At any trade show, there’s a definite pecking order. You can generally tell at a glance which exhibition displays belong to small companies, and which are from the big players. Since you’re there to get as many people as possible interested in your business, you want to make your trade show display look as big and professional as you can.
The good news is, there are some easy things you can do, even as a small business, to make your trade show displays more professional-looking. Not everyone does these, but if you look around the show floor, you’ll see that these are all traits of the big, successful display stands.
Just remember these tips, and you’ll be moving up towards the big leagues.
Making Your Exhibition Displays More Professional
- Have a unified color scheme. Ideally, your trade show colors should be based around your own corporate logo or color scheme. They should be complementary, and generally shouldn’t involve more than a couple main colors, on top of black or white. Having everything in your trade show booth fit with these scheme makes your business appear unified and in charge of its branding.
- Stick to a unified message. Don’t try to cover every subject under the sun. Pick one aspect of your business – a particular product line, a new debut, or a single part of your business plan – and focus your exhibition displays, graphics, and literature on that, rather than trying to say everything to everyone.
- Keep your employees in matching outfits. These don’t have to be terribly fancy; slacks and matching corporate Polo shirts will work fine at most conventions. The important point is that your workers need to match each other, and the colors of the exhibition displays. Don’t let them wander in wearing whatever they want; have a dress code.
- No food in the trade show booth. Trade shows generally make for hungry and thirsty people, but don’t let your employees snack inside the exhibition stand itself. Water bottles should be kept out of sight and used with discretion, and any other refreshment should be enjoyed well away from the exhibition displays. Having a set break schedule should also help reduce the temptation to engage in mid-show snacking.
- Minimize socializing. Another mark of unprofessional trade show displays is having staff who seem as interested in talking with each other as with their visitors. Obviously, some amount of socialization is going to happen – your workers aren’t robots – but it should be kept to a minimum, and never when there are visitors to impress instead.
- Pocket those gizmos. The only people at your exhibit displays who should be using any sort of electronic gadget, like a tablet or smartphone, are visitors and members of your sales staff that are using them for approved in-booth purposes. All other gizmos should be stowed, turned off, and not seen while your workers are active in the booth.
- Triple-check all the graphics for your exhibition displays. It’s unfortunate how often we see simple typos show up in trade show booths, but it happens all the time. Have multiple people all look over anything with words on it to make sure there are no spelling or grammatical errors. Offer a prize to anyone that catches a mistake while there’s time to fix it!
- Go for understatement. No one likes a braggart, and few people believe it when a small company starts making grandiose claims. Play to your strengths, but be realistic and down-to-earth with it. Don’t make any sweeping claims that you cannot produce detailed supporting evidence for.
Basically, the main keys to looking professional with your exhibition displays are an attention to detail, a well-trained staff, and a unified look and message to your display stand. The more professional your trade show booth appears, the more impressed visitors you’ll get. It’s that simple.
For more, learn about perfecting your pitch in your displays and how to manage lower attendance.