How to Attract Visitors to Your Jaw-Dropping Display

Trade shows are a unique opportunity for exhibitors. First off, you get to escape the confines of your office. Second, you can interact with prospects and showcase your products and services. But before you can soak up the benefits of a trade show, you need to attract visitors to your display. Here are fifteen methods to encourage attendees to visit your display.

Before the Show: 7 Ways to Promote Your Display

85% of corporate display managers use at least one pre-show marketing tactic. Furthermore, 91% reported that their efforts met or surpassed their expectations.

Here are seven ways you can promote your display. Following these guidelines will ensure that your pre-show marketing investment meets your expectations.

Attend Potential Trade Shows to Decide If They’re Worthwhile

Not all trade shows are equal, and not every trade show will be an excellent fit for your business. On that note, it’s wise to attend potential trade shows as a guest before putting any skin in the game.

As you walk around, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Is the event established?
2. Does it attract a decent number of attendees?
3. Is your ideal target audience present?
4. Dos the expected cost to exhibit line up with your budget?
5. Are your competitors there? Can you differentiate your brand from them at the next show if they’re present?

Research Your Competition

One of the best ways to attract visitors to your display is to shine in areas where your competition is lacking.

Here are a few simple ways you can research your competitors before the show:

1. Check out your competitors’ websites and blogs to see what content they share.
2. Visit their social media pages and study how they use social media and interact with prospects and customers.
3. Keep tabs on review sites like Yelp and Citysearch.
4. Stay current with industry news and trends by reading industry reports from trade associations, advocacy groups, and popular blogs.
5. Connect with customers or send out surveys to learn about the products they’ve previously used and why they switched to you.
6. Set up Google Alerts, so you’re aware of any new search results that match the terms you monitor – your company, your products, etc. Here’s a helpful article on how to set up Google Alerts.

Reach Out to Your Subscribers and Current Customers

Tell your subscribers and customers that you will attend the upcoming trade show. You can make a landing page, send out an email blast, and share via your social media accounts.

Landing Page

Make sure to include the following if you build a landing page:

• Include teasers of any announcements or giveaways you have planned.
• Highlight your display location by including an image of the venue floor plan.
• Provide links to any published press releases that mention your upcoming presence.
• Include a contact form for leads to request more information or to book an appointment with you at the show

Email Current Customers & Subscribers

Include incentives for customers and subscribers to visit your display. These incentives can include product demos, educational workshops, giveaways, or even planned entertainment.

Announce Your Attendance via Social Media

Share your plans via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. – anywhere your customers congregate.

Connect with Relevant Bloggers, Trade Publications & Influencers

Generate a buzz by drafting a press release and distribute it to the appropriate outlets.

Make sure to follow these best practices:

• Include the name of the event in the headline.
• Explain your brand and provide your booth number.
• Include the most appealing details of your pitch up front.
• Include visual media whenever possible. This can include product images, video demos, and infographics whenever possible.
• Keep your language simple. Short sentences and paragraphs are your friends. Also, hold off on dropping industry jargon and buzz terms at all costs.
• Send your press release midweek (Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday) for the best results. As for the time of day, aim for between the start of the workday and the early afternoon in the recipient’s time zone.
• Niche-specific publications and bloggers are more open to sharing your press release.

Be Strategic About Your Display’s Location

Try to reserve your display space as early as possible. Doing so will increase your chance of landing a high-traffic spot. You can ask event management which companies have rented space nearest your location. You can make your display more visible by selecting a spot between booths with smaller displays. You’ll also want to take note of any columns or other obstructions. Such obstructions can prevent visitors from finding your booth.

Pro Tip: If you cannot reserve a spot that’s front and center, try to lock down space close to other high-traffic areas, such as bathrooms or on-site restaurants.

Design Your Display with Visual Appeal in Mind

Your primary goal is to capture the attention of potential visitors and then wow them. You can achieve this by creating an attractive display that attracts a crowd.

You’ll want to use eye-catching graphics, colorful banners, and well-placed lighting. It’s also important that your display conveys your brand’s voice, vision, and aesthetic.

One way to surpass expectations is to hire a trade show display design company. The professionals will help translate your general ideas into a stellar custom display.

Prepare Your Staff

Your team needs to be well-groomed, clean-cut, and professional looking. You can also order matching shirts for the event so visitors can quickly identify your team.

You’ll also want to ensure that each member of your team:

• Knows everything there is to know about your products and services.
• Can deliver their sales pitch or lead generation script from memory.
• Can communicate your unique value proposition in their sleep.

During the Show: 8 Ways to Attract a Crowd

Your primary goals when you’re on the floor are two-fold:

1. Introduce prospects to your products and services.
2. Collect as much prospect information as possible.

Before you can do either of these, you need to attract visitors to your booth.

Here are eight ways to increase foot traffic to your booth during the show.

Attract Your Audience with Interactive Activities

Engaging activities, such as touch screens, videos, surveys, and quizzes, are great ways to encourage attendees to visit your booth. They’re also a passive method to collect contact information and qualify potential leads.

Touch Screens & Tablets

You can set these devices up to provide lead magnets that visitors can opt into by submitting their contact information. Your lead magnet can be as simple as a how-to or product-buying guide.

Video

Videos are a great way to help your display stand out, showcase your product or service, and provide a demonstration.

According to Wyzowl, 96% of people have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service. Furthermore, 68% state that video is their preferred method to learn about a new product or service.

Surveys & Quizzes

You can use surveys and quizzes as intentional ways to qualify your audience. On your survey, you can ask questions like:

• Why did you attend this event?
• Do you have a problem you want to solve? If so, what is the problem?
• Have you already attempted to solve this problem?

You can also ask questions about the event, the location of the event, your company, or your products and services. If you opt for this route, you’ll want to offer a prize as an incentive.

Have a Contest or Giveaway

There’s no getting around it – people love free stuff. Professor Dan Ariely (Duke University) highlights the beauty of free stuff – “Most transactions have an upside and a downside, but when something is FREE! we forget the downside. FREE! gives us such an emotional charge that we perceive what is being offered as immensely more valuable than it really is.”

This is one potential reason attendees respond positively to spin-the-wheel prizes, raffles, and scratch-offs. When choosing your prize, make sure it has a meaningful connection with your audience and your product or service.

Potential prizes include electronics, vacation packages, event tickets, and even the product or service you’re promoting.

Hand Out Branded Swag

There’s a massive difference between selecting well-thought-out swag your customers want and going with the cheapest possible trinket that’s easy to mass produce with your name and logo.

The second option can cast a negative light on your brand, whereas the first can help build brand awareness and help develop positive relationships with your prospects.

When selecting your swag, keep the following in mind:

• Quality matters: People don’t want garbage. Quality swag will last longer, allowing people more time to see and discuss your brand.
• Make sure it’s valuable and exciting: Yes, most people could use another pen, but are they going to show it off to their friends and coworkers? When you provide something of value, you’re more likely to generate discussions about your brand. If your swag is valuable, your prospects will use it regularly, earning your company more exposure.
• Make sure it aligns with your company culture: If your brand is big on sustainability, make sure your swag is also eco-friendly. If you’re known for working outside the box, make sure your swag isn’t mundane.

Some examples of effective swag include car mounts for cell phones, water bottles with built-in filters, yoga mats, metal straws, and portable power banks. Naturally, you’ll want all swag to feature your brand!

Host an Educational Workshop

One primary reason why people attend trade shows is to learn. So it makes sense to host mini-teaching sessions at regularly scheduled times.

Educational workshops are an excellent opportunity to:

• Highlight your expertise, which helps to position you as a thought leader in your industry.
• Provide value to visitors and convert them into leads.
• Give meaningful and branded information to visitors, such as worksheets, cheat sheets, checklists, and brochures.

Perform a Product Demo

Live demos are an excellent and creative way to attract a crowd and present the benefits of your product or service and the problem you solve.

Here are a handful of tips for successful demonstrations:

• Avoid building up to a grandiose finale. Start with the outcome to capture your prospects’ attention right away. Then let the conversation develop from there.
• Keep your demo short and sweet. Stick to a 9-minute rule for your main demonstration and allow time for questions.
• Don’t discuss your product benefits the entire time. Focus your message on the problems your product solves.
• Record your demos and use them to promote your products later via social media, your website, and other methods of communication.

Bring the Entertainment

The Roman emperors kept the masses happy with massive celebrations, which led to the modern metonymic phrase – bread and circuses. If you have the funds or connections, consider hiring an off-broadway celebrity or someone well-known in your industry to spend time at your display and interact with your visitors.

You can also hire musicians, comedians, caricaturists, or other entertainers to delight your audience. Make sure you deliver a unique form of entertainment that complements your brand and appeals to potential leads.

Provide free Wi-Fi, phone charging stations, or a lounge area

One way to earn the good graces of trade show attendees is to provide complimentary Wi-Fi within your booth. If you offer free Wi-Fi, you’ll want to find creative ways to share your password so that visitors engage and interact with your team.

Visitors also appreciate phone charging stations where they can bring their drained devices back to life. If you have space to spare, provide a small lounge area where visitors can sit while they charge their devices.

Provide food and drinks

Who doesn’t enjoy free food and drinks? Providing snacks and beverages is an excellent way to increase traffic to your booth. If you do provide food and drinks, make sure you follow these do’s and don’ts when building your menu:

• DO brand everything you hand out, such as napkins and coffee sleeves. You can even digitally etch your brand into the foam on the lattes you provide.
• DON’T offer food with an obnoxious scent.
• DON’T serve messy or sticky food. Finger foods that don’t require electricity to heat are ideal.

Closing Thoughts

Well, that’s a wrap! If you incorporate most of the fifteen tips outlined above, you should have no issue attracting a sizable crowd to your trade show display!