Trade shows can be a great way to make connections and find new customers for your business. They present the opportunity to show off your products in front of potential buyers. To make the most of trade shows, it is important that you prepare ahead of time.
This will prevent wasting valuable time on finding parking or waiting for registration. In order to have a successful event, here are some tips to help you prepare for your next trade show.
At the beginning of every trade show, you should ahead to set yourself up for success. That starts with securing a hotel or finding other accommodations well before the week of the actual event. You may also receive benefits from booking early like lower rates and better room availability.
Once booked, it’s important to inform your team about travel dates as not to cause them unnecessary stress around their work schedules. Last-minute changes could result in lost wages or even missed flights because everyone is scrambling to make plans at the last moment.
The days before a trade show are critical to the success of your company and need to be planned accordingly. A successful, well-organized campaign will span many different aspects of a trade show.
Marketing strategies that capitalize on all opportunities will help you find success when talking with prospects and following up. A successful campaign could mean your company gets featured for an article in a major publication. You could even get featured in a photo gallery on a highly trafficked website.
Consider producing engagement materials like product sheets and giveaways with free samples. Give your pamphlets a personal touch without having to spend all day creating them.
Handwrytten allows you to take your handwriting and create scalable letters for more personalized marketing materials.
Handwrytten allows you to take your handwriting and create scalable letters for more personalized marketing materials.
It’s important to send acknowledgement about new products for your trade show. You should also have announcements ready related to any big news. Release these weeks in advance so potential visitors can be informed and know exactly what to expect.
Planning ahead can make it easier than ever before to get noticed during tradeshows. Planning helps prevent you from falling prey to common mistakes.
Trade shows can be the perfect opportunity to spread your marketing message and showcase new products. You need a team of people on board with messaging, pricing strategies, and reviewing product catalogs in order to have an effective showing.
Communicate with your marketing, sales, and executive team to get everyone on the same page. Pull information that is essential so that everyone has their talking points.
Make sure that everyone’s calendars are synced up so no one is uncertain about the time and date of the event. Creating helpful documents with crucial information can help ensure a smooth event. Send your documents to everyone on the team so they are up-to-date. Print out several copies for the actual event itself and for everyone involved. You want to have extras just in case something happens.
If you want to make the most out of your trade show experience, it’s best not to go in unprepared. A week before the event, invite everyone who will be attending to an online preparation call.
Not everyone will have a chance to read your documents. Your call will prepare them for all aspects such as dress code and meeting times with other exhibitors or buyers.
You could consider making a slide deck packed full of interesting content. Hotel information and general venue info will be important to include. Include info about when your staff needs to be at the booth.
To be successful and prepare for your next trade show, you need to set up as many positive outcomes as you have control over. This means scheduling meetings with prospects, current customers, and partners ahead of your next show. Having an organized schedule prevents any crowding that could ruin a potential sale. Talk with your team ahead of time to plan out what the best times for meetings are.
If your partner shows up at the same time as a prospective buyer you won’t have enough capacity to satisfy both. This is why having a well-planned day and scheduling your meetings in advance can help you provide better service.
You can even create better goals based on the previous year’s data by scheduling out your meetings in advance. You can compare how well your business did at the trade show from last year and schedule enough meetings with prospects to improve your results.
When you schedule out your meetings make sure all the calendars are synced for everyone. You could also set up calendar notifications for all the parties involved so they are reminded of when the meetings are ahead of time as well as during the event.
It will be hard for anyone to know about your trade show if you aren’t properly marketing yourself. To get the best results for your next trade show, get your social media accounts ready ahead of time. Make sure that you have all the right links to share about the next trade show on each account and create graphics for those posts as well. Share these announcements weeks in advance so potential visitors can be informed and know exactly what to expect when they arrive at the event.
You want people who haven’t been to one of your trade shows before to feel like they are a part of it. This means that you need all the right tweets, posts, and other social media content ready for the big event so prospects can share your posts at any moment.
Creating hashtags for your specific event is another good idea to increase brand awareness and marketing for your trade show. Make it specific to the trade show like “#tradeshow2020” in order to understand how much people are engaging for that specific year.
It will be hard for someone who is not following you already to find out about the trade show without this marketing yourself ahead of time. You want people in general to have an idea of what kind of company you represent and how much value their attendance could bring overall.
You won’t be able to provide the best quality experience for your trade show attendees if you aren’t properly rested for the event. You need to make sure that you are getting a good night’s sleep and eating healthy food to be the best version of yourself in order to make it through your next trade show.
It will also help with your mental health if you stay hydrated during the next event too so drink lots of water before, throughout, and after the next trade show as well. Especially if your trade show has an outdoor setting of any kind.
It can also take a toll to set your booth up so you’ll want to stay hydrated throughout that process. The more prepared physically you are for the show, the better you can take care of prospects and partners who are interested in your company.
Stick with a lighter meal the night before so you don’t have the possibility of an upset stomach the day of the show. Eat light throughout the day and stick with healthier options like vegetables or salads.
Drink plenty of water and stay away from drinks that contain a lot of sugar as these can cause a crash in the middle of the day when the show is at its peak.
Make your prospects feel like they are special by creating free giveaways for anyone who signs up. This way you can capture their information while also providing something fun and exciting for the potential customer.
Consider using Handwrytten to create personalized, handwritten letters based on your own handwriting. You just need to provide samples and the robots do the rest!
People love free giveaways. It is proven that an attendee will come to your booth for the chance of a giveaway or prize compared to a booth that has nothing. They’ll also stay longer than someone who doesn’t have anything to do while waiting in line at other booths on the show floor.
Invest some money into this by getting creative with what you offer up as prizes like slot machines where attendees can win cash, ice cream trucks so there’s something delicious nearby when hunger strikes them midway through their visit – even renting out a coffee machine could be helpful!
You can run these giveaways throughout the entire day or you might find it more beneficial to create more urgency. Have special times where people can receive these giveaways only to increase the foot traffic for certain periods of time.
Once the event is over, make sure you have a full plan in place for your follow-up with prospects and partners. Send letters or calls to all those who stopped by your booth and let them know how much you appreciate their time.
You could provide even more giveaways or special deals for all those who attended the booth. Communicate with your team about these prospects so that your sales division can be ready for the influx of new customers.
Organize accommodations in advance to prepare for your next trade show. Consider making suitable arrangements, creating marketing materials, and communicating with your team about goals.
To create personalized marketing materials based on your own handwriting, consider Handwrytten for your trade show prep and be the center of attention at your next trade show.
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