It’s not enough to have the best trade show displays, the friendliest customer service representatives, the catchiest trade show booth design. Nowadays, presenting the greatest case for your business and the products that you are trying to sell requires that you also include evidence of your product working in the lives of your potential customers.
This is why celebrities and athletes are paid so much for endorsing a particular product. It’s just as if the superstar were saying that using that product will make you just a bit more like them, and if the product works for them, it should for you too.
Very few of us could actually afford to hire a celebrity endorser or pay an athlete to stand in front of our trade show displays in full uniform, but there are methods of appealing to the customer that are just as effective. Social evidence is the use of testimonials and customer feedback to sell your product for you. Using their quotes and enthusiasm is just like having them pitch your items themselves. Here are some ideas for how to deploy their feedback as an effective sales tool for your trade show success:
- The Endorsement: If particular customers give that broad, ringing statement of recommendation that they would advise their friends and family to use your product, use that endorsement in your trade show signs and banners! Some of the greatest evidence you can use are those statements like “I am completely happy” or “I love your product” or “I couldn’t have been more pleased”. It gives the client a mirror in which to estimate their own satisfaction. And customer satisfaction is the ultimate aim of your product sales.
- Publish it: Devote space in your pamphlets, brochures, and portfolios for a number of the very best social endorsements received back from your clients. A skilled writer in your office should take the time to edit and compose a great variety of quotes to sell the product. Use an Oscar nominated film poster as a guide: filled with ringing endorsements from the best critics with a variety of different types of praise.
- Social Evidence for Social Media: Incorporate various platforms for social media in your trade show displays and distribute feedback in those media. The greatest way to share your success story is to demonstrate savvy in the social media avenues and to distribute feedback through them. Nothing is more valuable to business in the global age than to “go viral” with your various positive reviews.
- Share the Stories: Many customer service representatives assume that they should only use their own skills as a selling point, but it is completely reasonable to drop in a personal anecdote about satisfied customers during a sale. Make sure that those stories are completely casual in nature and come at an advanced stage of the selling process. It could be the moment when your representative seals the deal and adds to your sales total – all because the client connected with the product because of the endorsement of a “regular” person they don’t even know.
Trade show displays don’t only require your own knowledge and skill; they can incorporate the success stories of your clients as well. If deployed properly, these stories can help your potential customers become the next wave of social evidence for continuously building your client base.
Want to learn more about using social media to promote your trade show display? Check out are article on increasing ROI on your trade show social media!