The Exhibitor's Resource – Trade Show Marketing Blog

Plotting trade show deadlines and project milestones on a timeline is a good way for an exhibitor at a trade show or other marketing event to ensure that they stay on schedule. An exhibit agency like Exhibit Resources is a good partner in developing such a guide to keep your project on track. The experienced event marketing professionals at an exhibit house can help exhibitors manage all of the details, from submitting forms and payments to reserving services. The timeline offers a visually accessible way to quickly see those details, and know when decisions need to be made. Timelines also make it easy to see what stage the project is in at any given time. Often a timeline is the go-to document to make sure nothing falls through the cracks, and can help prevent unnecessary rush fees from suppliers, shipping companies, and the show venue. A trade show planning timeline can include due dates for approving design, submitting graphics, submitting show services forms, and shipping materials.

Consider working with an exhibit agency that includes a timeline as part of the regular communication process. But if this isn’t offered, there are some options out there for creating such documents. “Mind Mapping” software often includes a timeline view, and can help get organizations on the same page internally, as well as help coordinate with vendors. After all, when planning for a complex event such as a trade show, the more informed everyone is about how their part of the process affects the final outcome, the more successful the project will be.

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A - Get the word out to prospects, clients and trade show attendees ahead of the conference.
B - Make the most out of every minute on the expo floor, and then network as much as you can to drive traffic to your exhibit outside of expo hours.
C - Follow-up on show leads and other connections immediately and persistently after the trade show, or even while still at the show.

A) Pre-show mailers, email blasts, and calls to set up at-show appointments are the three tasks you and your team should be focused on one to two months ahead of your show. Your team’s goal is to “get on the dance card” of every potential customer. Consider an incentive to get pre-qualified prospects to your exhibit space. Take advantage of show-sponsored marketing tools, such as postcard mailings to all attendees, or email blasts to lists of attendees from your target segment. Many shows can break out lists of just your target audience, often by their professional title.

B) Schedule enough booth staff to cover your exhibit space for the entirety of the expo hours, factoring in snack, lunch, and bio breaks. Make sure that knowledgeable staff are available continuously until the show hall is empty. Once you and your team leave the expo floor, make an effort to connect with prospects and clients at after hours receptions and networking events. Encourage those you meet outside of expo hours to drop by your trade show booth to see that demo or meet with that colleague that has experience with their situation. Do everything you can to drive traffic to your booth on the next show day.

C) If you’ve done A and B, you’ll have a long list of interested prospects to call on after the show. This is a great problem to have, but you need a strategy in place to make sure you turn those leads into sales. One idea is to handle as many requests and follow-ups as you can while still at the show. This offsets the work you’ll need to do when you return to the office, but also ensures that you are seen as responsive and engaged. But once you’re back to the routine of the office, it’s important to make time for proper follow-up on all of the leads acquired at the show.

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If you’re starting your search for a pop-up trade show display, you may be finding it hard to compare one display to another during your initial search, in part because the differences are most apparent in person. Therefore, you may be looking for some guidance on which specifications to insist on, and which might not matter as much. Well, we have one piece of initial advice: Avoid Velcro.

Veteran trade show marketing professionals will tell you that using “hook and loop” (the generic name for Velcro) to attach graphic mural panels to a pop-up display frame isn’t the way to go. While Velcro has its place in the trade show exhibit world for certain applications, such as attaching temporary graphics to fabric panels, the best way to attach full-size graphic mural panels to a pop-up display frame is with magnetic strips. Even for someone installing graphics for the first time, a magnet-to-magnet connection is quick and easy, and the result is a perfectly-aligned graphic. The polarization of the magnetic strip helps guide the graphic panel into place. By contrast, Velcro-applied graphics can be a struggle to install and align properly. Velcro can attach too early or too strongly, making adjustments difficult. And even when Velcro panels are finally aligned, the result isn’t usually a smooth and clean joint, but often a wrinkled gap between the two panels. A display with magnetic graphic panels, however, appears to be a single continuous graphic backwall, with seams that are only visible if one looks really closely.

Our second piece of advice for the new pop-up purchaser: Visit a trade show exhibit showroom to verify that the fit and finish of the display you are considering meets your quality standards. Get a demonstration of the setup of the display and test it out for yourself. Will this display be something that you and your staff will be able to manage the setup of? Will the presentation be clean and professional and reflect your company’s values? While there are more options and quality specs to consider than just how the graphics attach, insisting on a pop-up display that uses magnets is a good start to getting something that will work for you, your team and your business.

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This long weekend, many Americans will be heading out to special events around the country in celebration of Independence Day. Whether you’re headed to a city-sponsored parade downtown, a fireworks show over the water, a BBQ competition in the burbs, or a Bluegrass show at the local taproom, there will undoubtedly be “Mobile Marketing” present at the event. Although trade show marketers may not typically do this type of “in the field” marketing, the trends for these types of events can inform and inspire other types of face-to-face marketing. We suggest that as you roam the craft stands, food vendors and antique car shows that you keep an eye out for clever event marketing strategies in action. Take note of what technique might be drawing crowds at the new car tent off to the side. Why is there a line in front of the stand promoting a new brand of sugar water? At the end of the day, think back about all of the branding you saw that day and consider which brands stand out most and why. Obviously, the biggest brand of the day will be the Red, White, and Blue of the Stars and Stripes – AKA Team USA. But the brand that comes in second has benefited from a well-executed Event Marketing strategy, and stands a good chance of growing their business, the pinnacle of the American entrepreneurial spirit.

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