Design a killer booth for tradeshow

Advancement in technology has made it much easier to create your own trade show graphics. However, it’s easy to get lost in the technology & innovation and lose sight of the basics while you are at creating your trade show display. And, you’d like to know that when it comes to creating a trade show display, it is still the traditional spell that works the best: your images and messages should be simple and your layouts clean.

Mentioned below are five basic elements and tips that every trade show display should include in order to create an effective trade show display.

In order:

1. Visual Headline
2. Description
3. Company name & Logo
4. Website

1. Select your trade-show graphics carefully

Select a graphics that both tells and sells. Simple, bold and clear images are the most effective way to creating a memorable canvas for your selling story. Ornate, involved, mysterious and confusing art and graphics may be great to look at but can be distracting and much less effective as a backdrop for your trade show message.

Tip: Select simple single images. You may want to use many images to tell a complicated story, but often, a single simple image tells a story deeper than a thousand shallow ones. If you are in the market for trade show graphics, there are several services that offer simple searches and reasonably priced photos and illustrations that may be used in creating trade show display graphics.

2. Create a simple and easy to remember headline.

Choose your words carefully, and keep the headline for your trade show display simple, clear, catchy and short!

People who did not plan to visit the show will simply walk past your booth. They may, at best, give your display a passing glance. And believe it or not, this is often your only chance to grab them. If your trade show display has a carefully thought out and compelling headline, they may choose to take an extra moment and learn a little more about your company.

The shorter your headline, the larger it can appear on your trade show display. The larger it is on your trade show display the larger is your chance of capturing your potential audience. Even a small table top display with a short bold message can be seen from several yards away.

Your choice of typeface is also important. With thousands to choose from, the task of selecting the right one can seem quite daunting.

Tip: Choose a simple and easy to read typeface. Next time you’re at a trade show, take notice of the displays produced by large companies. Not necessarily large booths, but even table top displays produced by large and successful companies consistently use simple bold graphics. You can and should do the same.

3. Careful: You are now writing your description.

We know it's tempting to write a description for your trade show display that explains everything you want your customer to know about your product or service, but stop. Don’t!

Most trade show attendees will not want to spend much time reading about your company, As much as you would like them to. If the headline and graphic of your trade show display captured their attention, they may want to read a sentence or two at most. Keep your sentences short and choppy. Make each word count.

Tip:

• Use bullet points
• Keep your messages short
• Don’t get too technical
• Less is more

If you have access to a copywriter, use one. If not, ask friends, a school teacher, and/or someone not connected to your business to review your trade show display description. You will be amazed how at how much you can learn.

IGMCreativeGroup.com is an advertising agency, online marketing and web development firm, which offers simple brand building solutions within a conservative budget without the traditional elaborateness. We help launch cohesive, effective and comprehensive marketing campaigns for ensuring visibility and profitability of your business.

Email Marketing for your trade Show

From the daily onslaught of email spams and newsletters filling inboxes, you would think that email marketing is losing its punch. Email marketing is not dead, but a thriving medium for business today.

Recently, I developed an email newsletter marketing campaign for a company. The results exceeded the expectations of everyone involved. This campaign employed an email newsletter subscription with an offline "magic box". This box was intended to collect and warm the leads for the sales force. Instead of warming the leads, the campaign closed the sale without contact from the sales rep and increased sales over 30%.

Business today is finding email marketing with newsletters attractive for several reasons:

The cost of sending a direct mail piece by postal service runs over a dollar, email marketing can cost pennies.

A one percent response rate from direct mail is considered terrific. An email marketing campaign can have a five to ten percent response rate.

According to DoubleClick's Email Consumer Study, over 78% of online shoppers have purchased because of permission-based emails and 59% of email recipients have bought in a retail store as a result of a merchant email.

The benefits of email marketing range from increased sales and lead generation to stronger brand awareness and improved customer relationships.

• If you operate a booth at a tradeshow, and you collect business cards from people who visit the booth, send them a personal, one-to-one email replete with sales pitch and a link to your email subscriber form, so you can stay in regular contact. Give them a link to a landing page on your website with a valuable whitepaper, which also contains a link to your newsletter. Insert full page advertisements on your whitepaper that point back to your newsletter signup form.

• Maintain contacts, but categorize them appropriately. A “lead” that you met at a tradeshow is someone you can keep in your CRM to contact some day (“Hi Bob, we met at the Acme Widgets Show. If you’ve still got a need for enterprise Acme monitoring services, our company just introduced…”). But that “lead” is NOT someone you can add to a big marketing mailing list. If they receive mass email from you out of the blue, they’ll report you for spamming.

• If you operate a tradeshow booth and the tradeshow host offers to give you an email list of all attendees do not import it into your mass marketing list. You could send them personal, one-to-one messages before the event (from your own email program, not en masse from an email marketing service), inviting them to your booth. Yes, that’s a royal pain in the you-know-what. The tradeshow organizer should be sending emails for you as recipients will probably recognize them better.

• On rare occasions, we’ve seen tradeshow organizers include opt-in checkboxes, where attendees can request emails from exhibitors at the show. On confirmation, send a mass email ASAP. If you just add this “opt-in list” to your general marketing list, and these attendees get your Quarterly Newsletter out of the blue, they’ll probably report you for spamming.

• If you collect email addresses while exhibiting at a tradeshow, consider keeping that as a separate list, or flagging them in your master database. That way, you can see who came from where, and isolate any email delivery problems by “source of list” if you need to. Responsible email marketers randomly decide to import a list of people their sales team met at a tradeshow. Those tradeshow attendees forget who you are, or receive an email they don’t think is relevant, and report the company for spamming. If they can’t delete all those tradeshow attendees from their list, their entire list is basically tainted.

• Fish bowls are a bad, bad idea. For adding emails to your list, that is. When collecting business cards in a fishbowl at your booth, avoid subscribing the email addresses to your e-marketing list. You can crack-berry those people and ask them if they want to subscribe for email marketing. Just make sure you send your first email marketing campaign to these people soon after the event, and be sure to refer to the tradeshow in that first email to them (“Hi Jane, thanks for visiting our booth at the Acme Tradeshow…”).

IGMCreativeGroup.com is an advertising agency, online marketing and web development firm, which offers simple brand building solutions within a conservative budget without the traditional elaborateness. We help launch cohesive, effective and comprehensive marketing campaigns for ensuring visibility and profitability of your business.

Hottest Trade Show Trends

Social Media

With more businesses relying on various forms of social media then ever before, tradeshow marketing through this media has seen explosive growth. While Facebook continues to be a tremendous favorite with companies of all size, newer social media venues such as Foursquare and Twitter are becoming influential ways to market booth attractions. Viral advertising, blogs and podcasts will be used in new and more innovative ways as advertisers and savvy business owners micro-target their specific demographics.

One way in which social media will expand its place in the tradeshow marketing arena is by using interactive activities that promote brand loyalty. Incentives and genuine dialogue between businesses and their customers will help to create complete communities of loyal followers that will leverage social media sites into new platforms for convention marketing.

Using Social Media Before, During and After The Tradeshow

Facebook is the most popular form of social media currently being used for trade show marketing. This omnipresent social media platform has more members than the population of the United States. You can generate an immediate buzz by creating a company Facebook page and announcing your appearance at upcoming tradeshows. The beauty is in its simplicity – you’ll soon discover that your interested clients will become your marketing platform by posting comments and forwarding your information to others.

Blogs are another form of interactive social media that encourage dialogue that can contain incoming and outgoing links from your blog to other sites. This simple form of communication with your customers can immediately expand the reach of your convention marketing dollars at no additional cost to you.

YouTube can also help to create interest if you are offering a new product or service create a demonstration video that can be used as a teaser to draw potential visitors to your booth to learn more.

Post audio or video clips from the tradeshow floor on Facebook and/or YouTube. Choose short sound bites or brief videos that will encourage customers to visit your booth to check out the interesting tradeshow attractions you've given them a glimpse of online. Let potential clients know you have experts on hand to answer questions and entice them with booth attractions that make your booth a "must" as they navigate the convention floor.

Offer anyone who mentions your YouTube video or Facebook page or who comments on one of your threads an incentive when they stop by your tradeshow booth. It could be a personalized consultation, an extra gift, or any other enticement that makes them feel like they've earned something extra simply by following your Facebook updates.

Did you know that more than half of all event planners and tradeshow experts now use Twitter updates to keep interest high throughout an event? If you're going to be doing specific product demonstrations throughout the day, tweet your followers to give them a heads up when something is about to happen so they won't miss a thing.

Partnering via hyperlinks with other, non-competitor companies, that will also be in attendance at the convention is yet another great way to reach untapped prospects with your tradeshow marketing.

After you've packed up the products that you have just showcased and are headed back to the office, you can cement new relationships with anyone who visited your tradeshow booth by following up on your tradeshow marketing through social media. Send out a quick "thanks for stopping by" message via Twitter or post an update on Facebook that mentions the success of your booth. Post a brief, follow-up questionnaire to gauge how people responded to your products, services and the tradeshow attractions that you used to generate increased traffic. With this feedback, your staff can gain valuable insight that you can use to determine the results of your recent show. And of course, remind your new contacts to visit your website for product news and updates any time!

Go Green

Another trend that's already seeing enormous returns is green tradeshow marketing. These efforts will appeal to your prospects with environmental and ecological concerns. As consumer and business confidence continues to rise, businesses will cement customer loyalty by touting their own role in creating a better world through green tradeshow marketing.

Using green tradeshow materials and attractions such as eco-friendly gifts like solar powered pedometers or biodegradable pens will enhance your business' image. Whether companies are looking for promotional items that are organic, green, or recycled, the response from appreciative consumers is sure to be positive. Demonstrating proper stewardship of natural resources and an awareness of the importance of green living will enhance tradeshow marketing efforts and a company's image.

Add a Regional Appeal to Your Show Attendance

Tradeshow experts have noticed that the most promising promotional products and tradeshow attractions seem to be those that use an interesting blend of universal and regional facets. It is believed that more tradeshow marketing dollars will be spent in 2011 on promotional items and convention marketing efforts that are regional in nature.

Consumers are responding well to green products and culturally conscious initiatives while appreciating the distinctive touch of gifts or promotions that are powerful reminders of the region. The combination may be tricky, but a skillful touch and some careful thought as to how to embrace the distinctive region of each tradeshow venue can generate gold star results in tradeshow marketing.

The Gaming Advantage

While most companies aren't going to design their own online video game, many businesses are jumping on the game playing bandwagon. Whether you decide to offer scratch-off cards as promotional giveaways or develop a buyer incentive program that requires some sort of game play these types of tradeshow attraction offer interactive participation that offers a bigger-payoff.

Lets face it educating potential customers and holding their interest at tradeshows is challenging. The smart convention marketing planner is the one who will make learning about their company's products and services rewarding and fun with booth attractions that feature game play.

IGMCreativeGroup.com is an advertising agency, online marketing and web development firm, offering simple brand building solutions within a conservative budget without the traditional elaborateness. We help launch cohesive, effective and comprehensive marketing campaigns for ensuring visibility and profitability of your business.