Is your business or organization attending a trade show? A solid trade show booth experience has the potential to benefit your company growth tenfold.  Here are College Hill's 9 tips to maximize your trade show ROI. 

Match Your Audience To Your Business Goals

What’s your business goal? Who is attending the trade show. Determine which shows to participate in based on which trade shows fit into your current marketing strategy.

Location

If you’re focused on a particular regional market, conferences in that area are easier for potential customers to attend. Likewise, leverage your own assets and company home base. Is your team spread out? Perfect, have people who know the area, audience, etc. assist in helping develop a plan that will work best for that location.

Exhibit Needs

Review existing exhibit. Ask yourself, “Does my exhibit match current branding?” Has your company message, target audience, business values experience a change since your last exhibit update? If yes, then it’s a good time to revamp. Design a new display or upgrade your trade show booth, tent, banners etc. with College Hill.  

Plan ahead and order a month or more in advance and save 50%+ on trade show supplies.

Build and Strengthen Relationships

Reach out to the conference organizations ahead of time to ask for the press list. Let your current clients know you will be attending the show and give them the opportunity to set a time for a meeting, or to simply stop by your booth for X,Y & Z. (giveaways, handouts, a light hello, etc.) Get them hyped and talking about your businesses services before the show even begins.

College Hill Fun Fact! You can triple trade show booth traffic by including a promotional product in pre-show mailings. Yeah, I said triple, as in 3X.

Target Your Potential Customers

Identify the top five or ten companies and people you want to talk to that will be at your selected trade show. Do your research so you can talk to them knowledgeably about how your value proposition applies specifically to them. 81% of trade show attendees are in a decision making position.

Develop Your Sales Plan

Identify which promotions and or giveaways that will attract the right people to your booth. The goal is to get a conversation started about what you can do and provide to a potential customer. Work with your marketing team to develop literature and other marketing materials for the show. Stock up on about us handouts, current promotions or coupons and most importantly business cards.

College Hill Bonus! Our staff knows PROMO! In fact, our staff is ASI's BASI and MASI certified. AKA promotional product experts that specialize in marketing pieces.  Let us create a booth giveaway that will leave a lasting impression at any trade show.  Shop Promo HERE. 

Ask yourself how you plan on getting attendee contact information. Are you collecting business cards or using a sign-up sheet for a giveaway? Those contacts are GOLD my friend. Solid GOLD.

Plug into Social Media

Many conferences use social media platforms to keep attendees updated or provide special notifications for their followers. Use these platforms to interact with your customers. Host a booth giveaway and announce the winner via Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or whatever media your customers are on. Trust me. People love the attention and a follow.

For example:

To help drive traffic to your booth tweet a time-sensitive discount. “The first 100 people to stop by our booth will receive a free- t-shirt.”

Need t-shirts? I know a guy. Email info@chthreads.com

Knowledgeable Staff

Fully brief your stand staff prior to the event so that they understand show goals, messages, promotions etc. Having everyone communicating the same talking points throughout the show will guarantee a streamlined sales pitch to whoever is stopping by the booth.

Now’s your time to shine. Just 16% of prospective customers become new customers without an in-person meeting. A whopping 40% of prospective customers become new customers with an in-person meeting. What does this mean? Shake hands and set meetings with people stopping by your booth.

After Show Follow Up

FOLLOW UP! The big day is over, but your job is not done yet! Develop a plan for your sales and marketing team on how to communicate to new leads that were generated from the trade show.

 Use that handy dandy solid gold list of contact information you gathered during the show. Send a “Thank You” email or card to the new / old / potential clients who attended the show. Remind them of a few talking points you might of had with them. 

It's true, some businesses seem to have the secret recipe for great networking at trade shows. And now you do to! Planning ahead and making strategic moves before, during and after the event will be worth your wild. Not to mention you have us in your corner. Think of us as an extension of your marketing team. College Hill has helped organizations and businesses in a variety of different industries produce conversation pieces at trade shows, staff events or other business endeavors.

We hope your next trade show is a successful one and as always thanks for reading!