Most exhibitors and their trade show booths have the basic requirements for trade shows down pretty well. The potential customer walks around the floor of the trade show and most of the trade show booths beckon to them as if they were candy to a baby.
Excited, the new client walks over and investigates. They look, they touch, they ask questions. Before you know it, the customer is half way towards committing themselves to a purchase. The trade show booths have done their job; a new client is snagged and you have their information for future contact.
That being said, very few trade show participants are completely satisfied with the efficiency of their trade show displays. We always feel as if we could snag a few more, sell a few more, pull a bit more traffic into our area.
If you find yourself wishing you could fine tune your booth so it works a little harder for you, here are a few ideas to cross reference with your current layout in order to question if you need do a slight redesign in order to perfect your trade show displays.
- Graphics and font: The signs that display your company name, products, and slogans are the first contact that the client has with your company in most cases. Sometimes, they are literally the first thing that their eyes see. Therefore, it is very important that you make sure it is a welcoming and readable font.
- The number one mistake that exhibitors make on font is choosing italicized, “classical” signs. While it may look elegant in a handwritten letter, it is very difficult to read on a sign in a trade show, especially when in competition with other trade show displays.
- Choose a bold font with a bold color, but don’t get over fancy with the font style. When a client can read the simple information within the first two seconds, they are more likely to have the “ah!” moment when they decide they want to approach your booth. And you can save the italicized font for the handouts you give them supplementing your face-to-face information.
- Invite them in: Way too often, the actual entrance corridor into the trade show booths is too narrow to accommodate a good number of visitors. The entrance into your trade show booths should feel like a natural progression from the wide open space of the trade show floor. If it narrows, most people feel instinctively claustrophobic. Don’t cram in more displays to the detriment of the natural space of your booth. Invite your clients in and they will enter of their own accord.
- Free flow and walking space: Don’t make the interior of your trade show booths into a cramped space. When clients feel that they can walk about from side to side and around (usually in a clockwise, circular fashion), they are comfortable. And the last thing you want to do is make them feel uneasy. Let them enter it like an amusement park ride; they need to feel that they must complete the circuit. In this way, they receive all of your information.
- Don’t overload them with text: When you write paragraphs and paragraphs of information, clients will be overwhelmed and skip. Itemize and minimize their exposure to excessive content, and they are more likely to read all of the words you actually put down. Once you invite them in, you want them to stay as long as possible.
Attracting clients is as much about knowing when to restrain your creative instincts as it is to indulge them. Give them space and simplicity in your trade show booths and they will stick around for the personal touch!
