There’s literally a trade show for everything: toilets and UFOs, anyone? That means there’s a trade show for your business niche, and it’s a valuable experience.
Trade shows are one of the most powerful networking opportunities available. 90 percent of the people who attended a trade show met face-to-face with companies that they spoke to in under a year of attending the show.
You want to get those new customers, but need to stand out amongst the crowd to draw their attention. Get creative trade show booth ideas to give yourself an edge against the competition.
Creative Trade Show Booth Ideas
More than 24 billion dollars is spent annually on trade show displays. But 70 percent of the people exhibiting have no clear objectives for their trade show. Get one step ahead of the game with these creative trade show booth ideas.
Start Early
If you don’t plan your booth’s display far in advance, you’ll flounder once the time comes to set up your booth.
Allow yourself several weeks before the trade show in order to purchase the materials you need for your booth. These can be flyers, flags, custom backgrounds, signs, tents, and any product you’d like to display.
Spend a little time researching the competition to see what kind of displays they’ve brought to shows in the past. Once you know what they’re doing, you can draw on their ideas and also learn from their mistakes.
The Things You Can’t See
Use social media in your booth to make the experience memorable and interactive.
Before the event even starts, begin hyping it up on your social media accounts. You can make a hashtag specifically dedicated to the event. Encourage people to follow along with it and use it as you update your feed throughout the day.
Use Facebook live to document the experience. You can also use geofilters, and tell people to follow your hashtag and go along with you on the tradeshow journey.
Print an event-specific hashtag on your booth’s display to really get into the hashtag game. People will be curious to check out what’s happening when it’s an officially printed hashtag to follow.
Swag
There is nothing that people love more than free stuff. It’s almost a surefire way to get someone to come to your booth and start speaking with you.
Ther perfect giveaways are ones that people will actually want and not throw away a few minutes later. It will remind them of your brand and be something that’s actually useful to them.
Bumper stickers or air fresheners, free sunglasses, branded candy – all are great ways to remind people of the time they spent talking to you.
People always need their phones charged. If you bring a phone-charging station with you, people will be inclined to stick around your booth and charge their phones, giving you an opportunity to speak with them.
Demo Your Product
Just talking about it is not nearly as exciting as actually doing it. If you have a product that you can use while you’re in your booth, utilize that opportunity. When people see your product in person, in action, it will create a much larger impression than simply telling them what your product can do.
If you have an item that can’t be displayed in a booth, consider creating a compelling video to show off how it works.
Snap a Photo
Turn your tradeshow booth into a photo booth. Having a photo-op at your booth with allow people to spend more time with you, giving you more of an opportunity to speak to them and get them involved in your brand.
You can bring along fun props with you, and even make a banner that’s specifically designed for photo opportunities.
When people ask where they can find the photos you took, you can strategically snag their emails and send the photo there.
An Impressive Display
When you’re working with trade shows, your sign is arguably one of the most important things about your entire display. Arrowhead Signs has every possible type of sign that your trade show could need.
A double-sided graphic package is a huge standout option for signs at your booth. You attract customer’s eyes in surround, making it difficult for them not to pay attention to you.
You can also get your table throw branded to match your company’s display, bringing the entire booth together into a cohesive unit.
Retractable banners are a great option for smaller booths with less real estate to take up. They look professional and can be printed with bold, vibrant colors to draw in business.
Whatever sign you choose, make sure your design is consistent. Keeping a cohesive branding throughout the booth will let your customers know exactly what you’re about, no matter how creative and unique it is.
Trade Your Leads
Let’s face it – you’re in direct competition with the people around you. But there will often be brands that are offering different products than yours that still target the same customer base.
When you find these brands, you can work with them. They’re not going to be offering the same product that you’ll have to compete with, so they’re safe to talk to.
Trade leads with these people. In one simple conversation, you can double your ROI of going to the trade show. You’ll have the information that they gained from coming to the show and the contacts that they made that you might not have made.
It’s also a win for them because they have your contacts as well and you’ve begun to build partnerships. Not every part of creativity is in the display – it’s in the strategy you use as well.
Start Trading
With these creative trade show booth ideas at your fingertips, you can literally sell anything. Keep learning how to improve your business, and trade shows will be an important tool in your toolbelt to take your company to the next level.
Once you’ve nailed these tips, you’ll start to see the results pour in. You’ll be able to go to even more trade shows and gain more clients – it’s a win-win.
