Trade shows are the perfect place to promote your company. With so much competition, you’ll need to put some effort into your trade show displays if you want to stand out. 

This article lists some great trade show ideas that are sure to drive traffic to your table. 

1. Make Your Table Stand Out

One of the most important things at a trade show is to make sure your company stands apart from the crowd. The primary way to accomplish this is to focus on how you present your table. 

At trade shows, people have to make quick decisions as to whether or not to stop at a table. Most people at these kinds of shows are on a limited schedule, and they don’t have time to check out everything.

How you should make your table stand out depends on the industry. At many trade shows for businesses, it might be enough to simply bring your own tablecloth. For other shows, you may want to work with a professional company like Rockway Exhibits.

2. Have an Assistant

While it’s certainly possible to operate a trade booth with just one person, it’s not really recommended. Ideally, you’ll have at least two people at your booth, so you’ll have a chance to step away without leaving the booth abandoned. 

With two people, you make sure you won’t miss any potential visitors. Not only will you have someone to take over when you take bathroom breaks or go for food, but you’ll also have extra staffing for when your booth gets busy. 

3. Give Free Stuff

At trade shows, nothing gets people’s attention quite like the promise of free stuff. If you want a guaranteed way to get people to check out your booth, you can’t go wrong by giving things away for free. 

You might consider adapting the things you give away to suit the industry. For example, for an office trade show, you might consider giving away free pens with your company logo and contact information on them. 

4. Display Your Company Logo

Trade show displays are the perfect time to display your company logo and get the word out about your company. A good logo will stick in prospective clients’ minds and will make your company instantly recognizable. 

If you don’t have a good logo, it’s worth taking the time before a trade show to work with a graphic designer. While it might seem simple, making a good logo is actually quite difficult. 

When displaying your logo, it’s important not to go overboard. Plastering your logo over everything is bound to look tacky and unprofessional. 

5. Arrange Trade Show Displays Properly

While this one might seem obvious, you would be surprised at the number of people who get the layout of their tables wrong. When arranging your table, make sure you display the larger items in the front and the smaller items in the back. 

Consider figuring out how you’re going to arrange the table before getting to the convention center. You don’t want to be a table that’s seen still putting things together when the show floor opens.

6. Use Videos or Slideshows

Using videos or slideshows is a great way to inform people about your company. They’re especially useful if you want to operate a booth with a small number of people. A video can give visitors basic information about your company. 

This frees up people to take only the more advanced questions. Consider mounting a few flat-screen TVs to your display and have them play a short video on loop. 

If you don’t have the necessary equipment to do this, you should be able to rent everything you need for a modest fee. If you really want your company to stand out, consider working with a video production company. 

7. Social Media Promotion

You should start working on your trade show strategies long before the trade show actually begins. In the weeks and months leading up to the event, you should promote your booth extensively on social media.

Of course, you should make promotional posts from your social media accounts. You might also consider running paid adverts on sites like Facebook. 

Your aim should be to create a buzz surrounding your booth you that attendees will know about the booth in advance of the event.

Promoting things like free giveaways is a great way to make sure people don’t forget about your booth once they get to the event. 

8. Do a Prize Draw

Quite often at trade shows for businesses, people don’t fully engage with your table until they visit for a second time. Prize draws are a great way to make sure people come back again. 

You could, for example, offer raffle tickets and then do a prize draw. If the prize is good enough, this pretty much guaranteed that a good number of people will come by to check out your booth again. 

9. Give Out Food

Giving out food has to be one of the most foolproof trade show strategies out there. Attendants at these shows often struggle to find the time to eat a good meal. The food at convention centers is also often expensive. 

If you give out free food, people will certainly remember your company fondly. You could even put your company name and logo on the packaging.

Not only will this mean people will remember your company, but it will also attract new people to your table, as people will see other people with the food and want to get in on it for themselves.

Have a Good Trade Show

As you can see, there are some simple steps you can take to help make your trade show displays stand out from the crowd.

The key is to prepare ahead of time. If you’re not sure what you’re doing on the day, your table will likely be a disaster. 

If you’d like to learn more about trade shows and other business-related topics, take a look at the rest of our blog pages.