An exhibit at a trade show is an important extension of your brand.
It’s a chance to interact with your clients and customers in-person rather than on a digital channel. So, you want to make the most of this golden opportunity to drive revenue and achieve brand loyalty.
VIBE has experience creating exhibits at shows like the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and health and beauty events. We’ve also helped clients launch their own expos , add value to sponsors and create much-needed interactivity.
Here is how VIBE suggests you make the most of your exhibit booth.
Build Around Your Strategy
Before building a booth, brands need to set goals for the trade show. It’s up to the planner to bring those to life.
“We don’t start with design; we start with questions,” says VIBE Founder, Valerie Bihet. “That’s how a booth stops being a cost line and starts becoming a revenue tool.”
You can use an exhibit space to advertise a new product, increase brand awareness, lead generation, or as a designated place for sales representatives to meet their clients in-person.
Build around that strategy to design an experience that matches that goal. That objective should shape everything from how you set chairs and station team members to how you use technology to showcase your company.
One tip from the VIBE playbook is to work with an interior designer to customize a booth. The right fabric, lighting, and carpentry are important roles in your storytelling.
Prioritize Quality Over Quantity
The trade show floor is filled with companies and brands trying to attract visitors.
However, you don’t want to get caught up in a numbers game. It’s much more important to your brand to get the right guests than the most people at your booth.
“Foot traffic is not a strategy,” says Valerie. “What matters is the quality of interactions, dwell time, and sales pipeline impact.”
You only have a couple of days to engage with an event’s attendees. You want to walk away with qualified leads.
Study the registration list and reach out before the show to individuals and companies you know are a good fit for your brand. You can do this through emails, social media posts, and through the event app.
Make sure the attendees you want to visit know your booth number and set a designated time to meet if possible.
Happy accidents can and will happen on a trade show floor, but it’s much smarter to plan intentionally.
Design an Emotion-First Experience
Certain principles hold true regardless of industry when building an exhibit space. Among the most valuable tenets is personalizing the experience to build an emotional connection between the brand and every attendee walking by.
“Emotion cuts through faster than information on a noisy trade show floor,” says Valerie, which leads to the next point.
Make Your Booth Interactive and Inviting
One way to think of your booth is like a house. You want it to feel warm and inviting, so guests will want to stay.
You can tell in a few seconds if a guest at your booth isn’t a strong prospect. Likewise, the longer an attendee engages with your booth, the more promising a prospect they are.
Exclusive giveaways, such as offering AI-powered sunglasses to one lucky winner per day, can capture attention. But so can having a company representative well-positioned on the show floor to guide traffic to the booth.
Once you have the prospect at your exhibit, make sure staff are welcoming and not pushy. Sales, like all good things, come to those who wait.
The booth is about introducing or re-introducing your brand. Appearing transactional can be a turn-off.
“You need to think about the booth as a conversation lounge, not a sales stand,” says Valerie. “People need to feel comfortable before they engage.”
Take advantage of having guests in-person by playing to their senses. Product demos let them experience how the item feels, smells, sounds, looks, and tastes in the case of a food or drink.
Take a Long-Term Approach
An exhibit should never exist in isolation. It has to be a physical extension of the brand promise.
Your time on the trade show floor is part of an ongoing campaign to retain loyal customers and attract new consumers.
Think of the exhibit like you would a brand activation.
Storytelling is a key component. Make sure they walk away with memories.
“People remember stories; they don’t remember brochures,” Valerie says.
The lighting, fabrics, and colors you choose say a great deal about your brand, just as your staff’s behavior is reflective of the customer care your company provides.
How attendees feel about your brand and booth extend past the trade show.
You always want to have a personal touch. Use AI technology to capture conversations you’ve had with prospects and judge which customers are likely to complete a sale.
Most transactions are completed after an event, not during it. Purposeful follow-up communications can seal the deal if you’ve done your job at the booth.
VIBE can help you build a winning strategy for your trade show booth to create greater engagement with your brand.
Book an initial strategy call with Valerie today.
