Things I Wish I Knew Before I Showed Up at my Trade Show Booth

You paid the big bill of reserving your space. Now make it worth your while!!  Don’t just show up to your next show. Bring your company to life by showing your prospects who you are!  Marketing in a trade show environment does have its share of challenges, but if you do it right, it can be SO fun!  Here are a few things I wish I had known before my first show:

• Plan ahead and organize everything.
• Order stuff on-time. 
• Master the show book. Know your dates and what you can and cannot do in your booth to avoid high costs.
• Create an overall budget for what you want to spend and stick to that budget overall.
• Conduct due diligence on preshow marketing activities.
• Perform research on the attendees and what they are looking for.
• Create targeted messages on your booth that invite in the propects. Make your booth a billboard.
• Make sure you have the right tools at the show to make it an experience for your market.
• At the show, make sure your people are approaching the prospect effectively.
• Your time matters. Make the most of it by setting up appointments with key clients or suppliers, in addition to getting new opportunities.
• Enter your leads in a database.
• Followup on the leads you get.
• Get feedback from your team on what should have been done differently.
• Plan for next year.