Business,
Marketing,
Brand Development

A trade show has immense potential to catapult a small business into the limelight if expertly to showcase your business with a blitzkrieg of smart, savvy and sleek marketing. First plan the basics: pre-show emails/phone calls, social media, marketing/outreach. These alert customers and potentially lead to your presence, location and any updates regarding the show. Plan your objectives, budget, and expectations in a realistic and measurable way and stick to them. Keep updating the latest turn-of-events such as giveaways. Constant interaction with attendees keeps the focus on your brand and addresses latecomers.

A business branding, professional video or brand presentation helps capture the customer’s attention. It should be short, slick and to the point. An audio ad can be released before the run-up to the show. The standees and visuals used should be clever and catchy to create a buzz about your booth and product. Create curiosity even if it means enticing potential customers with an interesting freebie or a competition that interests them and they, in turn, will put your booth on his/her must-visit list. Always use your company logo, brand identity, and catchphrase whenever possible to reinforce and create brand recall and value.

You have only 2-5 minutes to impress your customer. A professional and eye-catching booth design is crucial for your presentation. Is it important to capture their attention by having your product/ booth? Appear professional, precise and productive that will help you in developing a strong brand. The aim is to attract your target audience where the chances of lead conversion are greater than targeting all attendees at a trade show.

Choose staff who can represent your product and implement a full-fledged marketing strategy to convert leads into sales. Your staff should be trained to politely and skillfully demo your product and to talk about your business and its usefulness to the customer in an authoritative and knowledgeable manner. They create the first impression of your company and will affect an emotional connection to your brand. The entire set-up, including the technology and human element, should look and feel seamless. Have enough handouts and brochures available for distribution. An effort should be made to collect feedback from the customer in exchange for whatever offers/goodies that you offer them. Apart from just collecting business cards, have your staff make notes about what a customer was really looking for then analyze this information with the rep to improve your next trade show numbers. Following up on lead information collected could eventually become a source of major business for you.

The above steps and paying attention to the company branding, small details help in turning your business into a dynamic and effective company that generates positive results. To get the best value from your investment in trade shows, outsourcing to a professional branding agency can save you money and time.