Tradeshows are always buzzing with energy and excitement. Thousands of attendees, traveling from far and near to meet with exhibitors who are eager to make new contacts and customers. For those who are exhibiting and attending, it takes lots of planning, manpower and effort to make it very successful. Did you know…
According to a 2023 tradeshow industry survey, 48% of exhibitors surveyed said that trade show attendees are attracted to eye-catching displays. Over half of exhibitors say they’re more likely to exhibit again if they’ve had a positive experience at a show before. As for attendees, almost half of them only attend one show per year and 81% of them have buying authority. Most businesses exhibit to expand their customer base, enabling them to maximize profits and sales. Tradeshows offer the visibility needed for this to happen through visitors with buying authority and the potential to become high-value customers. The tradeshow business is now fully back to pre-pandemic levels, so are you ready up your game and have a great start for 2025? Let’s look at some top tips for tradeshow promotional products!
When walking down the tradeshow floor, it is a sensory overload; bright lights, music, speaking voices and plenty other things to distract you. What will attract your attention? As an exhibitor, it is crucial to have an inviting, unique and eye-catching tradeshow displays for your booth space. It may take some time, trial and error to get there but having a table cover and banner are a great start. Design your booth space with the attendees in mind – what would you like them to see and experience? Is the booth large enough for attendees to walk around? Would there be shelves for products and would they be accessible to attendees? What about a space for samples and promotional items? Would it be helpful to have a meeting area with tables, chairs or couch to hang out? Booth spaces that are inviting let people know that they can stop by, check things out without any pressure to commit. An experienced tradeshow displays supplier know the right products depending your goals and how many shows you attend each year. Moreover, these large scale displays are usually very durable, so the graphics and configurations should be designed to use on multiple occasions.
Every business has a special reason for exhibiting: was it for a product launch, gathering potential leads or creating interests and visibility of the brand? Tradeshow promotional products can play an important role in achieving that goal. Furthermore, any tradeshow giveaways selected should align with your brand and target audience. Is your brand all about the latest trend, eco-friendly or tech-friendly? Create an ideal customer persona and try to give customers a taste of the actual experience.
Tradeshows are usually long days of education events, hundreds of booths and maybe even a few meetings. By afternoon attendees are exhausted from hours of activities. For a personal touch, stock your booth with branded bottled water, and some branded treats like chocolates and cookies. You will not believe how appreciative people are when they can slow down and refuel! The mid-day break may be the perfect opportunity to strike up a conversation with a potential new client!
Keeping your promotional gifting in tiers not only keep your sales funnel well defined and will help you stay in budget. Lowest tier (a small eye catching functional promotional item such as sticker, pin, branded cookie, a nice pen, all natural lip balm, cotton tote bag) would be for simply stopping at the booth, 2nd tier (a mid-priced promotional item such as small wireless charger, chrome key chain, notebook, nice pen) for engaging with booth staff, 3rd tier (premium item such as tumbler, high capacity power bank, laptop bag / backpack) for booking. Alternatively, some clients like to collect business cards at the booth and raffle a premium promotional item at the end of each day to generate interests and excitement. Others will use a prize wheel to give away different levels of promotional items.
Plan each tradeshow with these ideas in mind and list of anticipated outcomes with purpose. Doing so will allow you the ability to measure the ROI and tweak before the next one. One last thing, always follow up after the show, don’t let these precious contact information go to waste.
If you have big exhibiting plans for 2025 and beyond, we would love to help! Contact us today to get started!
