The business of attracting traffic to the stand begins way before the show takes place. Your main concern in the weeks and months leading up to the show is getting the message out, publicising your attendance and driving interest.

It helps to have a theme for the show, it galvanises your efforts and helps to concentrate your focus. Is there a new product or marketing initiative that you can base your outbound marketing communications around? A theme will also lend some consistency to your marketing messages and to your attendance at the show. If you are promoting a green message for example, that lends itself to a number of different creative possibilities and gives you a forceful and consistent message to focus on.

But once you’ve arrived there are many things you can do to build interest and and in our time in the business we’ve seen a wide variety of techniques;

Prize draws: A well worn tactic but it’s surprising how many business cards you can collect simply by offering a prize draw for the latest gadget. There’s no need to spend a fortune, Ipods and cameras work well enough and are a fair guarantee of a bucketload of business cards.

Giveaways: Another common strategy is having some promotional items on display. The first thing to remember is to monitor these carefully. They can all disappear very quickly if they’re not handed out strategically and whether you are offering mints or umbrellas follow the golden rule, no business card, no freebie. The second thing to remember is to provide something that carries your name throughout the show, pens and sweets are cheap and popular but small and easily hidden. Why not try something eye catching – yo-yos? Paper aeroplanes? Balloons? Labelled snacks? All of these will help spread the word, carrying your branding throughout the show

Stand activities: You might be fortunate enough to have a product you can demonstrate, in which case – do it. We see a surprising number of exhibitors with eye-catching, easily demonstrated products who have static displays. If you don’t have a product that lends itself well to a demo, then think about a visual display, a rolling powerpoint is a good, low-cost place to begin.

Seminars: If you have the space or a facility to host a guest speaker it’s a great way to get properly interested, qualified prospects to your trade show booth. Make sure the message is effectively marketed before the show (more on this later) and that the subject matter is appealing and the rest should take care of itself.

There are many ways in which you can attract people to your stand and success at a trade event is due to careful planning and preparation. This begins months before you arrive at the exhibition hall and continues for months after you leave. A successful trade event does not happen in a single week in February, it’s the result of months of preparation before the show and months of follow up afterwards.

Author Bio: Redmill Marketing Associates is a team of experienced marketing professionals offering Outsourced Marketing Services to companies in the telecoms and technology sectors. Redmill can help with all aspects of marketing, from strategic marketing services. to the design and creation of effective collateral.

Category: Business Management
Keywords: marketing,outsourced marketing,tradeshows