As a consultant I’ve met numerous companies eager to jump on the tradeshow circuit. These ambitious entrepreneurs invest thousands of dollars in booth space, travel, and employee fees. They attend their first trade show, eagerly talk to every person that stops by their booth, leave feeling like stars, then go back to the office and wait for the phone to ring. After a month passes by with no new business, such companies declare tradeshows a waste of time.

It is true that, when done poorly, tradeshows are a complete waste of time and money. However, when done correctly, tradeshows offer untold marketing potential. Below are a few tips on how to improve the return on your tradeshow investment.

PreShow Marketing
While trade shows come with a built-in audience, it’s important to maximize your efforts by attracting as many qualified prospects as possible to your booth. Assign a member of your team to implement a targeted mailing campaign using flyers, postcards and/or direct mailers that invite current and potential clients. A one-time mailing will not suffice. For best results your mailer should go out several times. For example, one company sends mailers about 9 months, 6 monthss, 3 months, and two weeks before every show they participate in.

Mailers must be creative, captivating and consistent. If you don’t have a strong in-house marketing department, hire a professional firm like DivaDesignWorld to handle your preshow marketing campaign. In addition to design, the professional at DivaDesignWorld can help you identify suitable mailing lists.

In addition to a systematic direct mail campaign, your preshow marketing efforts should involve phone calls and email. For better turnout, we recommend that you personally invite key clients and prospects to your booth. Rather than asking them to ‘stop by’, schedule a booth appointment, and go prepared with a specific agenda.

Attract Attention
Short attention spans are the order of the day at a trade show as attendees drift down long aisles of display after display. At the show, you’ll only have 10 seconds to catch prospects attention. Your signs must be bold and clear, and your look must entice from a distance.

A professionally designed booth is highly recommended. At DivaDesignWorld our team considers many factors when designing a tradeshow booth, including graphic presentation, shipping weight, ease of assembly, durability, and client budget.

Make Your Booth Sell For You
Whatever your product or service, make your display as interactive as possible. If you’re selling a computer program, have laptops on hand and let visitors actually try out the application. If you sell cosmetic products, give out free samples. Show a DVD or PowerPoint slide show of your products or services and have the appropriate mix of business cards, flyers, brochures and catalogs on hand.

The marketing tools that you use, and how they are distributed, will depend on the nature of the show, target audience, and several other factors. For example, it is not wise to distribute high-end full color brochures to every person that stops by your booth. Such high-cost items should be reserved for qualified prospects*. On the other hand, low-cost one-color flyers are perfectly appropriate for unqualified booth traffic.

At DivaDesignWorld we design a variety of materials for our clients’ tradeshow participation, from budget flyers, to sophisticated presentation kits.

Beware of Giveaway Grabbers
The behaviour at tradeshows can be shocking. I recall a specific show where visitors ran around in a frenzy trying to scoop whatever they could get into their bulging plastic bags. The worst story I’ve heard is of a client who was giving away highly priced, gourmet cookies to visitors. He set a limit of two cookies per visitor. When he turned his back, one particular tradeshow attended swooped in, and swept the entire plate of cookies into her bag. Then, denied doing it! Of course such overt greed is more characteristic of public shows, then industry events. However, the lesson is the same – guard your giveaways, and use them wisely.

Don’t go broke catering to the giveaway grabbers. Keep your general giveaways extremely low-cost. Reserve the nicer giveaways for qualified leads who have provided your company with full contact information.

Pens, pencils, and magnets are often used for cheapie booth gifts. While these old standbys are always handy, think outside the box for more impactful giveaways. We know of a company that gave away free bottles of Heineken at a male dominated industry show. They generated huge amounts of traffic!

Staffing Your Booth
You can create a mind-blowing display, with clear, interactive product information, and the best promotional giveaways ever seen, but it will be meaningless if the people manning your booth lack customer service skills. Be sure to train your staff ahead of time on crucial topics like:
- how to qualify visitors
- the best way to approach and interact with visitors
- how to give an elevator pitch
- how to capture vital prospect information
- how to work as a team to maximize booth success
- what your specific goals are for the tradeshow

Follow-Up is Key
The most important part of your selling job comes after the show. It’s important to follow up on every promising contact and lead within a few days of the show. If you’re not sure what the best follow-up strategy would be, general consulting services from a firm like DivaDesignWorld can help you create the plan of action that will best capitalize on your trade show experience.

About the Author: Marketing Consultant, Monique Danielle helps entrepreneurs and marketing managers create effective, cohesive communication strategies.  Her company, DivaDesignWorld.com delivers brand, web and print solutions to small to medium sized businesses. You may republish this article on your website as long as it remains unaltered, and links/credits remain in place.