7 Exhibitor Tips to Maximize Your Small Business Trade Show Results
In a previous blog post, I shared strategic marketing tips on establishing your exhibitor goals and objectives, picking the right show, and budgetary considerations. I also shared eight important pre-show tips to help you execute a successful event marketing strategy. Here are seven more pre-show tips to maximize trade show results for your small business.
Tip 1: Apply to Speak at an Educational Session.
Speaking at a trade show is a GREAT way to present yourself as an expert in your subject of choice and your business as a leader in your industry. Since the opportunity to speak is often free, it's also a great way to increase your overall exhibitor ROI.
Once you’ve selected the topic on which you would like to speak, jot down a few bullet points on the most important information you want to address in the presentation, then write the required abstract based on the primary themes on your list.
Sometimes show management’s speaker instructions ask you to include the three to four things attendees will learn from your presentation in your abstract submission.
Always include information on what the attendees to your presentation will learn, whether required or not. Doing this will help you achieve what should be your two ultimate goals:
To get show attendees interested enough in your topic and description that they choose to come and listen to your presentation.
To educate, inform, enlighten, and teach those who come to see you.
Tip 2: Trade Publication Circulation.
In chapter 13 of my book, Trade Show 411: The Essential Guide to Exhibiting Like a Pro, I let readers in on an often-overlooked marketing opportunity but one that can generate potentially huge returns.
Each industry has trade magazines, websites, and newspapers that cover the stories of their industry. For example, 3 of the most popular auto industry publications are Car and Driver, Motor Trend, and Hot Rod.
Did you know that the readership of trade magazines, websites, and newspapers will surge during a trade show, especially for those publications that have chosen to be media sponsors or are allowed to distribute their magazine free of charge to show attendees?
This added readership by show attendees is a perfect opportunity for you to expose your company to hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of additional potential buyers.
Visit the trade show’s website to find the list of media sponsors and those publications that have chosen to exhibit. If you have already registered your business as an exhibitor, you can also reach out to the show's PR department to request a list of media outlets and contacts to whom they have given press credentials.
Next, visit each publication’s website to review their media kit. You will uncover their readership and circulation numbers, the types of topics they will write about during the show, and advertising opportunities that are available to you.
Tip 3: Public Relations.
Trade show exhibitors ask me if public relations is still as important to successful trade show participation as it used to be. Yes! Public relations increases your trade show participation value by exposing your business to new groups of potential customers, employees, and investors.
It increases awareness of your company by show attendees and other exhibitors, boosting traffic to your booth.
It increases awareness of your company and products to potential customers who did not attend the event personally but are following what’s happening at the show.
It provides exposure through print and online trade publications, video, television, podcasts, and other media.
It enables you to meet and interact with journalists, bloggers, and reporters you may have never been able to connect with through emails or phone calls outside of the show.
In addition, don’t forget about these PR opportunities: online and print exhibitor listings, press kit distribution, editorial mentions in the Show Daily, and your activities added to the show’s list of must-attend events.
Tip 4: Press Releases and Media Alerts.
Are you speaking at an upcoming event? Will you launch a new product? Let people know.
Write and distribute a press release three to four weeks before the show. You can write a press release to publicize a new product launch, company acquisition, business partnership, new employee, and other newsworthy information.
A standard press release format includes a headline, subhead, opening paragraph, at least one quote, a company boilerplate or About Us section, and primary business contact.
The announcement will generate additional pre-show interest and enable attendees to add your activities to their calendar of things to see and do. It will assist you in online marketing efforts by having your information appear when someone searches for a particular show. It will also entice editors to publish your news in their publication and, hopefully, have a journalist reach out to you to schedule a formal interview.
Don’t stop there. Write and distribute a media alert one week before the show begins highlighting a specific activity that you are running. A media alert is a brief one-page bulletin that provides the Who, What, Where, and When of an event, press conference, speaker presentation, or other activity. It simply reports the facts. It does not contain quotes or more descriptive language that you find in a press release. Your goal is to get media contacts to attend your event or activity, encourage them to share the information with their audience, and increase attendance at your event.
Tip 5: Shipping Options.
The exhibitor shipping options for your upcoming trade show, expo, or corporate event can vary based on many different factors.
You may choose to drive your small 10 x 10 ft. inline booth to a show in the next town over from your office. You’ll most likely use a professional trade show freight carrier to ship your large 40 x 40 ft. island exhibit to a convention center across the country.
Whether you choose one of these options or the various other options available to you, your decision will change from show to show and most likely be determined by one or more of these criteria:
Your shipping budget
Amount of time you have to get your booth to the show
Distance between your office and the show
How fragile your show materials are
Here is an insider tip you may also want to consider. An exhibit house or display builder specializing in building booths for companies in a specific industry may have multiple clients exhibiting at a particular show. They can consolidate all the shipments going to the advance warehouse or direct to the convention center. Since all the shipments are destined for the same place, this can save you money and time.
Tip 6: Reserve Your Hotel.
A hotel designated as the “show hotel” sets aside at least a percentage of its rooms at a discounted rate for show attendees. Hotels catering to big shows with tens of thousands of attendees like the RSA Conference, E3, InfoComm, MAGIC, or the National Restaurant Association Show may allocate all rooms for show visitors because there is enormous attendee demand.
Either way, there is always a deadline by which the discounted room rate expires, and any available rooms are returned to their standard rate.
Even if your trade show’s “show hotel” is now charging its full room rate rather than a discounted rate, don’t simply dismiss it as too expensive.
Consider the implications of staying at a cheaper hotel 4 miles away rather than staying next to the convention center. This strategy requires you to spend money on transportation from the less expensive hotel to the convention center multiple times a day instead of walking from the show hotel to the convention center, which you can do for free. In addition to the cost, you will also waste more time traveling back and forth from the hotel farther away.
In the end, your seemingly ‘cheaper’ option may not be so cheap after all.
Tip 7: Coordinating Onsite Vendors and Suppliers.
Coordinating on-site vendors to assemble your trade show booth seems simple. Maybe deceptively so.
When planning for exhibitor booth assembly, you should think about each item to be installed, like electricity, carpet, and the physical booth structure; the contractor who will install it; and the order in which each supplier must do their work.
There is a specific order in which your trade show booth and all exhibitor services should be installed to help ensure installation is efficient, everything operates correctly, and everyone is safe. For example, the furniture rental contractor should deliver the couch and armchairs you ordered after the show contractor installs the carpet, not before.
Strategically coordinating the timing of contractor arrival during installation is critical to avoid delays, additional expenses, or possible damage to your booth structure.
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