Going to my trade show? Can I give you a ride to your hotel?!
All trade show display exhibitors know the importance of having a plan to attract potential clients to their booth. After all, that’s the sole purpose of attending the trade show – gathering new leads that can be nurtured into becoming good customers.
Having an attractive display helps a lot with that goal, and our business (www.American-Image.com) focuses on helping our clients by providing great trade show booth ideas – we help create displays that catch the potential customer’s eye and help attract them to the booth. This is an important part of the plan, but there are other key pieces in a great plan for maximizing your investment return from exhibiting at a trade show.
Savvy exhibitors start their planning well before the show, analyzing potential and known attendees, trying to schedule visits with these leads, and coming up with ways to ensure the visits are productive.
A recent article in Exhibitor Magazine (www.ExhibitorOnline.com) entitled “All-Star Awards” highlighted a few very clever ways that exhibitors have used recently to attract clients and ensure quality time with them. The article highlighted one exhibitor that, realizing the convention center and nearby hotels were 30 – 50 minutes from the airport, offered to provide free rides from the airport to the hotels of specific targeted leads – ensuring a happy client and some 30 minutes to chat with them! This same exhibitor provided a cell phone charging station in their booth space during the trade show, alongside a small bar offering imported beers.
The message is simple – plan ahead in order to maximize the number of leads visiting your booth, work to achieve some quality time with them during the show visit, and then make sure to follow up with every qualified lead.
Please see the article online or in the February 2011 Exhibitor Magazine to review all of the award winning approaches.