The journey to mastering the assembly of exceptional expo displays isn’t accomplished in a day. Typically, those presenting the most striking trade show exhibits have a history of setting up numerous booths. The learning process is vast, and despite thorough preparation, it’s almost certain that you’ll make a fair share of mistakes.
However, mistakes are part of life’s experiences, and many can be readily averted. Given the lengthy history of trade exhibitions and expositions, many accumulated insights exist on the best practices and pitfalls to avoid when taking your expo displays on tour.
Selecting a Show that Doesn’t Align With Your Objectives and Target Audience
Trade shows undeniably demand a hefty financial commitment from exhibitors. Expenses can range from booth rental and design to travel, shipping, and storage costs, which can quickly add up.
Participating in a trade show where your target audience is present provides limitless opportunities. You can:
- Engage with potential leads
- Create new connections
- Accelerate your sales process
- Secure repeat business
The anticipation of following up with leads can refresh you and prompt you to fine-tune your sales and marketing strategies. Conversely, pouring time, money, and energy into an ill-suited trade show can result in budget and resource wastage. An unfortunate trade show investment can deplete your energy and temper your enthusiasm for future events.
Subpar Booth Design
When considering participating in a trade show, ensuring your booth design is professional and welcoming is crucial. A substandard booth design can deter potential clients, leaving them with a negative perception of your company. Moreover, a poorly planned booth can be off-putting or perplexing to participants, causing them to bypass without stopping.
Trade show booths primarily come in two design categories: traditional exhibit and modern exhibit style. If you want to establish a straightforward yet superior-quality booth, opting for an exhibit design would be advisable. You can check websites like Look Our Way for various trade show accessories that will help you pop out.
Attempting to Include Excessive Details
Many companies tend to opt for messages that are rich in information, leading to exhibit designs that are heavily laden with visual content. Despite the instinct to saturate every available space with text and images, the secret to crafting an engaging design lies in simplicity.
Most effective trade show display designs harness the strength of whitespace to accentuate their headlines, texts, and images, merging crucial information. Consequently, the correct utilization of space is a critical factor you should master.
Possess an Empty Booth
You’ve probably attended an event with the intention of interacting with a specific company about their product/service, only to discover an uninhabited booth. Booths must be manned at all times. This implies that even if your company is small, more than one person should be assigned to the booth. Having an additional person provides room for necessary breaks and facilitates more potential client interactions since more than one person is available.
Vacant booths can leave a negative impression on attendees. They might question your company’s reliability in meeting their needs if you can’t commit to being present at your booth during an event. Your presence at your booth is mandatory throughout the entire event… from the start of the day right up until the event’s end. Avoid packing up before the official closing time. It’s discourteous to potential clients and disruptive to the surrounding booths.
Choosing an Inappropriate Size for the Exhibit Space
Numerous businesses often lease a booth that surpasses their actual requirements, leading to an unsatisfactory return on investment due to the intimidating and disproportionate size of the booth; this often results in less foot traffic than anticipated. Many companies have found that a more compact space is more suitable and provides a cozier atmosphere; this typically results in more visitors who find the environment more inviting and comfortable.
Endnote
Now that you’re informed about what to avoid while designing and establishing trade show booth stands, you can weave these recommendations into your comprehensive strategy. This will prepare you effectively to meet your marketing objectives at your forthcoming global trade show.
