Driving Traffic To Your Trade Show Booth

The first step in attracting visitors to your booth is to hire the right people to represent your company. Your booth representatives must be on their best behavior at all times during the show. This seems like an obvious fact but I have been to trade shows where the people behind the booth acted disinterested. Some did not even bother to stand when visitors stopped by. Don't let apathy happen to your booth! People form their first impression at the booth.

Is your booth sending out the proper message? The booth should support your message and explain who you are and what you do. The booth layout should focus on your visitor. Therefore, make your booth easy to navigate and eliminate barriers.

Now that you have traffic coming to your booth, how do you hold their attention? Perhaps you could demonstrate a product, give a brief presentation or take your visitors on a virtual tour. These activities could also serve as prerequisites to branded gifts. Make your audience "work" for their prize. That way you can gauge their level of interest first. You might prepare two-tier gifts with the first-tier being for guests who display maximum interest and the second-tier being for those guests who only show minimal interest. Be careful not to order too many second-tier gifts as the number of quality leads will be significantly lower now that you are measuring your results.

Finally, remember that one purpose of your trade show marketing plan is to convert leads. Make sure you have a way to gather their information. It could be as simple as placing a fishbowl on your booth and asking your guests to register for a chance to win a prize. Implement these changes at your next trade show and watch how much more traffic you attract.

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