10 Pre-Planning Tips To Make Your Trade Show Displays Shine All Year

Seeing trade show display ideas go from being a plan to being a reality is a large undertaking. While smaller trade shows happen all the time, you may only have one or two major ones a year – your next trade show display booth might even be months in the future.VBurst Backlit 10x10 popup display

However, as show time approaches, you have a huge list of things to oversee, from transportation to lodging, reviewing and upgrading display stands and trade show graphics, designing brochures, planning seminars – the list goes on and on. There’s no way to accomplish it all effectively without good organization and a logical process.

Few things inevitably lead to great trade show displays better than great planning, and there’s no time like the present to start that planning. The more time and space you give yourself to ponder your options for the next trade show, the more likely you are to come up with great trade show display ideas that’ll wow your visitors. The more thought and planning you put into the process beforehand, the more smoothly everything will go on the day of the show.

Generally speaking, you should start preparing for your trade show at least a month or two ahead of time. Leaving things off to the last minute is a very bad idea and can often cause needless cost overruns. Think about it – expedited shipping costs – even for just a couple of light weight trade show banners – can easily be hundreds of dollars more expensive than ground shipping.three-sided-banner-stand

So, even if you don’t have another convention coming up until late in the spring or summer, that’s no reason you can’t be thinking about it now! Let’s take a quick look at some of the things you should be thinking about early on when planning your trade show booth to ensure it’s a success.

Pre-Planning Tips To Make Your Trade Show Display Shine All Year

Take another look at your goals. Maybe you hit your benchmarks for your last trade show displays, maybe you didn’t. Either way, once you’ve done some homework, revisit those goals. How realistic do they look? How are you measuring them? What can you change to make them more achievable, and more useful to your sales group?

Take another look at show schedules. Despite the economic downturn of the last few years, the trade show display industry is going strong. In fact, thanks in part to crowdsourcing, new trade shows continue to spring up constantly. If it’s been awhile since you’ve looked into what shows are out there, now’s the time to take a new look.

Read the regs: Every convention hall has its own set of rules and regulations for displaying within their building. Some of these can be imposingly large documents but, well, it’s their building and they get to make the rules. You – or an intern – still need to read through them and make sure everything you plan conforms to their plan. A little drudge work now could save you plenty on added fees and even fines later.

Transportation: Getting tickets to your trade show far in advance is usually the surest way to ensure you get a good price. Some try to pick up last-minute deals through sites like Priceline but, of course, if nothing cheap is available then you’re stuck paying whatever you can find. And be sure to ship your display stands and booth accessories well in advance, allowing extra days for bad weather and other transportation problems.

Make an emergency kit: Before the show begins, you should hit an office supply store and create an “emergency kit”. What were you missing last time? This trade show emergency kit should include basic supplies that might be needed to solve problems that come up. Items like extension cords and power strips, replacement light bulbs, duct tape, scissors, plenty of pens and markers, and basic first-aid items are all must-haves for a successful trade show display.

See how your sales team is doing. How good were the leads you gathered at your last trade show displays? What sort of conversion rates did they get? Take this opportunity to talk to your sales group and find out what sort of leads they’d like you to gather, and use that to refine your strategies.

Build better buyer personas. While you’re chatting with your sales team, get an update on your customer statistics and demographics. Buyer personas are one of the most important elements of a customer-focused exposition display. The more you know about your customers, the better you’ll be able to speak to them. So do some homework, and see if you can’t get to know your buyers a little better.

Involve your contacts: You definitely don’t want to wait until the last minute to tell your customers and leads about your trade show. Announce it just as soon as your appearance is confirmed, and keep dropping tidbits to keep interest up. This sort of promotional campaign works best the longer you have to work with it.

Start looking into media outlets. As soon as you know where your next convention is going to be held, investigate local outreach options. If you want to have TV cameras at your expo booth, you may need to start putting out feelers with the local stations months ahead of time.

Just making a little contact now could pay off when it’s T-minus two weeks and you’re trying to convince people to give you air time. Reach out to every local media outlet you can find within an hour or so of the show. (More, if it’s a big one.) You can get loads of free publicity through local media, as well as plenty of clips for your video compilations. Making contacts at the local stations and getting camera time scheduled is another thing that’s best done early, and then nurtured as your exposition show nears.

It’s never too early to start teasing social media. Do you have an awesome new product in the pipeline that folks are going to love? Treat it like a big-budget movie. Create teasers. Maybe it’s design specs. Maybe it’s handheld photos of blueprints. Maybe it’s a short, snappy film with a few choice cuts. Get social media talking about your trade show displays now, and start the buzz going. (Just remember you have to be able to live up to the hype, so be careful how far you go with it.)

As they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Doing more pre-planning and preparation will virtually always result in a better overall trade show display. Plus, getting the logistics out of the way early on gives you more time to focus on your content and presentation as time for the show nears. In other words, start laying the groundwork for your next trade show booth now. Don’t wait until the last minute, or the last month. Doing prep work early on will give you focus and make your future efforts far easier.

For more, check out our questions to ask when planning a trade show or our article on pizazz and planning.

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