Portable trade show booths are easy to transport and cost effective. But they don’t have to look and feel cheap. Even if you’re planning your trade show booth on a budget, get creative with your booth and the accessories within it to amplify your visitors’ experience. Make sure to create a detailed master plan to ensure maximum use of your budget, staff and time.
First of all, let’s talk about the master plan. Begin this document well ahead of the trade show you will be attending. You will most likely start with a budget that has been allocated to this trade show. The budget will need to cover:
- Trade show entry fees
- Marketing before and during the show
- Portable trade show booth purchase
- Trade show booth shipping and material handling fees
- Staffing costs, to include travel, lodging and food expenses
- Giveaways
- Technology
- Show site services (flooring, electrical, rigging and labor, if applicable)
Your exhibit marketing strategy should include your purpose, goals, and final objective. Draft this before you are influenced by budget parameters. Your exhibit strategy should be consistent with your general marketing strategy. Creating an exhibit marketing strategy may reveal what type of exhibit or exhibits are best suited for your company. If your company plans to attend numerous shows back-to-back using a 10 x 10 space, you may want to evaluate portable or modular exhibits. If your company does a number of smaller inline booths along with a few major shows, then you’ll want to consider portable/modular or hybrid exhibits. When the strategy is to make a huge impact at a major industry show, you’ll want to evaluate modular, hybrid, and custom exhibits.
Choosing a Portable Trade Show Booth
There are varying levels of portable trade show booth prices. Fortunately, Sourcing a budget friendly and quality display is becoming easier today as manufactures strive to improve the end user experience. Make sure not to max out your budget on the display, as you’ll want to make sure to offer really creative giveaways and have your best staff working the booth.
Chances are you’ll purchase your exhibit from a local exhibit company. Exhibit companies have been around for decades and understand exhibits and trade shows. Originally, exhibits were custom-crafted. Then, exhibit systems evolved as an alternative to the high cost of custom craftsmanship. Now, there are multiple exhibit categories. Exhibit systems, which includes portable, modular, and hybrid exhibits, are evolving towards custom-crafted exhibits, and custom-crafted exhibits are evolving towards exhibit systems. Both have distinct advantages and exhibit companies work hard to carve out distinct niches along the custom to portable spectrum. The exhibit (or exhibits) that best fits your company’s exhibit marketing strategy will slot in somewhere along this spectrum. This is where an exhibit consultant can be very useful. Ultimately, an exhibit consultant wants to help you maximize your exhibit marketing potential.
Staffing Your Booth
Staffing your booth with personable people who have a proven track record of building relationships is equally as important as the look of the booth itself. Make sure to spend time considering who will help your company to shine, and offer them some training that is specific to communicating with trade show attendees. A few tips are:
- If an attendee says they’re just looking, don’t push. Welcome them to browse your display, point out some items that you are featuring, and then leave them be. If they need something, they’ll come to you.
- Try a unique greeting, something more creative than “May I help you?” or “How are you?”
- Be available. Make sure that no one has to wait in line – this means your booth is understaffed. If someone has a question, a staff member should always be moments away from answering it
- Be approachable. Don’t cross your arms or fidget and don’t sit there and talk to just your colleagues. Be enthusiastic about your product. Smile and be polite.
- No eating and keep that booth clean and clutter free!
Giveaways
There are thousands of options for trade show giveaways, and remember that everyone else in the room will have some too. For this reason, think of something unique that your attendees will actually use. What are some of the items that you would use, and actually like? Pens and sticky notes are boring – yes, people use them, but let’s think outside the box, here. In addition to considering what people may actually use, consider the specific clients you are serving. Are they creative? Perhaps a sketch book with inspirational quotes could be a nice giveaway. Are they in their 20s and 30s? Cell phone accessories like PopSockets and pockets that adhere to the back of the phone are useful and can be beautiful. Is your audience earth-friendly? Metal drinking straws in a case or pouch with your logo will be useful for years to come. Do some research and come up with some creative giveaways specifically geared toward your audience.
Technology
The technology you choose will probably be partially related to your products and partially related to the design of your portable booth. For example, you may have iPads available to place orders, show product demos, or showcase new software. There are even tables with touch screens that allow you to showcase your product line on the surface.
You may want portable roll up LED screens incorporated into the booth to screen a promotional video about a new product line or introducing your company. Do some research or reach out to a portable trade show booth seller (like ADM Two), to see what some options are for spicing up your portable display.
ADM trade show staff are experts at envisioning and helping to create outstanding portable trade show environments. They would be happy to forward additional in depth resource guides to any of these topics, so get in touch with us to discuss your next portable trade show booth.