Standing out is half the battle

If you offer great services, you want your packaging to match them. Imagine if Apple devices came in cheap-looking plastic shells, or your local BMW dealer moved into an old strip mall. Even if the newest iPhone or Roadster had everything you wanted, you’d likely never learn about them if they were sold this way. The same goes for your services.

At a trade show, you’ll be surrounded by competitors who have brought their best marketing strategy with them. Your marketing excellence may shine—but it will still be in competition with people using the exact same strategies. If you want to be the booth everyone notices, you’ll need something extra on your side.

Create an “attention funnel”

Trade show floors are crowded, and busy attendees are already suffering from decision fatigue. Make the decision for them by inviting them to engage with your exhibit.

The first way to do this is through the introductions. Make your name, logo, and value proposition easy to read from a distance. If people have to come visit you to learn what you do, you’ll miss out on a large swath of the audience.

Once you’ve gotten people’s attention, you need to capitalize, right away. Incite curiosity by explaining, with simple messaging displays, what you do and who you help. Graphics and bold headlines can explain a lot in a very short time, communicating your key points before readers get bored.

At this point, your audience will narrow down to people who match your demographic and need your services. Give these visitors something to do by leaving an obvious question unanswered, or creating an informational journey (with a clearly-marked start) that they can take through your booth space.

Finally, build a personal connection via deeper engagement. Find a way for audiences to directly interact with your product or services so they can experience the benefits firsthand. Instruct team members to mingle, leaving enough space that visitors don’t feel pressured or watched, but close enough to strike up conversations when they see openings.

Once you’ve convinced your visitors that you’re worth the follow up, give them a clear next step at the booth: registering an account, scheduling a live demo, or just adding their email to your marketing list. Rather than adding your business card to their growing pile, your visitors will be ready to engage with you on a deeper level once they’re back at work.

Designing toward the message

Even if you’re primed for attention, imperfect messaging can drive off your audience and hurt your exhibit’s performance. Of course your marketing department has perfected your brand story—but are your designers telling the same tale?

Because our brains process imagery much faster than text, a lack of design cohesion can hurt your branding efforts by confusing your audience. In fact, competing imagery and copy set your message up to fail. When expectations set by the design are not met by the text, your audience will assume you don’t fulfill your brand promises either. Even if they are interested in what you have to say, most readers won’t take time to puzzle out the mismatch. They’ll ignore you completely, and move on to find something that makes sense.

When filled with conflicting and confusing information, even the prettiest booth can fail to perform to your standards. Especially in a situation where you have so many competitors for attention, you don’t want to do anything that can jeopardize your chances of winning over an audience.

Marketing beyond the show floor

Be memorable

Trade show attendees visit tens, if not hundreds of booths during the show. If you want your brand name to stick with them, you’ll have to set yourself apart in their minds.

The best way to do this is to offer something beyond the “booth” experience. We’ve all experienced to the generic exhibit—company representatives, from behind a table, display services and outcomes while offering some generic (though branded) swag. These encounters quickly fade from mind, resurfacing only when you find that branded stress ball in one of your desk drawers two months later.

Visitors who engage with you and your exhibit will remember you much better than your stress-ball-hawking neighbors. Keep your audience interested with a setup where they can play, explore, and learn. If by the end of their visit they feel more informed and empowered, they’ll associate that positive feeling with you. And when they want to know more, you’ll be the first person they ask.

Be Shareable

People love to document the coolest moments of their day on social media. When you design your booth for social engagement you build buzz for your brand that can reach beyond the show. Your social strategists can even make use of the user-generated content on your own profiles down the road.

Optimize for social by including…

A photo booth or selfie backdrop

A hashtag or handle for people to include in their posts

An artsy display that’s begging to be shared on Instagram

A giveaway that incorporates social media interaction

Posting about a brand or service on social indicates a higher level of consumer buy-in than picking up a business card does. That means it can also help build buy-in, much like asking someone for help can curry favor with them. Encouraging social media interaction can cause a slight amount of cognitive dissonance among your visitors—why did they give you a shout out on social right after meeting you?

Luckily for you, human brains decide to resolve this confusion by telling the poster that they do care about you, enough to share your brand on social media. You’ve just achieved a deeper connection with a potential future client, and they’ve used their social capital to promote you to their peers who are following along from home.

Is your booth as good as your brand?

Design can help you stand out by communicating your uniqueness and excellence. But it can also be a detriment if it doesn’t work well with other elements of your branding. Creating a successfully-branded booth is a project in and of itself, not an add-on to your exhibition plans. Make sure your team schedules in the time to consider how the different aspects of design function in a crowded trade show floor, and what subconscious signals your display is sending.