs, be prepared for rank-and-file attendees and those with appointments. How? Be ready to explain how your company can solve their business problems. Do not approach them by trying to sell them aggressively. Of course, explain how you can solve their problems better than your competition. Do this in a professional manner; don’t slam your competitors.

In general, try to look interested, engaged, alert, and ready to assist attendees. Don’t look bored, annoyed, or distracted. Stay away from your cell phone. Don’t spend time chatting with other booth workers. And don’t eat or drink while you’re supposed to be assisting potential customers.

What Can You Get from Attendees?

Contact information is a good start, so aim to collect business cards and any other sources of contact information. If you can persuade your lead to contact others who might be interested in your company’s product, this can lead to great results for your business.

Cooperation with Other Vendors

Cooperation can be useful, and very effective at boosting traffic to your company’s booth.

Approach vendors who market different kinds of products than your company. And approach those whose products may be of interest to your customers, and vice versa. Try to make an agreement for mutual benefit. If each company refers their visitors to the other company’s booth, they are both likely to see an uptick in traffic.

Speak for Your Product

Are you knowledgeable enough about your company’s products to qualify as an expert? If so, you could be a speaker at the presentation which hosts your booth. That way, you can validate your product, and drive traffic to it.

Can you get other experts to help validate your company’s products? One way is to have live, expert demonstrations of company products at your booth. Live presentations are more interesting than “canned” video. And the better live presentations encourage attendees to participate, making them feel like they’ve made a contribution to the company’s product development.

That kind of interaction between attendees and your company is very powerful. It strongly cements the company name in the participant’s mind. It also accomplishes much in getting the participant to become a customer. Plus, the participant will act as a salesperson for you. He or she will be more than happy to tell others of their experience, with your company.

Different Booth Styles

Not everyone who visits your booth will follow the usual routine. Stop and look for a few minutes. Ask a few general questions about your products. Take a small handful of company literature. Leave. That’s where different booth styles suit different types of customers. Some booth styles are better for attracting potential customers. Other styles will be good at keeping them there.

Some attendees will be very interested in discussing your company’s products in depth. A potential customer with a high degree of interest in your products should never be denied. Have a lounge area with your booth, for extended conversations. Attendees can talk with company representatives and get all their questions answered.

Digital photo booths can attract potential customers. Making a memory of the visit with a digital photo, will help a potential customer remember the company. Also, the digital photographs can be “branded” with the company or the product name.

Booths that have interactive media for attendees tend to both draw people in and keep them there. Attendees like participatory media about company products. That’s especially true when participant’s opinions are requested.

Social media walls are used by some companies at their booths. Attendees are encouraged to post comments about company products, by Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The comments are displayed live, with proper filtering. But besides posting comments, discussions between attendees result. Thus, the word can spread rapidly to attract people who would not have attended.

The trendiest booths use virtual reality to display company products. Displays have realistic 3-D images, including motion, to show how products look and work. The company is able to display any selection of its products. And they don’t have to be there. And, the experience will be something visitors will gladly talk about.

A tried and true technique for attracting people to your booth is lighting. Digital lights and signage will make an eye-catching display. People attracted to your booth will also enjoy the interactive nature of digital signage. Those who visited your booth will be happy to talk about the experience to others. Again, this helps spread the word about the company products.

Need to Know More?

You can find more information about using exhibition booths for profit at Exhibit Company.