The trade show floor is one of the best avenues available for live business marketing. What truly makes a trade show, exhibition, or conference a great place to generate sales leads and customer connections is that they are generally based around a certain theme or industry. Because of this niche, targeted nature, trade shows can easily give your business access to hundreds or thousands of different people who may not know about your brand, but will be inherently interested in the products you have to offer due to their existing interest in the industry your business is a part of.
The question, of course, is how you can turn this theoretical customer interest potential into practical leads on the trade show floor that you can use to grow your brand and boost revenues. How can you turn your trade show staff or your trade show games into devices for converting customer reactions into leads? How can you design your trade show attire to best generate a professional image? By following the steps laid out in this article you will be able to find answers to those questions and design a trade show plan that will truly enhance your company’s bottom line.

1. Have a Plan of Action:

While it might seem like there would be a secret to generating leads and building your brand at a trade show, the truth is that as long as you have a well thought out trade show plan, everything else should fall into place. Draw out a list of talking points that you want to be sure to hit, and make sure your trade show staff is properly briefed. The main goal of your trade show plan should be how you are going to get potential customers interested in your business and the products you offer. Customer interest, in many cases, translates to valuable leads, so make sure to focus on your product or service.

2. Add Stylistic Flare:

While the main function of your trade show booth should be to generate leads by offering intriguing information about your brand, the promise of this information isn’t necessarily enough to draw guests to your booth. Getting attention at a trade show is a game of advertising and marketing, and stylistic flare often trumps other concerns in that regard. Design an aesthetically striking booth to stand out from the competition, or use trade show games to draw attendants to your table. Of course, you need to make sure your trade show staff always has the knowledge and charisma to back up the stylish flare, but with a balance of style and substance, you will have the weapons you need to rule the trade show floor and get the leads flowing.

3. Consider Your Brand Image:

While trade show games or buckets of free candy can bring in plenty of trade show attendants, they don’t necessarily do anything to establish your brand. For a more effective establishment of what your company does, give away items that refer back to your products or display your brand name, or have games that give consumers an opportunity to win one of your company’s big products. You want trade show attendants to be able to tell what your company does from a single glance, so pushing the brand in all facets of your booth is important.
Also think about trade show attire. You want your trade show staff to look professional and unified, and while you may not think that clothing will make much of a difference in how many leads you will generate, you might be surprised at how much subtle touches like uniform trade show attire can help to posit your brand as a serious business worth looking into.