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Great Trade Show Display Ideas That Attract More Booth Traffic

Exhibitors with traffic-stopping trade show booths are master magicians. They all know how to “automagically” turn ordinary face-to-face encounters with people into extraordinary business opportunities. And their not-so-secret magic tricks? Innovative trade show display ideas that attract more booth traffic!

Some of them are conventional ideas executed to exceed expectations, some are fresh out of nowhere ideas that never fail to fascinate and attract. If you can only apply some of these ideas to attract visitors, then maybe you’ll get more out of your next trade show display. Without more fuss, here are some ideas for getting more out of your exhibit.

Make Your Visitors Feel Welcome, Make Marketing More Personal

But that’s too easy! Not so fast. A lot of exhibitors fail at “genuinely” welcoming trade show attendees. From the banner stands to the way booth staff approaches visitors, nothing in their trade show booth encourages customer engagement. Making attendees feel welcome is first step to getting their attention and trust. Is smiling or saying hello enough? It’s a good start as long as you don’t overdo it. But if everyone else do exactly the same thing, you better come up with another plan. The key is to add a personal touch to your marketing materials. There are visual elements in your trade show display that, when carefully designed, can make visitors feel welcome. Here are some of them:

Trade Show Booth Ideas To Attract Visitors: Trade Show Booths

Make them more personal by using interactive media for your exhibition stands. Interactive booth ideas are a relatively new trend but it’s designed to effectively attract visitors to your booth. You can, for instance, engage them with promotional “flash” games. Make sure each game is integrated well with your brand or product. Fun games are great for encourage visitors to remember your brand even after the exhibit. A simple jigsaw game on an iPod or iPad that incorporates your logo is an excellent example. There are a lot trade show booth games to attract customers worth exploring.

Trade Show Booth Ideas To Attract Visitors: Centerpiece displays

Do something different with your “main attraction.” Whether it’s a demo of a recently launched product or a short video of your new service, be sure it draws visitors’ attention. Place it at eye-level dead center in your trade show booth – and get the right lights!

Trade Show Booth Ideas To Attract Visitors: Personalized booklets

One of your aims as an exhibitor is to educate prospects about your product or company. Booklets are a great way to attract more booth traffic. You can publish three different booklets for each market segment. A practical “how-to” content that relates to your prospects’ everyday concern isn’t that hard to produce.

Do Something Entirely Different, But Use What Already Works

Everyone is talking about trade show display trends. There are a lot – sometimes it may seem like just too many – gadgets and apps and social media devices to consider, too many technologies to integrate into your existing trade show plan. The thing is, you can dress up your trade show booth differently without spending way over your budget. And you don’t have to incorporate ALL the biggish trends into your trade show display to attract a larger crowd. To design a traffic-stopping booth, you only need to carefully pick exhibit elements. It’s about combining old and new ideas. It’s about trying something original AND using proven ways to attract more prospects.

New and trending trade show booth ideas:

1. Realizing that the biggest booth isn’t necessarily the best booth, exhibitors are scrambling for highly customized and unique trade show display ideas. Even those in the largest spaces are trying to get outside the box so that they are sure to attract attention. They’re going beyond the basic, boring booth. Instead of designing one big structure, many are now thinking in terms of a set of elements and creative trade show booth ideas.
2. Have comfortable seats and lounge spaces for attendees to relax. These are ideal spaces to interact with your customers over a cup of coffee. Having a place for people to relax is one of the best ideas to attract people.
3. Lightweight or portable displays are easy to set up. That’s why retractable banner stands, hybrid displays with fabric graphics, and tabletop displays are increasingly becoming popular. If you want to get the most bang for your buck, these materials are worth checking out and investing in.
4. Make use of memorable and functional interactive elements such as tablets and touchscreen displays. These are also immersive technologies that naturally draw people along while being cool trade show booths in general. Perhaps you can learn from what Intel did during a Mobile World Congress event.  The company personalized technology by asking attendees to download its mobile app, including a survey and photo-sharing feature. Attendees can then answer a brief survey question (What’s in your pocket?) and upload their picture along with it. Now that’s a smarter way of making visitors feel welcome; Intel could also capture data straight through the app.
5. Think outside the trade show display booth. Yes, your promotional campaigns are not tied to a single physical location. You can send out tweets with a special hashtag to attract more visitors to the area. Or you can encourage visitors to share “booth moments” and create buzz on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus.

Here are good old-fashioned exhibit ideas:

1. Locate your briefing zone. Think of it as a smaller business theater within your trade show display space, where you’ll deliver brief, high-level information and introduce attendees to your products and services. This could be near your banner stand or any strategic location where you can easily invite attendees to come in to learn more about your offering.
2. Do something engaging! Have activities scheduled in your trade show booth by the hour, so you can attract more booth traffic. Just do something for the sake of having fun. Plan your activities around your trade show goals and publicize that activity schedule.
3. Train your staff and do it well. Think about how Disney does it. They train employees as if all of them run the show. They do. Your staff can make or break your efforts. How they approach attendees and communicate verbally and non-verbally during a product demo will directly impact the success your exhibit stands.
4. Attract by design. Every visual material in your trade show booth, from trade show flooring and banner stands to promotional booklets, can either attract or repel attendees from trying out your product or learning more about your company. 

Make your design clean, professional, and compelling. Make your choice of fonts and colors consistent. This will help reinforce your brand image. And don’t underestimate the power of words. 

Use actionable words or verbs and powerful adjectives to trigger specific actions from your visitors. It’s best to hire a duo of designer and copywriter who can professionally work together on your marketing materials.

Other Trade Show Tips Guaranteed to Attract Visitors

The best trade show booth ideas attract visitors to your booth. It is not something you can come up with little to no notice. For this reason, you want to start preparing ahead of time. 

Never leave anything to the last minute when it comes to your trade show events. Some of these ideas expand on points we have already touched on above to give you even more ideas you can use. 

Start by jumping on social media well ahead of the event to spark up some excitement and buzz. Show them what amazing things you have for your booth and what they can expect if they visit. You can even use your social media accounts to post about special giveaways you will be doing during the event.

You can even put up a photo booth or social media wall during the event for attendees to take pictures they can post and share online. And yes, this is another great way to spread brand awareness. 

You also need to create a welcoming and inviting space. If you have a larger booth space to work with, then set up some chairs or other trade show furniture to make the area more comfortable. Since there isn’t typically a lot of seating available at trade shows, booth visitors will appreciate the booth design and your gesture.

While they are sitting down, you can take the opportunity to introduce yourself or set up a screen to show attendees a presentation about your company.

Snacks and bottled water are also great and can attract more visitors to your booth as well. Attendees would have been walking around the event space all day, so handing out small snacks and water will definitely draw a crowd. A charging station is another way to get them to the booth and provide you with much more traffic. 

You can also create a booth design that incorporates technology for a more interactive experience for booth visitors. Augmented reality is just one way you can do just that. With augmented reality and other interactive technology, you can have a long line waiting to visit. It can easily attract people all on its own. You can also use it to demonstrate products.

Prizes and giveaways are also great for attracting more booth visitors. Promotional giveaways you promote on social media and during the event are a good way to draw in a crowd while also improving your brand awareness. Just make sure you have branded giveaways and other promotional items with your logo or colors. 

A prize wheel will attract people to your exhibition stand as well. Once there, the booth staffer can explain your business, tell your story, and make sure the attendee has a memorable experience at your exhibition booth. 

Are you ready to make magic at your next trade show? These are just some of the better trade show display ideas. There’s a lot more out there. They can be useful if you know how to blend them with your brand. If it doesn’t blend, don’t push it. Find other innovative ways to give your trade show display the visual oomph it needs.