Proven Tips to Drive Traffic and Boost Engagement

For several years, trade shows have been considered the most efficient and productive way to reach out to a large audience. However, it’s important to note that participation alone isn’t enough to ensure a successful run on the show floor.

There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work that is required to pull off a trade show that provides you with incredibly high returns on your investment.

In the months and weeks leading up to your trade show, the most important task that a business has to undertake is creating a buzz about their participation. You need to let your existing client base, as well as potential customers, know that you’ll be at the event and that you have something unique to offer.

Once you invite a large crowd to the show, the next thing you need to do is ensure that you have the goods to impress them. This starts with making sure your exhibit booth rental in Las Vegas is designed to perfection and has a wow factor that helps it stand out from the crowd.

Finally, all that’s left to do is present your offerings to the gathered crowd and amaze them with your personality and sales pitch. But, what happens when you’re completely overwhelmed by the number of people at your booth?

How can you ensure that every guest feels welcome and a potential client doesn’t walk away unnoticed? Well, you need to make sure that your booth and all your staff work together like a well-oiled machine.

If you aren’t quite sure how to do this, don’t worry. Here’s a list of incredible tips that will help you increase your booth’s productivity to ensure that you achieve all your trade show goals without breaking a sweat.

1. Get the Ball Rolling Early

To get the most traction at a trade show, you need to put your plan into action well before the actual show. Start by creating some buzz on social media.

Publish engaging, image-rich posts, and don’t forget to use the event’s hashtag to get more hits. You can even create cool videos about your company and product and get them trending on YouTube.

Chances are people will see the products online, connect with them immediately, and make a note to visit your booth.

It’s also important that you do some research at this point and find out as much as you can about your competition. Check what they’re doing on social media and figure out what they have planned for the show. This way, you are prepared to take them on.

2. Send Personal Invites

As you inch closer to D-day, carve out some time to send out personalized invites to your clients and customers. You can do this via e-mail, or if you really want to leave a lasting impression, send physical cards along with a handy map of the show floor so that it’s easy for people to find your booth.

On the days of the show, you can station a staff member at the hall’s entrance to hand out a branded freebie along with your invite and map.

This small but important gesture will encourage people to seek your booth out at crowded events.

3. Don’t Ignore Pre-Show Media Opportunities

It’s important to remember that you will not be the only business attempting to convert potential customers at the upcoming trade show.

This is why it’s crucial to do some pre-show interviews to ensure that people are aware of what you have to offer.

To keep the press buzzing, you can even craft your own press release and send it out a couple of days before the show.

4. Choose the Location of Your Booth Wisely

Corner booths almost always get less traffic than those booths that hold a place of pride, just 5 steps away from the entrance or exit of the hall.

When you book a booth, ensure that you pick something that has a good flow of traffic. This will increase the number of walk-ins.

5. Create Captivating Visual Content

Creating a visually appealing display is one of the easiest ways in which you can drive crowds towards your booth. You can do this with the help of a single element around which you can center your entire display.

If you can, transform your booth into an engaging and interactive tech-driven wonder. This will allow people to discover your brand’s story by themselves, with the help of tablets, kiosks or videos that will be available in and around your booth.

If you don’t have the budget to use too much technology, use static graphics and colors to draw people in. You can draw inspiration from your brand’s logo and use brand colors to create a stunning booth.

If you’d like a little help with the design of your booth, you can get in touch with one of the many providers of rental exhibits in Las Vegas. They’ll be able to help you create a truly captivating booth based on your trade show goals.

6. Ensure Your Staff Are Prepared

For your exhibit booth rental in Las Vegas to be a success, you need to ensure that your staff is equipped with all the information they need to impress visitors.

You can organize a training session to take them through your brand’s history and help them understand your offerings.

This will enable them to quickly and correctly answer any questions that come their way while they’re engaging with visitors.

Additionally, you can do a few team-building exercises with them to ensure that they all work well together and trust each other.

7. Valuable Giveaways

A quick glance into your stationery drawer will help you understand just how many branded pens and USBs you’ve been given at trade shows.

Instead of opting for boring, run-of-the-mill giveaways, think outside the box and see if you can provide visitors to your booth with headphones, laptop skins or even bottles of hand sanitizer.

Giveaways that are useful generally have the most impact. Whatever you opt for, ensure that your branding is subtle but visible on the product.

8. Dress The Part

At a trade show, you are representing your company and everything that the brand stands for. This is why it’s crucial to dress well and ensure that you always put your best foot forward.

Attendees are likely to be more receptive to what you have to say if they can see that you made an effort to dress well.

If you can, dress in brand colors instead of the usual black and navy that has become almost synonymous with trade shows.

9. Cater to Your Audience

Nobody can deny the fact that we live in a digital world. Individuals are almost always glued to their mobile, tablet or laptop screens. Many people even start to feel anxious when the battery of their handheld device drops below 5%.

This can be quite an issue when people are spending an entire day walking around a trade show taking pictures or posting live videos of the event on their social media pages.

They will need to find a place to recharge, and you can draw traffic towards your booth by offering a free charging station and a Wi-Fi lounge.

Once you’ve got people sitting around your booth waiting for their device to reach 100%, spend some time engaging with them and talking about how your products and services can help them.

If they have the time, give them a free product demo. You never know, it could convert into long-term business for you.

10. Don’t Forget Refreshments

Trade shows can be incredibly exhausting for both participants and attendees. While most booths will offer parched visitors a mini bottle of water, you can go above and beyond by organizing a few mocktails and appetizers to keep visitors going.

Of course, if you’re the only booth offering a chilled glass of lemonade or a steaming mug of caramel mocha while everybody else has tepid water, you’re sure to be the highlight of the trade show.

And, once you have visitors making a beeline for your booth, you can use your excellent conversational skills to start up a conversation about what you can offer them.

 11. Have Somebody Follow Up

Once the show is over, it’s important that you don’t waste any time in following up. To make the entire process easier, you can invest in a card scanner. This will allow you to immediately scan the business cards you receive.

Then, at the end of the day, you can have one of your staff members call the people who stopped by to schedule a follow-up call or meeting to take your discussion further. It’s important to follow up as quickly as possible.

People are more likely to remember you right after the event and, if they have good memories associated with your booth, they will be willing to listen to what you have to say.

At the end of the day, there is no single formula that will ensure success at a trade show. You need to stay true to your brand, do what you can to package your offerings in the most pleasing way possible, and challenge the norm.

By carving a niche for yourself on the trade show floor, you will leave a lasting impact on the people who visit your booth.