In 2016, trade shows generated a profit of 12.8 billion U.S. dollars.
Trade shows are one of the best marketing strategies you can employ for your business. It is an excellent way to generate leads and sales.
If you are looking to take advantage of trade shows, then you need to know exactly how you should prepare for it. One of the best ways to prepare for a trade show is to have a trade show checklist.
If you don’t have time to prepare one, here is an example that you can use to get yourself organized.
1. Define Your Goals
Before you sign up decide on your goals for the trade show. Determine if it is mainly for networking, leads or sales.
You may also want to decide if you will use the opportunity to do market research on the products and services that you offer. Having a clearly defined goal will help you to make more strategic plans for the big day.
2. Decide How You Will Capture Attention
Once you have defined your goals, its time to decide how you are going to capture the attention of trade show visitors. One way of doing this is by having monitors that display interesting information. You can also get a mascot.
An attention-getting tradeshow banner is also a must-have for the event. You can come up with other trade show display ideas that suit your business, just make sure it does the job without being too flashy or tacky.
3. Start Your Pre-show Promotion
Getting the word out that you will be at the trade show is very important. Do email marketing and social media marketing.
Don’t forget to include direct mail marketing as well, this may be considered “old school” but it is still very effective.
4. Create Awesome Promotional Items
Promotional items are one of the biggest draws at any trade show. Make sure that your promotional items are unique. The more unique they are the more you will attract people to your booth.
Get samples of your promotional items long before the trade show day in order to ensure that your logo and slogan both look good.
5. Staff Your Booth Right
The staffing of your booth is very important, you want to make sure that you have the optimal amount of staff at all times to attend to your guests.
At a minimum, you need to have at least two staff members in the booth at any given time. You will also need to have at least one staff member on the floor to attract the attention of visitors to the trade show.
Final Thoughts on Your Trade Show Checklist
Having a trade show checklist is one of the best ways to ensure that you are fully organized and ready for a trade show.
Deciding on your goals and how you will go about executing them is important. You also need to make sure that you do a lot of pre-show promotion and staff your booth just right.
What you give away is just as important as what you sell at a trade show. Good promotional items get your business noticed and they also give you free advertising for years to come depending on the quality of the items.
If you would like more information about trade shows please visit our blog.
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