There’s no denying the fact that face-to-face marketing endeavors, such as trade shows, are expensive affairs. Despite the cost, however, trade shows are possibly the most efficient way in which a business can reach out to a large customer base and strengthen their relationships with clients.
In fact, 91% of attendees say that a company’s presence at a trade show will impact their buying decisions. As a business owner, if you’ve decided to participate in a trade show in Orlando, you’ve made the right decision. But if you really want to maximize the returns on your marketing investment, you need to make sure that you stay abreast with all the latest developments in the trade show world.
In this guide, we’ll give you a few tips that will help you enjoy the best returns on your Orlando trade show investment in 2020.
Start by Defining Your Measure of Success
After months of hard work, how do you know if your trade show experience was a success or if it missed its mark? Measuring success is never easy, which is why it’s extremely vital that you define tangible goals even before the beginning of the show.
Once you know what you’re working towards, it is much easier to define a plan of action. If you’re hoping to generate leads, give your sales team a target. Let them know how many leads you’ve hoping to gather at the end of the show.
Design for Maximum Impact
On the show floor, you will have only a few seconds to grab a customer’s attention. Several businesses assume that the only way to do this is by using garish backdrops and flashy displays, but this isn’t true. In 2020, trade show attendees are looking for booths that are classy yet interesting.
Your booth’s design should be able to convey your brand’s entire message in a single glance. If you’re putting up visuals with text in and around your display, ensure that the copy is large and easy to read. To promote brand recall, use your brand’s colors through the booth.
If you think that your budget won’t quite stretch to immersive design, you can consider getting a trade show booth rental in Orlando. A rental booth will cost barely 1/3rd of what a purchased booth does, and you’ll be able to lean on the expertise of the rental company to help you with amazing design ideas.
Create a Comfortable Environment
In 2020, the most important thing that customers want is comfort. Your booth should elicit a feeling of safety from attendees. It should urge them to come in for a while to relax and reset after walking around for a while. You can achieve these results by making simple changes like using comfortable chairs instead of plastic ones and by setting up a phone charging station at your booth. These small tweaks will go a long way in making your booth a welcoming and safe space for attendees.
Make Your Booth Intuitive
Trade show marketing today is all about showing your customers what you can do for them, without really engaging them in long conversations. To do this, you need to create an exhibit that tells your story with the help of 3D visuals and graphics. Use kiosks where you can to encourage people to engage with your booth as much or as little as they would like.
If you’d like people to move from one side of the booth to the other to learn more about your brand, ensure that you have well-defined arrows that are clearly visible. Your entire booth should allow individuals to navigate through it without having to ask any of your staff for assistance. Once your booth has done its job of wowing your customers, they’ll seek you out and ask for more details.
Indulge All the Senses
Typically, tradeshows have only ever been about what you see and what you hear. This year, brands are hoping to create booths that also stimulate the other three senses. The easiest way to do this is by using natural materials like wood, jute and even leaves as a part of your display.
This will encourage people to use their sense of touch, which according to the Harvard Business Review, will help them build an emotional connection with your brand and your products.
Use Virtual Reality to Your Advantage
For too long, virtual reality has been associated with frivolity and video games alone. But not anymore. Businesses have started using VR to impress their customers at trade shows. With the help of VR, brands can showcase their company’s history to visitors, or even take them on a virtual tour of their showroom!
Additionally, VR allows you to expand the boundaries of your trade show booth rental in Orlando. You now have unlimited space to work with. You can take customers on a roller coaster ride, show them how to fly a plane, or give them a virtual tour of the new building or home that you would like them to purchase.
Get a Voice Assistant
Bright Local recently conducted a survey which showed that 58% of consumers used voice searches to find local businesses in 2018. This year, that number is only expected to grow, so it’s important that you try and incorporate such elements in your booth. If you’re setting up kiosks for individuals to interact with, consider making them voice-activated.
Imagine how much customers would love it if they could walk up to a kiosk in your booth and ask Alexa, Siri or Google to tell them more about your brand.
Be Socially Responsible
People have become increasingly aware of the global issues that we are all facing. Customers are looking to partner with those businesses who do what they can to minimalize their carbon footprint or work for the upliftment of the society in which they function.
During the trade show, it’s vital that you showcase your socially responsible endeavors to potential clients. You can do this by making small changes in the way you provide your marketing materials to visitors. Instead of paper pamphlets, provide individuals with a QR code to scan to download your brochure. You can also opt for green giveaways like books made out of recycling paper, or canvas and jute bags that can be used for shopping.
If you’re providing refreshments at your booth, consider swapping out the regular plastic cups with compostable alternatives. Ensure you have a recycling bin in your booth and encourage people to drop their waste paper and plastic in it.
Keep Your Marketing Materials Simple
While people are walking up and down the trade show, they don’t want to lug around heavy folders that may or may not add value to their life.
This is why you should keep your marketing materials small, light, and to the point. Ideally, create postcard-sized brochures that will easily fit in a jacket or pant pocket. The copy that you place on your brochure should be concise and easy to read. The reader should be able to immediately identify ways in which you can add value to their life and convince them to partner with you.
Keep Your Social Media Updated
We live in a digital world. People are almost always glued to their smartphones, looking for the latest updates from their favorite brands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. In the days leading up to the show, you can build up expectations by posting sneak previews of the booth and what you have in store for customers.
To increase footfall on the day of the show, you will need to post updates about what is happening in your booth. Your posts should excite people and make them feel like they’ll miss out on something amazing if they don’t stop by your booth. Whenever you post, don’t forget to add the event hashtag to reach a wider audience.
With these tips, you’re sure to engage with more people, but it’s important that you don’t forget the basics when it comes to preparing for a trade show. You need to arm your booth with the right staff. The people manning your booth need to be well-trained so that they can communicate your brand’s mission and goals effectively.
You also need to ensure that you follow up with potential leads as quickly as possible for better conversion rates. In 2020, trade shows are definitely going to get really interesting as companies incorporate new technologies into their design and go above and beyond to achieve their trade show goals.
Read here – Trade show booth trends 2020.
