Trade shows are an excellent way to showcase your business and services. But standing out on the trade show floor to attract visitors to your booth isn’t easy in a sea of creatively designed trade show booths. Hiring the right company to collaborate with you on a custom display helps ensure you won’t be the overlooked booth in the corner. However, finding the right one to help you convey your company’s message and services can be difficult. You’ve worked hard to create the image you present to clients. That means your exhibit can’t just stand out, it has to uphold and enhance that carefully managed reputation. Here are a few tips to help you choose the best company to help you with your trade show booth design.

1. Research the Company’s Experience

You’re spending your company’s hard-earned money to create a specific impact and generate sales and leads. You aren’t looking for a generic trade show booth design, you’re looking for a company that can bring your brand to life. To ensure you pair up with the right exhibit agency:

• Browse the company’s portfolio. Are their previous displays original and creative? Do they convey the feeling you’re looking for?
• Imagine yourself as your target client. If you were walking by the booths they’ve created in the past, would you want to stop and check out the services offered there?
• Do their exhibits present an air of quality and workmanship, or do they seem a little flimsy and lack substance?

Any company can pitch you an idea. You want to find one that has the experience to take it from paper to the trade show floor. Search out a company that has a proven track record of originality and excellence in their field.

2. Check Their References

A company’s previous clients help you understand the experience you can expect should you choose to employ their services to design your trade show booth.

This is also a good time to see if they’ve won any awards or professional recognition in their field for their work. A company that’s garnered accolades within their professional community in addition to happy clients demonstrates excellence at their craft.

Reach out and ask for references from previous clients. One of the biggest indicators of genuine customer satisfaction is repeat business. Good reviews and references are great, but if a client is returning repeatedly for new designs it’s an undeniable marker of customer satisfaction.

Ask questions of references to help you understand what to expect such as:

• Were they attentive to your ideas and needs through the process?
• Did you have any issues, and were they handled professionally?
• Did they exceed your expectations?
• Did they suggest innovative ideas for your trade show booth design?

3. Understand What’s Included in Your Display Design

Some booth design companies just offer more for your money. It’s expected that the company should collaborate with you on the design and fabricate a custom trade show booth accordingly, but full-service exhibit companies offer extra services that set them apart.

Look for additional value like on-site exhibit or event managing services, booth installation and dismantling, and in-house graphic design. Find a full-service exhibit agency capable of managing every aspect of your booth’s success, from concept to the trade show floor, that will help you execute your vision beyond simply building your exhibit.

Also consider employing a company that doesn’t just work locally. A company that is able to work all over the country, or even across the globe, is an asset. As your brand and reach grows, they’ll be qualified to continue servicing your needs wherever your trade show marketing might go.

4. Ensure Your Budget and Schedule are Feasible

Every project has deadlines and expected budgets to meet. While you can garner information from references as to the company’s success complying with client timelines and financial parameters, make sure to communicate your own set of expectations. This will ensure they have the time and resources to complete your specific job on schedule and within budget.

Start a conversation with the companies you’re considering about their availability and your needs. An excellent reputation for service and trade show booth design only goes so far if your project doesn’t arrive on time or exceeds your allotted budget.

The Best Company for Your Trade Show Booth Design

When it comes to marketing, there is no one size fits all approach. While the online sector of marketing is important, one-on-one customer interfacing at trade shows remains a vital and necessary tool to finding and capturing new clientele.

You need to have a well-rounded plan of attack to reach your potential clients, which is why you shouldn’t overlook the importance of trade shows. And a trade show booth design that is innovative and conveys why you are uniquely qualified to handle your clients’ needs can set you apart from your competition.

While much has been said and written about content strategy, the content you write and produce for your brand comes with a number of benefits. Content, whether posted to your company’s website or its social channels benefits your brand not only by increasing human engagement but by also attracting search engines to your content and therefore your brand.

As you work to increase overall engagement with your brand, specifically leading up to a trade show event – engaging your customers and potential exhibit visitors before, during and after the event through your content strategy cannot be ignored.

Pre-Show Content Strategy

In the months and weeks leading up to your tradeshow event, writing articles for your website and making posts to social media including Facebook and Twitter help to announce that you will be exhibiting. Event trade show organizers certainly will be advertising their event and exhibitors however it’s important to take things into your own hands and help promote your attendance at the show.

Be sure to use event hashtags (#) and keywords related to the show in your blog and social posts. This helps both those interested in the show and search engines find your content and know that you are posting directly about the event.

As the show date gets closer, more frequent posts on social channels can serve as reminders to your audience not to miss your exhibit. Be sure to include your booth number, any special times, events or demos that might take place during the show.

You might be surprised to find that your social posts get a few extra appointments booked! That is the point after all.

Create Content While You’re at the Trade Show Event

Once the big day finally comes around and your team is on the show floor, it’s certainly not the time to ignore your content strategy and social channels. Making frequent posts from the show – whether during keynote speeches, round tables or learning sessions, helps to engage your customers and others that might not be able to make the show. Often a number of folks wish they could be at a show but just couldn’t attend. Many of these persons will engage socially and follow the event and posts from the event from back at the office!

By reporting back to and engaging with those who couldn’t make it to the show your brand has the opportunity to claim the event as your own!

In addition to sharing textual content from the show – photos and video make great social posts to channels like Facebook,Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram. By leveraging rich media you gain another opportunity to engage visitors both at the show and at home and add an extension to your trade show exposure.

On that note, be sure to let visitors to your booth know about the content that you’re posting and let them know what social channels you participate in. To increase your social following, you might even consider giveaways or contests that include allowing your show guests to follow your Twitter account or “Like” your Facebook Fan Page.

Keep the Show Going After the Event

After the event it can be helpful to create content that gets posted to your website, blog and social channels that involves event reviews, show roundups and feedback about learning sessions. Don’t forget to contribute to your website’s blog with photos from the event and a recap of the event itself.

In addition to posting to your blog and social channels after the event, take advantage of email addresses collected during the show and be sure to include in post-event email blasts. Follow-up emails are another point of engagement that shouldn’t be ignored.

When you attend a trade show, you’ll see both new and old trends. It raises the questions: what is and isn’t working in the exhibiting world? What new trends should we expect to see this year? To find answers, we scoured the latest studies and data on the trade show industry to see what patterns emerged. Here are 10 of the most surprising trade show industry trends and statistics we found:

1. Over half of exhibitors say they have the most success reaching their target audience at smaller shows.

Turns out, bigger isn’t always better for trade shows. While one-third of exhibitors did say they see the most success at national shows in a study conducted by AIRC, 53% said they experienced the most success at regional shows. If you usually attend larger shows and have trouble finding your ideal prospects, it might be worthwhile to consider smaller exhibitions.

2. The majority of leads at trade shows are still captured by old-fashioned business cards.

In a survey conducted by EXHIBITOR magazine, a majority of trade show marketers said they collect business cards to capture contact info at trade shows. This is surprising considering the growth of show’s electronic lead machines and smart device apps. Interestingly, the number one aspect exhibitors said they need to improve for lead management is “lead capture.” If your system isn’t working for you, try implementing lead capture technology to stay organized and ahead of your competition.

3.  Your salespeople make better booth staffers than senior management.

You might assume high level executives are the best faces for your booth, but the statistics say differently. 59% of trade show marketers said salespeople were their best booth staffers. Only 29% responded with senior management. We think the stats speak for themselves. If you have your c-suite or other execs manning your trade show exhibit, make sure to support them with sales staff, too.

4. Trade show leads actually cost less than traditional leads to convert.

When weighing the cost vs. benefits of trade show exhibiting, consider this fact from the Center for Exhibition Industry Research. According to the CEIR, the average cost of a face-to-face meeting with a prospect at a trade show is $142. That’s far less than the $259 price tag on a meeting at a prospect’s office. Because of this, designing your trade show exhibit space to be meeting-friendly is key. Building an enclosed meeting space into your display can help your trade show sales team make the most of any trade show.

5. Pre-show emails to key clients and prospects are by far considered the most effective way to drive booth traffic.

Nearly three-fourths of trade show marketers find email to be their best pre-show marketing tool. While social media marketing is growing for pre-show promotions, with 46% of exhibitors describing it as effective, email is still the winner. When you’re doing pre-show planning, it’s important to focus on developing a strong email marketing strategy to help you increase booth attendance and stand out in your prospect’s inbox. As for social media, Facebook was marketers’ top pick for pre-show marketing.

6. Having your own expert at your booth is one of the most effective forms of promotion during the event.

It’s no shock that giveaways are still considered the best form of promotion during any trade show or exhibition. But you may be surprised to hear that the second highest answer is providing experts and educational information at your booth. That beats out contests, presentations, food and drinks and more. It makes sense, though, when you consider the fact that 92% of attendees say they attend to learn about new products. In addition to your sales team, consider having your own in-booth product expert on hand at your next trade show.

7. One-third of exhibitors say adding better graphics helped achieve better results.

Sometimes, the answer is simple. There are all different unique ways you can improve your booth design. (Here are 9 creative trade show exhibit ideas to help you attract visitors!) But it’s important to master the basics, like graphic design. In a Display Wizard exhibitor survey, around half of respondents listed an eye-catching display as the best method for attracting visitors. Re-visit the visual elements of your current display, including the images, banners, and signs, and consider if it’s time for a change. Updating your trade show exhibit’s graphics can make a huge visual impact that increases booth traffic.

8. Less than a quarter of exhibitors say they conduct detailed measures of their results.

Looking for a way to increase your competitive advantage at future trade shows? Most trade show exhibitors aren’t keeping track of what’s working for them. In our top 7 tips for increasing your ROI, we put it this way: success starts with pre-show planning. So have your team start by deciding what your main goals are for exhibiting, then use that to determine what KPIs to use and info to keep track of at the event. You’ll set yourself up with clear metrics to use later when measuring your results, and give yourself an edge on what to do for the next convention.

9. Just 6% of your competitors believe that they convert trade show leads well.

Let’s face it. You may have a trade show display for a number of reasons, but it usually comes back to sales. Between 2009 and 2014, “collecting leads” grew from 16% to 59% of exhibitor’s answers for why they use trade show marketing. But when asked, only 6% thought they converted those leads well. This trend can be your opportunity. Developing a strong lead management system and dedicated follow up plan to use pre, during, and post trade show will put you miles ahead of your competition.

10. Finally, trade show attendees make great prospects.

If you’re considering exhibiting for the first time, it can seem like a big unknown. But statistics show that trade shows really are a great place to meet prospects. According to the CEIR, 67% of all expo attendees represent a new prospect and potential customer for exhibiting customers. Better yet, Exhibit Surveys, Inc. reports that 84% of trade show attendees having buying authority. And since half of all trade show attendees are new each year, you may just find yourself counting down the days until you can return. After all, 99% of marketers said they found unique value from trade shows they did not get from other marketing mediums.