How to design a trade show that stands out!

You’re attending a trade show and now in the booth design or layout phase. Don’t take this lightly this will make or break your event.

We often we see businesses and brands that attend trade shows and walk away feeling like it was a waste of time even though they spent money on a booth that looked good. Be careful of the “build it and they will come” approach.

Most commonly booths are 10×10, you may have a corner or aisle, you may go bigger into a 10×20 or full square of 20×20.

We want to anticipate how traffic is going to flow by or through. There’s nothing worse than a booth that is set back with people sitting at a table watching people walk by…we’ve all seen it, you know what I mean.

We want your booth to be busy and people being pulled in and engaged.

After over years in marketing and creating displays to achieve marketing and sales goals I have a few key steps that will help you get the most out of your trade show booth design.

  1. Decide on your main goal focus
  2. Planning for your booth size and location
  3. Design a message for the audience
  4. Plan how you will handle your contacts

First, your goal…is it:

  • Obviously to stand out and get noticed
  • Capture leads or prospects?
  • Sell products?
  • Just build brand or product awareness?
  • Test messages and audience reaction?

Likely it’s a combination of those goals but taking a second to get clear can help especially when it comes to the design of your trade show displays.

Knowing the goal of the trade show booth will help you think about the layout in the booth: Do you need room for people to flow in, to you want an immersive experience like under a tent, do you want info on a table or products that need to be stored somewhere?

Really stopping to think about those things can help with the booth layout.

Some booths are closed as in reps behind a table with info or products and people can step up to the table. Others are completely open so people can walk into it. If you want them to walk in do you want walls on the sides so they’re inside your experience?

 

– The Kick Ass Team