Get Your Business Off the Ground: 7 Trade Show Tips for Start-Ups

Billions of dollars are generated at trade shows in the United States. Therefore, you’re losing money if your company isn’t investing at least part of its marketing spend in trade show appearances.

You may have tried trade shows in the past and didn’t get any momentum. You may have even talked to people that have told you that trade shows are a terrible investment.

Ignore those past experiences/opinions, and check out these rapid-fire trade show tips to get people buzzing around your booth!

1. Make Your Booth Shine

Nobody wants to stop at a boring booth when they’re walking a trade show floor. To get people to hit the breaks when they’re walking by your table, take the time to add pops of color to your display, music, or anything else that might get people to give you a second look.

Pro Tip: Prize wheels always get people to pull over.

2. Put Your Company Name on Display

If you get nothing else out of a trade show, you should be able to score some passive brand impressions. That is, of course, if your company’s name is prominently displayed.

Get a vast cutout or poster printed with your brand name and logo. Make sure that it’s the first thing people see when approaching your booth.

3. Get Video Savvy

People are visual creatures. As a matter of fact, you can communicate information 60,000 times faster with an image versus text.

To get your message out to potential leads quickly, create video presentations and have them looping across your monitors during your time on the show floor.

4. Have a Hashtag

If your business lends itself to social media, have a hashtag prominently displayed in your booth that people can tweet/gram at to be entered into prize pools. Generating social buzz around your brand is always a great idea!

5. Be Prepared to Give Things Away

One of the most fun aspects of trade shows for non-exhibitionists is that they collect a ton of free stuff. Don’t be the curmudgeon that doesn’t give people what they want. Be liberal in giving away branded merchandise, which should excite people about your brand.

6. Don’t Be Afraid to Engage With Attendees

As people walk up to your booth, engage with them. Sure, meeting new people can get a bit awkward, but only by meeting people will you potentially run into a special business connection.

7. Collect Business Cards

One of the best trade show tips we’ve ever heard of when collecting business cards is to ask people to put their cards into a bowl to enter a raffle. You could raffle something small off at the end of the day and go through the remaining cards to see if there are any potential leads that you can engage with.

Use Our Trade Show Tips to Make Your Booths Blow up This Year

If you want your booths to gain a ton of traction at the trade shows, make it a point to use the trade show tips that we’ve just shared with you. If you do, we promise you will walk away from your next event feeling like you enjoyed a great return on your investment!

Are you looking for more game-changing business advice? If you are, check out additional content on our blog!