Brainstorming ideas for trade show booth designs

Trade shows are an excellent way to highlight your company’s goods or services. It allows you to market your brand to hundreds or thousands of potential customers in a relatively short time frame. The one thing to remember about trade shows is that you have one chance to shine and one opportunity to turn each visitor to your booth into a customer. The first thing that trade show attendees are going to notice is your booth design. You literally have about five seconds to grab their attention or watch them walk away. Here is a look at the top ten things to remember when brainstorming trade show booth designs.

1. Objective
Before you even sit down to discuss your booth design, you and your team must first develop a professional objective for the trade show. Is your goal to gather customer contact information, increase the recognition of your brand, or get people talking about your company, or is making sales your main goal? This is important information to know and is essential to aid in the development of your booth design.

2. Audience
You must consider the audience that will be attending the trade show. This may be consistent for each trade show you attend or may change frequently. For example, if you work for a construction business, your audience may always be people looking to build a new structure or repair an existing structure. However, if you are a caterer, you may attend trade shows geared toward brides and other trade shows geared toward vendors. Knowing the audience will help you properly prepare for each event.

3. Know Your Space
You should have a complete understanding of the space that is allotted for your booth. You need to know booth dimensions, where your booth is located in the trade show hall, if you have access to electric outlets, if there is a Wi-FI connection, and how close you are to the exit or entrance. Contact the trade show organizers and find out as much information as you can about the event and your specific space. The last thing you want to do is plan a big PowerPoint display only to find out later that you do not have access to a power outlet.

4. Your Brand Must be Center Stage
Above all else, your booth must boldly display your company name and brand. Customers cannot walk away from your booth not knowing who you are and what goods and services you provide. Your display must clearly show a representation of who you are as a company. Your company name and logo should be displayed prominently and consistently throughout the design.

5. Informative Over Creative
Do not let the creativity of the team take away from the objective of the trade show display. Some companies put so much time into making their display the largest, brightest, and loudest at the trade show that they fail miserably at conveying their overall message to customers. It is possible to be seen and not be understood. You need a display that grabs attention and informs attendees at the same time.

6. Staff Integration
Even the best designed booth cannot acquire new customers without the staff to operate the booth. You must find a way to integrate your staff into the booth design. Otherwise, it may make it difficult or even impossible for the staff to sell your goods and services to the attendees. Consider where the staff will stand, how they will interact with the visitors to the booth and how you can ensure the traffic around the booth will keep moving. Booth attire is also an important consideration.

7. Complex Is Not Always Best
Try to avoid the desire to come up with a very complex design. Sometimes a simpler design can be just as attention-grabbing as a complex one. If, however, you choose to make a design with many complex parts, be certain your staff has enough time to put the display together before the trade show starts. Otherwise, you will miss many of the first show attendees and can look unprofessional if you’re still assembling your booth.

8. Security
Security is always an issue at trade shows, so make it part of your plan from the beginning. Determine how you are going to gather and store client contact data and sales information. If you are going to be selling items at the trade show, you must also think about secure storage for materials and supplies.

9. Customer’s Point-of-View
Always try to perceive how the customer will react to your design. Keep in mind that the main objective of the customer is to purchase a product or service that is going to improve their life by providing something they need or making a task easier to complete. Find a way to work this into the booth design. You want them to walk away feeling like they not only want, but also need, your products or services.

10. Set A Budget
You must set a budget for your trade show booth design right from the beginning. Carefully monitor the budget as your design team creates a booth design. How much to spend on the booth is a business decision that is different for each company. Your goal should be to receive the greatest possible return on investment, so keep this in mind when determining a budget. It’s also crucial to stick to your budget. Extra costs can easily creep into the process, so be vigilant at keeping costs where they need to be.

Keeping these guidelines in mind when brainstorming your trade show design will help you create a comprehensive and noticeable booth display. A little preparation now will go a long ways to a successful trade show event later.