7 Trade Show Tips To Lead You To Event Success7TRADE SHOW TIPS TO LEAD YOU TO EVENT SUCCESSTrade Show TipsTRADE SHOW TIPS WHY BOTHER?Ensuring that youve got everything planned before attending atrade showis vital to seeing any kind of success from the event. These trade show tips are to help give you an idea of the kind of things that you need to consider before taking your business to a trade show/exhibition. Following the age old saying of failing to plan is planning to fail can go a very long way and trade shows are no exception. As weve attended plenty of trade shows ourselves, weve managed to pick up a few things and this list is to help prevent you making some of the mistakes that we have. So without further ado, we hope you enjoy our 7 trade show tips.GET SOCIAL WITH ITYoure probably all aware by now that social media is here and its going nowhereanytime soon. Announcing that youll be attending a trade show and posting reminders is a great way to make sure that people are aware that youll be there. Another effective way to use social media for trade shows is to live tweet the event.Twitteris perfect for live, hot off the press news and being at the forefront of that is a surefire way to ensure that everyone at the trade show and/or following it will know you. This can even warm all of the visitors to your stand before they even speak to you.DONT GO ALONEThis could be one of the most helpful trade show tips you receive, if youve never been to a trade show before, you wont realise how busy they can get. If you go to the exhibition on your own, you risk leaving your stand unattended, especially when you decide that youd like to visit some of the other stands dotted around the trade show and who wouldnt want to? Taking someone with you and rotating roles will help speed up your set up times and enable you to interact withmany more people.PREPARATION IS KEYAnother vital thing to do is to make sure that youre well prepared. Put together a checklist before your trade show to ensure that you will have everything once you get there. The last thing that you want to do is search for something that you need and then realise that you havent taken it with you. Check everything and tick it off to be sure that you have everything and arrive at the event early. This will give you time to set up and deal with any issues that may arise before the trade show is in full swing.
THIS IS THE STAND THAT YOURE LOOKING FORYour display plays a massive part to exhibiting at a trade show, the second to a good display stand is well presented representatives from your business. We highly recommend that you work closely with your designer and printer on your trade show display. A designer will have the eye and knowledge to ensure that there isnt a lot of noise with your designs. Theyll also have the expertise in highlighting what your business does clearly and in a visually stimulating way. Discussing your printing options with your printers is also very beneficial, this is because a printers naturally know print very well. They can recommend what they think you should use and help advise you on your options. If you already know what you want thats brilliant, but if not, speaking with a designer and printers will be something that you wont regret doing. If youre designing your display internally be sure to keep your designs simple, bold and easy to read. You dont want your visitors to be bombarded with clutter and just not bother looking at your display that youve paid good money for.
EXCLUSIVESAnother great thingto provide at your event is an exclusive offer, promotion, competition, etc. This will give your stand visitors a sense of exclusivity which can lead to impulse decisions. Put a lot of thought into what youd like to offer to them as you want it to be something that gives them genuine value or theyll see right through you, especially if your target audience is attending the event.
DATA, DATA, DATAOne of the most important trade show tips is to ensure that youre collecting information and contact details about the people who visit your stand. You can do this by simply asking people as you interact with people, but an additional entertaining way to obtain information is to hold a competition. You could create a game where people put their business cards into a jar to enter or hold a raffle that requires a business card to be passed onto you to be entered into it. The more creative you are, the better the results will be. This is because its more appealing to people when compared to openly asking if you can have their information and potentially coming across as a little forward.
FOLLOW UPSLast on this list and of course we couldnt forget this one. Youre most likely looking to attend a trade show to obtain more business and build relationships up with your prospects, so why forget about them after the trade show has ended? From all of the information that you collect as mentioned in the previous tip, you can use this to get back in touch after a couple of weeks and even dabble in someemail marketing,referencing the trade show. If you are going to use email marketing, be sure to have an unsubscribe button to give people the chance to opt out of future emails from you. The chances are that youll have to keep in touch to nurture the relationships that you created at the trade show but as long as youre patient, youll start to see results coming through after a while.
ROUNDING IT OFFTo round all of these trade show tips off, were going to give you a couple of reminders. So in summary, to have a successful trade show, you need to be sure to:Use social media to your advantage and live tweet and/or use social media platforms like Periscope to even live stream the event to be at the forefront of the event.

Take someone with you to avoid an abandoned stand.

Get prepared and make sure that everything is ready for the event to prevent stress once you arrive to setup.

Make your stand is as visually appealing as possible through good communication with your design team and/or outsourced designer and printers.

Offer exclusives to give people a reason to visit your stand and take part in what youre offering.

Collect information that you can use to follow up with people after the trade show has finished. Use competitions and games to offer a fun alternative way to collect the information that you can use for email marketing and follow ups.

Lastly thank you for taking the time to read this blog post and we hope that weve given you some food for thought for your trade show. We wish you the best of luck with your event and if you take into consideration these trade show tips, were confident that youll have a great time and a successful event. If you liked this, please share it so it can help others out there looking for help with their trade shows.