If you’re thinking of doing your first trade show, you’ll want to make great first impressions for your business.

8 Ways to Plan a Trade Show

What’s the best way to wow your audience? How can you make every second of that trade show count and get the new buyers you’re hoping for? 

Here’s a brief guide to what you need to do before a trade show so that you can maximize your marketing efforts on the big day. 

Don’t Rush It

Getting everything perfect for your first trade show takes time. So get out your calendar, mark the date of the event, and begin your trade show planning now. 

Think about putting together a project plan with a few critical dates before the event. This will help you feel organized and ensure you have enough time to deal with essential tasks, such as getting the venue booked. 

Choose Your Top Team

A great trade show needs personalities who’ll shine on the day. Mark out the names of your preferred employees who you’d like to attend the show, and make sure you ask them early to ensure they will be available. 

Start with your sales and marketing team. These are the people who have the most experience in promoting your products or services and will be able to talk fluently to potential buyers. 

Be Inventive With Freebies

Freebies are a tried-and-tested way to get potential buyers to your trade booth. However, since it’s such a common tactic, spend time thinking of ways to make these free giveaways more exciting and unique.

Gadgets are popular, so why not hand out chargers or smartphone accessories that are customized with your company’s brand? 

Create a Buzz on Social Media

Don’t wait until the day of the show to market your business. Social media is the ideal opportunity to get the word out about the event and that your business will be attending.

Create a social media schedule a month before the event and post regularly about the trade show. It’s also worth getting your audience to share some of their burning questions, which will help you prep for the event day. 

Design Your Stall Before the Big Day

You want your booth to wow, so take the time before your first trade show to decide on the final design of the stall.

Go beyond your corporate branding, and create a tagline and promotional material that is specific for the trade show. Create a preview of the design, to see how it will work on the day rather than conceptually. 

Get Early Sight of the Layout

It’s helpful to know where your stall is relative to the rest of the trade show and what other businesses will be promoting nearby.

If you are far from the entrance, consider getting one of your team to stand in the welcome area to direct people to your stall. And check out these tips on other ways you can market your trade stall. 

Arrive One Hour Before the Trade Show Starts 

When the big day arrives, plan to meet your team at least an hour before the event opens, so you can get your stall set up. This will give your team time to rehearse and get familiar with everything is. 

You can also use this as an opportunity to do some helpful networking with other businesses before the event opens to the public. 

Perfect Planning Equals Success

If you’re going to invest time and money in a trade show, it’s worth getting it right.

Spending time planning the event and ensuring you have the best marketing, sales pitch, and freebies to attract buyers will help you stand out from the competition. 

If you enjoyed this post, take a look at our section on startup marketing for some other ideas on how to promote your business. 

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