Increasing Your Effectiveness at Trade Shows with Good Follow Up

Posted on April 30, 2012 by kathyb
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Increasing Your Effectiveness at Trade Shows with Good Follow Up Methods and Practices

One of the goals you should have set this year for your trade show marketing is that you were going to be diligent about following up on every single lead the trade show generated. You are no longer going to take a passive stance. The better you are about following up on your leads, the stronger your business is going to be.

Not only does having a solid plan for follow up make good business sense, you will find that it really gives you the edge on your competition. The number of businesses who go to trade shows but don’t bother with any follow up techniques is astonishing.

The way that you are going to follow up on the leads after the trade show has ended is very important.

Trade Show Staff Meeting

Have a meeting with all staff members before leaving for the Trade Show.

Before you even leave for the trade show you need to be thinking about how you plan to go about following up on any leads that you are going to develop. The biggest issue you are going to have to address is how you plan on collecting the contact information of anybody who expresses interest in  your company’s services. Writing the information down on a piece of paper isn’t good enough. You should  have a formal method for collecting this information. In addition to getting their name and their phone number, you should also be sure to ask for their email address. Once you have selected a method of collecting and recording this information, you need to make sure that every person who will be working in your trade show booth is aware of the correct protocol.

One of the things that many businesses have begun doing is making sure they send out a thank you email to every attendee who filled out contact information. Not only does the email help establish a relationship between your business and the trade show attendee, it also shows that you cared about what they had to say. Make sure that the email includes not just a thank you message but also your company logo and the business name. For hot leads, you might want to think about a more personalized form of follow up, such as a friendly telephone call.

You already know that working trade shows and dealing with the constant deluge of people can be stressful and that your staff is going to require many breaks. There is no reason that your staff person can’t be categorizing the leads they were able to generate during their break time. Not only should your staff person have each lead written down, but they should also make a note about whether or not they think it is going to be a hot or cold lead.

A mistake that many businesses that do follow up on trade show leads often make is that they wait too long to follow up on the lead. Knowing when you should follow up can be tricky, you don’t want to come across as too pushy. The thank you email should be sent within a day or two of meeting the person at the trade show. A week or ten days is usually an appropriate time to make a follow up phone call.

See all of our blog posts for more tips and information on trade show marketing.

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Use Your Trade Show Display in Your Showroom

Posted on March 5, 2012 by kathyb
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Use Your Trade Show Display in Your Showroom

If you have a company that you find does very well when it comes to trade show marketing, you already know that an important part of your success is the booth that you use. This booth becomes a combination of mini workspace and promotional tool while you are at the trade show. In addition to conducting business from it, you also use it as a billboard to help educate trade show attendees about your business.

The more frequently you attend trade shows, the more elaborate your trade show booth is going to become. Not only are the walls of the booth covered in good quality graphics, but you have also created pop-up ads, banners, and several other things.  By this point you have a great deal of money invested in your trade show booth.

The interesting thing about companies that do a lot of marketing at trade shows is that they seldom use their booth anywhere but at the trade show. When they aren’t on the road, the trade show booth stays very securely packed up. This is a waste of perfectly good advertising.

Let your trade show display help with some at home marketing.
Instead of keeping your trade show display packed away in storage between trade shows, you should set it up somewhere prominent in your business location. It can be just as effective a marketing tool while you are on home ground as it is when you are on the road. In addition to setting up the trade show display in your showroom, you should also make sure that you offer clients the same information that you pass out at the trade shows.

If your display is truly effective, it contains all kinds of useful and interesting information about your company. Your home based clients are going to be just as interested. By reading through the information that you have on your trade show display, they might even learn about a product or service that they didn’t know you offered which can lead to a sale that you wouldn’t have had before setting up the display. Make sure that the contact information is visible through the window.

Some businesses have found that the best place for their trade show display is in one of their windows. They make sure that they set up the display in such a way that it can be seen by people who are walking on the street. When the display is set up like this, interested people can learn all kinds of things about your company and products you offer.

The biggest drawback with using your trade show display in your showroom is making sure that you have all the components with you the next time you leave for a trade show. You don’t want to get all the way there and discover that you left stuff at home. The best way to make sure that you have brought everything is to create a list of what needs to be brought. Give the list to one person who is assigned with the task of packing for the trade show. Make sure that they only check off an item after it has been packed and loaded in the car. Having one person handle the packing process instead of several means that packing up will take a little bit longer, but it will also decrease the chances of something getting left behind. You should stick to the same system when you are packing up to come home from the trade show.

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At Trade Shows Good Graphics Matter

Posted on February 20, 2012 by kathyb
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Good Graphics on your Displays and Literature are a Must at Trade Shows

When you factor in the amount of time it takes to prepare for a trade show, the number of staff who has to be there for the duration of the show to man the booth, travel cost, and registration fees, trade show marketing can be expensive. You want to make sure you make the most out of each event.

Since promoting yourself at a tradeshow can be costly, it’s natural to look for areas where you can cut costs, and save a few dollars. The area where many of the businesses that frequent trade shows try to save money is by removing some graphics from their displays and handouts. While this does reduce the overall cost of marketing yourself at a trade show, it also generally turns out to be a mistake.

Retractable Banner Display

Retractable Banner Display

What you need to keep in mind is that approximately 90% of the trade show attendees are not going to have a clue about your business or know what it does before they arrive at the trade show. The whole point of you being there is so that you can educate them. The graphics you use are going to be a key aspect of this education.

The first thing the graphics that you use to dress up your display does is catch the eye of the attendees as they pass by. This is important. When the graphics catch a person’s eye, they are far more likely to stop. The more interesting and better quality the graphics are, the more people who are going to stop at your booth.

Ideally, every single person who stops at your trade show booth will have an opportunity to talk to the staff members who are manning the booth. Sadly, things don’t always work out that way. You can only send a limited amount of people to work at the trade show and they can only talk to so many people at a time. If the booth is busy, some people aren’t going to get spoken to. As long as you have good graphics, the fact that no one was able to talk to the person isn’t going to be as big a deal. Good graphics tell a story about what it is that you company specializes in, what the working conditions are like, and how your business is an asset to the community.

In addition to the use of good graphics as part of your display, the material that you pass out also needs to be loaded down with good graphics. The graphics on the material you pass out to the individuals who make a stop at your booth will accomplish two things. Graphics make your literature stand out from all the other literature that the person collects while they are attending the trade show, and considering the sheer volume of information people gather during the course of a trade show, standing out is very important. The graphics that you print on your literature should be very similar to the graphics you use as part of your display. By seeing the graphics again, the person reading the information will have an instant flashback visiting your booth and will easily be able to connect the literature to your business.

Keep in mind that the graphics you use for the trade show have to be the best possible quality. Not only should they provide insight about your company, but they also need to be clear. Try to choose graphics that are going to set you apart from all of the other businesses who also have booths at the trade show.

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Training your trade show staff

Posted on February 9, 2012 by kathyb
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Training your trade show staff

The whole point of setting up a display at a trade show is to market your business. The hope is that by the conclusion of the trade show, not only will you have generated some serious business leads, but that more people will be familiar with your company’s name and have a solid grasp of what your business does. The only way this will happen is if you have taken the time to make sure the staff you have sent to the trade show have been well trained.

Training your trade show staffOne of the things you’re going to want to keep in mind is that the selection of the people you chose to send to the trade show is very important. Just because someone is a good employee, it does not necessarily mean that they are going to provide the kind of representation you want.

 

When it comes to selecting your trade show staff, you want to make sure the individuals are cheerful, very knowledgeable, and outgoing.

You should not wait until the last possible moment to start training the staff that will be working the trade show. When you decide that you are going to be setting up a booth, you should connect with the members of your staff that you are planning to send and start the training process. The sooner the training starts, the better able the staff will be to represent your company.

One of the things you are going to want to discuss with the staff who will be representing you at the trade show is your goals. You don’t want to go the trade show without a clear objective. Is your goal to find prospective employees? Are you hoping to improve company name recognition? Do you want the trade show to lead to an increase in sales? The better your staff knows your goals for the trade show, the more concise their pitch while at the trade show is going to be.

You and the staff need to do a bit of research and get to know a little bit about the type of person they can expect to encounter at the show. Knowing the type of person the trade show attracts, makes it possible for your staff to create a list of key questions they can expect to receive while at the trade show. When you staff is well versed on the type of visitors they can expect to encounter at the booth, the easier it is going to be for them to connect with each person they meet and make a positive impression.

If your staff is going to be doing any demonstrations, or leading and discussions, it is very important that they are given plenty of time to practice. The more frequently they run through the process, the more likely it is that all the bugs will get worked out before the trade show. Some of the practices need to be held in front of an audience.

Before they leave for the trade show, make sure you staff is very well versed on the products they are going to be promoting. Not only should they be able to demonstrate how the produce works, but they should also be able to answer a wide variety of questions about the product.

Before the staff leaves for the trade show, they need to sit down and work out a schedule. Trade shows are very demanding and can be quite intense. They are also a very long day. You can’t expect your staff to be on top of things the entire time that they are there. The key to keeping them at the top of their game is to make sure that each staff person gets plenty of short breaks. By scheduling the breaks before the start of the show, you are decreasing the chances of the booth not being properly covered at a key moment.

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Clear Goal for Your Trade Show

Posted on January 25, 2012 by kathyb
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Have Clear Goals for Your Trade Show

Attending trade shows and marketing events are an investment into your company. You want to make sure that you are getting as much as you possibly can from the experience. Instead of going to the trade show hoping it will generate some additional business for your company, you should set very clear goals for yourself.

Set small goals for every single trade show.

Trade Show Goals

Have Clear Goals for your Trade Show

Too often, businesses go to a show with the idea they will talk to a few people and maybe generate a few leads. As a result it is very difficult to gage just how effective the trade show is. Long before any show or event begins, you and any staff members who will be accompanying you need to sit down and decide how many leads you want to create during the trade show, how much information you want to pass out, and how many sales you want to be able to trace back to the trade show.

This year you need to set a goal that you are going to follow up on every single lead you make while attending trade shows.

One of the mistakes that many business owners make when it comes to marketing at trade shows is that they assume that it is enough to just show up. This is not the case at all. Showing up is just part of the job. In able to be truly successful, you need to be willing to follow up on any leads, or even potential leads you might have made while you were there. It doesn’t matter if you were seeking potential employees, or if you were hoping to expand your client base, if someone expressed interest in your company while they were at the trade show, you are the one who needs to make an effort to reconnect with them.

Keep in mind that the memory of people tends to be a little on the short side. While you don’t necessarily want to contact a potential lead the day after the event and come across as pushy, you also don’t want to wait months either. Any leads that you collected during the show need to be followed up within a couple of weeks of the show ending while your company’s name is still fresh in the person’s memory. When you reconnect with the lead, don’t be pushy; just tell them that you wanted to touch base with them. It is best if you make sure that the employee who is following up on the lead is the same person that the potential customer spoke to at the trade show.

Keep track of your results.

If you are like many businesses, you spend an extraordinary amount of time traveling from one event to another. The odds are pretty good that the results will vary from show to show. So, this year make an effort to sit down and measure the results from every show you attend. By knowing the results, you will be able to better calculate which trade shows you should continue attending, what trade show marketing ploys are the most successful, and hopefully how you can make each appearance a little more effective. Knowing the results of your trade shows will make it easier for you to set goals for the next year.

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Table Throws for Trade Shows

Posted on January 10, 2012 by kathyb
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Table Throws: The Economical Professional’s Solution

Trade shows displays can quickly become very expensive propositions.  It is important to look for ways to strike a balance between professionalism and economy and table throws are an excellent way to take care of both needs.

  • Table throws can be customized so that you can get the name and logo recognition that you want at trade shows
  • Table Throws can be reused at almost every event.
  • Table Throws can quickly turn a minimalist booth space into an effective marketing tool.

 

Fitted Table Throws / CoversAt most events you will be provided with a table, but usually the table is not in the kind of condition where you want it to be a focal point of your display.  Table covers can be used to quickly and efficiently hide unsightly display tables.

While a standard solid color table cover can improve the appearance of a booth, why not take the table throw to the next level by having it fully customized with full color graphics.  If you are looking for an economical option you can opt for a three-sided graphic table throw, since in general trade show attendees will only see three sides of your table throw.  By using the graphic services of the company that you choose to purchase the table throws from you can often get a better price on your table throws and ensure that the concept that you come up with matches the finished product.

Table Cover Case

Table Cover Case

In order to protect your table throws from damage when they are not in use it is important to purchase protective carrying cases.  These cases will also make it much easier to transport your throws from trade show to trade show.  In order to ensure that the table throws that you buy are easy to maintain you should look for throws that are machine washable.  This will make it easy to have the table throw spotless for every event.  Nothing is worse than a dirty table at a trade show.  When people start picking up your promotional materials and the table is left exposed, you want it to still look clean and professional rather than grimy or plain.  Table throws are the perfect way to keep things looking great.  They can also be quickly changed if someone spills a drink or drops something on top of the table that makes a mess.

To be ready for  any emergency, because let’s face it trade show booth spaces are not always how we expect them to be, table runners can cover any size table and allow you to create a professional marketing space.

Table Runner - Table Cover

Table Runner - Table Cover

An emergency table runner in the gang box is never a bad idea, especially if you are headed to a trade show venue that you have never visited before.  Most table runners can be silk-screened with custom images, so again this is another excellent time to get in touch with the graphics department of the trade show display supplier that you choose to work with.

When you are starting out in trade shows your limited budget will likely be the determining factor for many of your display decisions.  Table throws are an economically efficient way to make your booth space look professional, so as you are just beginning in your adventures with trade shows they are definitely the kind of investment that you want to make.  You may not be able to afford to have every aspect of your display customized initially, but customized table throws are an affordable option for your trade show display that you should take advantage of.

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The Right Banner for your Display

Posted on December 21, 2011 by kathyb
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Deciding On the Right Banners for Your Trade Show Display

Banner displays have long been a part of trade show displays.  For most modern displays they make excellent complementary pieces.  Choosing the right banners and banner stands for your trade show display require careful planning of your booth space.  In general it is a good idea to purchase your banner stands and have the banners designed by the same company because of their familiarity with their products.  This is usually not very hard to accomplish because most companies that provide trade show display units also design and manufacture the graphics associated with the displays.

One choice in banner displays is the classic telescoping banner stand.  These units will hold your banner display securely and can be easily adjusted to accommodate a variety of differently sized banners.

Banner Stand - Banner Display

Promoter Banner Stand

Classic banner stands are available in a variety of sizes and in general the price will increase depending on the size.  During the planning phase you will need to determine if one large banner is a more practical option than multiple smaller banner stands.  Some banner stands are retractable making them incredibly convenient to set up and pack up once the trade show is over.  Some stands even include their own carrying case.

There is a big difference between banner stands that are designed for outdoor use and those designed for indoor use.  If you use an indoor display outside you run the risk of having your stands and your banners damaged rather quickly.  If your intention is to set up a display outside, or your market has outdoor trade shows you will want to ensure that you have the proper displays and display stands to handle the weather.

Hanging Banner Display

Hanging Banner Display

Hanging banners have become a popular and creative option for trade show displays.  These banners can be suspended over your booth display and allows customers to identify your booth location quickly even from far distances.  The design of these hanging banners allows for viewing from all angles, which is very important at large trade shows.  The banners can be fully customized with color graphics and some suppliers offer the graphics services for the banner in the purchase price.

The focus of banners is on visuals.  A short blurb is the most that you will want to have on a banner in the way of text, so working carefully with the graphics team for the company that supplies your trade show display components is the key to designing banners that will catch your audience’s attention and bring them over to your booth display.

You may want to review some sample banner displays to get a good idea of what you want your banners to accomplish. Do you want the banner to promote your latest promotion?  Should it proclaim that you are better than the competition or the only dealer in your industry that is family owned and operated?  Use the banner to make your business stand out as unique from others surrounding you at the trade show.

Banners provide an opportunity to bring some variety to your standard trade show display.  Banners can be changed quite easily, and it may be a good strategy to get a few different banners produced when you buy your stands so that you can mix and match as you travel from trade show to trade show.  Effective use of banners will really make your trade show display pop.

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Display Promotional items at Trade Shows

Posted on November 21, 2011 by kathyb
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How to Display Promotional Items at a Trade Show

Every trade show display needs a variety of promotional material to pass out to customers.  A great sales pitch is a wonderful thing, but a few days later most customers will not remember much of it.  Since they encountered many companies at the show, they are mostly likely to decide if they want to give you a call based on the promotional material they obtained from your booth.  What this means is that you need to allocate the necessary amount of resources to designing your promotional materials.  You will also need to display your promotional materials attractively at your trade show display so people will notice them and pick up the information on their way through.

Literature Stand - Literature Display

Literature Stand

Literature stands and racks allow you to display your promotional material in an attractive way while providing a functional space for keeping marketing materials organized.  Booth space is limited in most cases, so getting the maximum value from the space you have is important to making your trade show experience a success.

In general the best idea is to go upward with your literature stand.  A tall literature rack will allow you to display a number of different materials in a small space.  Be sure to put the most popular promotional materials where they can be easily reached in passing without bending down or reaching too high.  Keep extra promotional material in an easily accessible area so that the supplies can be quickly restocked if they start to run low.

Your literature stands and racks need to be sturdy enough to stand up to the bumps and bangs that are inevitable at a trade show and during the shipping process.  It’s also important to take into consideration how easy the set up and take down of the literature stands are before and after the trade shows.  Any space that can be saved during shipping and any time that can be saved during set up are valuable assets when it comes to maintaining your trade show budget.

Some literature stands and racks are customizable. They can be coordinated with your company’s colors to help you maintain the overall theme of your display.  If this amount of customization is not practical in light of your budget, traditional black or silver literature stands make excellent additional to any trade show display.  If you’re working on an extremely tight budget you may want to consider an option like brochure holders that can be attached to the front of your pop-up display or display table.  These holders are inexpensive and can be attached easily when they are needed and removed quickly after the trade show is over.  They are also an ideal option when space is at an extreme premium.

The placement of your literature display needs to be taken into consideration when planning your booth space.  Your promotional materials need to be easily accessible and displayed in a way that makes people want to take some literature with them for review later.  If you can set a display of brochures right at the edge of your booth where people can quickly grab one while passing, they are more likely to take information even if they aren’t interested to stop and talk to your staff.  By making the proper arrangements for your promotional materials you can ensure that potential clients remember exactly who you are when you make your follow-up calls.

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Developing a Theme for Your Trade Show Display

Posted on November 10, 2011 by kathyb
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Developing a Theme for Your Trade Show Display  

Even with the best presentation there is no way that your customers are going to remember everything you say about your product or get a chance to read through every piece of promotional material that you have.  For this reason it’s  important to have a unifying theme that ties together your trade show display.  It needs to be catchy and easy to remember and make potential customers remember you.  During the planning phase it is important to spend a sufficient amount of time developing the theme for your trade show display.  Once you have come to a consensus on that theme you can begin to devise ways to make it stick with your audience.

Trade Show Display
Trade Show Truss Display

The actual physical trade show display is an excellent place to get started in getting across your theme.  Many organizations look to incorporate their logo into their trade show display as well as the promotional material that they provide.  If you use your company’s slogan as the theme for the trade show display you can ensure that you trade show display pieces will retain their relevance down the road.  Of course if your theme is something that needs to be varied from show to show, because you sell a variety of products or because of the market you’re trying to reach, you can go in a more generic direction and use items like table throws and banner displays to promote your message.

Many fledgling companies have a hard time determining exactly how they want to brand themselves within their market.  Since changing your image can be very difficult down the road it is worthwhile to consult with professionals about the direction you want to take your company’s marketing in.  Nailing down an image and a slogan makes the design process for your trade show display much simpler.  The theme of your display needs to come through loud and clear in any promotional materials that you plan on handing out to customers.

Before they decide to actually call a company most potential customers will review the material in the promotional literature that you provide them.  Within that promotional literature it is important to make a short and direct case for why your company provides the best product or service for the customers’ needs.  The key is to remember that making personal connections with people is just as important as explaining what your company is all about.  The sales staff that you have running your trade show booth plays a large role in determining if your message gets across.

The theme of your trade show display will touch every aspect of the trade show event, so it needs to be given the thoughtful consideration it deserves.

If you are interested in trade show display items that will help you to get your theme across to customers in unique and creative ways you should give your trade show display supplier a call.  There are always new products coming to market that can help your trade show display stand out from the crowd.

Remember that potential customers will see many vendors at the show and one way to make sure they remember you is having a display they can remember.  With good preparation you can ensure that your next trade show display has a truly memorable theme that makes customers remember you rather than the competition when they get home that night.

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Adding Real “Pop” To Your Pop Up Display

Posted on November 3, 2011 by kathyb
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Adding Real “Pop” To Your Pop Up Display

10' Fabric Pop Up Display

10' Fabric Pop up Display

Pop-up displays have gone from being the exception at trade show displays to the norm.  This means that it takes more effort to make your pop up display stand out from the many others at a trade show.  The graphics that you choose for your display can be the major factor that sets apart your trade show display from the rest.  The size of your trade show display can also make you stand out from the crowd, but you want to make sure that you strike a reasonable balance between the size of your display and the amount that you budget to spend on your display.

Before you purchase your pop-up display you need to at least have a general idea of what you want the graphics on the display to look like.  You can then take these ideas to the company that is going to produce the display for you and working together you can craft a display that will generate the trade show traffic that you desire.

Dramatic lighting can be a subtle way to make your pop-up display stand out from the crowd.

Lighting of course is important first and foremost because you want customers to be able to read the information on your pop-up easily.  Dramatic lighting can highlight information about your company that sets it apart from the pack.  To make the best use of lighting it should be included as part of the discussion about the design of your display and the setup of your booth space.

Pop up lights are designed to attach to the channel that runs along the top of most pop up displays.  These lights are idea for highlighting specific portions of your display.  It is important to place the lighting in such a way that it does not create bad glare spots on the display.  In addition to keeping extra lighting on hand as a part of your gang box you should also keep extra bulb and mounting equipment on hand.  If your lights are heavy, be sure to enlist some help on the day of the trade show to get things set up so you don’t hurt yourself or end up having to skip the lighting at the last minute because you can’t set it up alone.

If it is within your budget to invest in one of the larger displays a gullwing or serpentine model is the best way to make use of space and create a display that is visually appealing and unique.  While these models require a larger initial investment if they produce the desired results at the trade shows you attend then they are well worth the investment. The bottom line is that if you want your pop-up not to fade in with the masses at your next trade show you need to spend some time planning the graphics and the lighting with your trade show display supplier to produce the maximum effect.

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