If you’re familiar with attending trade shows, you know it can be a challenge to attract customers to your exhibit and gain more traffic over your competitors. Some of the biggest factors that affect your booth’s success come from the design period. If you’re looking for tips to help you have a more successful event, learn some of the dos and don’ts of trade show booth displays. These tips will help you better navigate the planning and design process to promote an eye-catching and engaging trade show display.
Do: Set Your Budget and Goals
The first thing to do before starting your trade show display design is to establish a plan. The planning process involves factors such as setting your budget and determining your goals for the event. For example, your main objective might be to increase your brand awareness, gather new leads, or to network with potential partners. Establishing your goals early on is critical to the success of your event because they can affect how you design your booth. For example, if you want to increase your brand awareness, it’s crucial to feature your logo, slogans, and color scheme prominently in your booth design and marketing materials. If one of your main goals is to partner with other businesses, you should prioritize a clean, professional design for your booth that will attract other vendors.
Do: Understand Your Target Audience
Another factor that affects your booth design is your target audience. Before signing up for an event, investigate who it attracts—what audience of attendees, which vendors will be there, and so on. This helps you find common audiences between your business’s targets and the attendees at the event. Once you know your shared audience, you can tailor your marketing strategy and booth design to better reflect this group. With this insight, your marketing will be more accurate to the event and your audience, resulting in more booth interest and traffic.
Do: Make Your Booth Stand Out
Another thing to consider before you start designing your trade show display is how to make it stand out on the show floor. You don’t want your exhibit to blend in with the hundreds of other vendors around you, so creating a booth that stands out gives you an advantage. Consider using unique display materials, such as LED video walls and digital displays instead of traditional posters and sign boards. Additionally, choosing your typography wisely helps your booth stand out. For example, use clear, large fonts that are easy to read from long distances. Make sure your marketing materials have plenty of contrast so that your overall message doesn’t get lost.
Do: Use Interactive and Engaging Marketing
The types of marketing you practice at your trade show booth can also influence your event’s success. For example, if you simply pitch your products to each customer that passes by, the surrounding attendees and your own team will tire of hearing the same pitch. Instead, use interactive marketing to keep your customers engaged. For example, you could bring materials to practice product demonstrations and hold raffles for free products and gifts. You should also consider bringing giveaway items with your branding to promote brand awareness. These types of marketing examples are much more engaging and are more effective at attracting attention.
Do: Work With a Professional Design Team
Whether you want to design your own custom booth or rent a display, working with a professional team will match you with the best exhibit for your business. Professional designers such as our team at West Coast Exhibit understand the ins and outs of booth design and how each element can help promote your business at an event. Having experienced booth designers and advisors can help you create a more effective layout for your exhibit and ensure you get the most out of your investment.
Don’t: Rely on Static Displays
As we touched on before, avoid overly traditional marketing elements in your exhibit design. Stationary posters, signs, and displays won’t be as effective at capturing customers’ attention as interactive signage and displays. For example, using LED screens and video monitors to project videos of your products or services in action are superior ways to show off your business. Digital displays keep things moving without getting stale or boring to look at, unlike a static display. Video displays, LED screens, and touchscreen tablets are all splendid examples of engaging technology that will keep customers interested.
Don’t: Overcrowd Your Booth or Marketing
While you don’t want your trade show booth to be bland and empty, you don’t want to overcrowd the space either. If your trade show booth has too many interactive elements and places for customers to sit and gather, it could create blockages and prevent traffic flow. Keep things moving by spending time with each customer but knowing when to cut interactions off.
Another way you could overcrowd your booth is through its marketing materials. Keep your messages short and direct without being overly wordy. If you include too much text or overcomplicate your marketing designs, your message could get lost and become less impactful and memorable to customers.
Don’t: Wait Until the Last Minute
Trade show booth design is a complex process that takes time and planning, especially if you’re interested in a custom booth. The design, material acquisition, and shipping processes can take months to complete, so never wait until the last minute to start planning your trade show booth.
However, if you’re working with less time, consider a conference booth rental option. Your exhibit layout and materials may not be fully customizable to fit your business, but with the right company, you can still create an exhibit that stands out. This is where West Coast Exhibit comes in. We offer both standard designs and custom rentals for trade show exhibits. Browse our services today to learn more about our rental options.
Now that you know the dos and don’ts of trade show booth displays, you have all the tips you need to start planning an effective exhibit. And if you’re looking for ways to jumpstart your planning and design process, contact our team at West Coast Exhibit today. We can help you choose the right standard materials or walk you through the custom booth creation process. If you want to take your booth design to the next level of effectiveness, trust these tips and our expert team at West Coast Exhibit.
