Are you considering participating in a trade show? Then you came to the right place. We wanted to give you an overview of how to plan a successful trade show event to take out some of the leg work for you. If you’re asking yourself ‘what is a trade show event?’ you also came to the right place. A trade show event is an exhibition where businesses in a specific industry promote their products and services to help boost interest, confidence and loyalty amongst potential customers. With that being said, let’s dive into how to plan a successful one.

What makes a trade show successful?

A successful trade show is when you have a more positive perception of your brand image amongst attendees than when you began. Most people attending these trade shows already plan on buying a product or service, and in most cases, go with an intent to do business in some way, shape or form. When you can interact with potential customers who walk away with a more positive perception of your company, brand, product or service, you know your event was a success. 

What are some essential steps for planning a successful trade show event?

1. Identify Your Goals

Before you begin planning your event, you will want to lay out goals and objectives to have an understanding of what you want to accomplish. If you don’t have any measurable goals in place, you will have nothing to track against to see if your trade show event was successful. Ask yourself questions like why are we attending? Will our target market attend this trade show? Is what we are offering worthwhile? What is our competitive advantage? Along with these types of questions, you will also want to set numerical objectives as well. Do you want to speak with X number of people? Do you want to set up X number of follow-up meetings? Do you want to hand out X number of pamphlets? These goals will help you measure your success.

2. Create A Plan

Once you have established your goals and objectives, you will want to start laying out a plan for the event. What is going to be your main theme and message, and what do you want people to take away from your brand? Once you have established this, you will want to make sure everyone on your team is well-informed so that the same story is being told to every person. You can then delegate tasks in a marketing brief so that everyone understands their roles in the bigger picture of things. You’ll want to make sure you spend time planning out the look and feel of your booth, so it stands out and grabs people’s attention. You will want to ensure your messaging is front and center with handouts and giveaways that align with your key message and goals.

3. Strategize Your Promotion

When it comes to the promotion of the event, don’t rely on the trade show event venues to do the promoting for you. Whether you’re at a luxury event venue or a massive event hall, you will want to act as if this is your own event you’re hosting. Even with the best event management company by your side, no one knows your branding and company like you do. You will want to tap into all of your channels like social media, blogs, email and physical handouts in order to be consistent and get the word out. You can also make the marketing materials more enticing by having a deal at the trade show itself. This will garner more attention and is likely to increase attendance at your event.

4. Be Proactive

To ensure your trade show event is as successful as possible, you need to be proactive during the event. Now that you have identified your goals and promoted the heck out of your event, you want to make sure all your efforts don’t fall flat by standing back and letting people come to you. This is the time for you to be proactive. Make sure you’re networking and presenting yourself well. Start conversations with people and have genuine small talk before mentioning your product or services. Make sure you’re dressed professionally and appear approachable by smiling and standing up front and center. Trade shows are a great opportunity to demonstrate your product as well or have a presentation ready to go to dive in deeper to the services you offer.  Being proactive will bring results. 

4. Measure Results

Finally, you will want to make sure you measure your success. There is no point in participating in a trade show if you don’t know whether the event was worth your time, money and energy. Have a follow up form of contact for those you spoke to during the trade show, and track your results in terms of leads that turned into actual business for you.

When it comes to trade shows and different event spaces in Los Angeles, we are well-versed in this industry. We hope these tips help you plan for your next event and we at Piovra Group are always here to help during any phase of planning.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Do you think you have to do trade shows to be successful?

A: Trade shows are not the only avenue to success, however, we look at it as a catalyst to help any success you’re already seeing. It puts you front and center at an event where you will meet your target audience and it’s hard to ignore a potential opportunity like that.

Q: What if I don’t know the goals I want to set?

A: This is where talking to your internal team can help immensely. What are you trying to achieve as a business or company and how can a trade show assist you in doing so? A venue consultant can always help hone in on goals and objectives as well.

Q: How can I make my messaging stand out?

A: We recommend using bright signage and colors that match your logo and company. Coming up with a catchy tagline or phrase for signage can also help capture an audience. This is great to discuss with your internal marketing team to make sure the messaging matches your goals and objectives.