When exhibiting at a trade show there are three primary areas where you need to succeed in order to win in the world of trade show exhibiting. The first is having an effective (if not downright stunning) exhibit design. The second is to ensure that your staff are effective at engaging attendees. And the final trade show imperative is to ensure that you have an effective marketing plan. We’ve covered the first two in detail (you might say ad nauseum) on this blog, so today we’re going to give a bit of our due diligence to the final one.
The reason why we have chosen these three items as the most important aspects of determining trade show success is because, quite frankly, they’re the most important aspects of determining trade show success. Don’t believe us? Try to neglect just one area and see how well your exhibit stands perform. Don’t like circular logic and empty challenges? That’s unfortunate.
Anyway, back to the importance of marketing materials. Once you have an effective design for your trade show booths and a rockstar staff, you need effective marketing materials to seal the deal. You can think of the exhibit design for your trade show booths as the initial bait for attendees. Hopefully, they will notice the unique exhibit stands that you are fielding from across the trade show floor.
As they draw close enough to see a bit more, your rockstar staffers will engage them with a friendly smile and a question or two. And then, to seal the deal, they will be able to view your marketing materials on a kiosk or with an old school brochure to get more information. There you go. One, two, three. Boom, bang, boom.
The importance of your marketing materials then, is to ensure the long-term interest of any prospect or attendee who comes up to your booth. These materials should sell your brand, just as they sell your products and services. They should provide enough information to pique the interest of a prospective sales lead or a potential partner, but not so much that they don’t need to get in touch with you to find out more. As much as possible you should also try to qualify and gather lead information at your exhibit stands as well.
So, there you have it. The final piece of the trio of trade show success. Now, go forth and market yourself effectively.