How to Drive More Leads to Your Trade Show Booth

When you get a booth at a trade show, you’re paying for the space, the employees running the booth, the promotional materials and travel costs. Booths at trade shows aren’t cheap, so you want to ensure that you’re making the most of your time there.

You’ll want to ensure that you’re doing everything possible to generate leads from new clients, customers and business partners. Trade shows are an excellent opportunity to build valuable relationships, but you must do it right. Below, we’ll provide you with tips to generate leads at trade shows and how you can drive traffic to your trade show booth.

5 Ways to Drive More Traffic to Your Trade Show Booth

Driving traffic to your booth is essential to help draw in new customers for your business. People can use what they learn at your booth to reach out and purchase your product or service once they get home. Use the trade show booth ideas to attract visitors.

1. Utilize Social Media

While your competitors are focused on setting up their booths or planning their schedules, why not start engaging with conference attendees ahead of time? Providing an introduction before the event can be extremely powerful and allows you to engage your prospects without the added competition.

One of the best ways you can engage your audience before the event happens is by utilizing social media to promote your presence at the event. You can include who will show up at the booth and the dates and times you’ll be there. You can also provide information about what you will showcase at your booth. Consider creating a booth where visitors can take pictures and post to social media using your hashtag.

For clients or individuals who don’t use social media, you can send emails or postcards and put up flyers around town showing you’ll be at the event. This is an excellent method to ensure you can reach a broad audience that will help you generate leads.

trade show incentives

2. Offer Incentives

Giving away promotional items is a great way to drive traffic to your booth and leave a lasting reminder to visitors about your business. You can hand out promotional items to people you pass by or with whom you engage in conversation. You have plenty of options for easy-to-hand-out promotional items, including tote bags, cups, stress balls, hand fans and more.

You can also hand out items relevant to the event or season. For example, if you’re at a conference in the health care industry, you can hand out health care supplies, such as first-aid kits, hand sanitizer holders and soap. In wintertime, you can hand out beanies or long-sleeve t-shirts to help individuals stay warm during the season. When people see your booth handing out items, they will likely come and see what you’re all about.

You can also consider supplying your booth with items people need, such as coffee, drinks or snacks. You can take the opportunity to engage guests further when they stop at your booth for something to eat or drink.

3. Have a Creative Theme

A creative theme can help draw attention to your booth as people pass by. You can use a fun or educational concept, depending on the purpose you’re trying to serve. Consider eye-catching colors, signage, phrases and building materials. You’ll also want to incorporate your brand colors or logo to make your booth easily identifiable for people who are purposefully looking for it.

If you use a creative theme to stand out against others, people will likely talk about your booth and come by to see what it is you’re offering. They’re also more likely to remember your business after the event and might search for you once they get home to purchase a product or learn more about your service.

4. Create an Immersive Experience

Actively engaging visitors who approach your booth is another excellent way to draw a crowd to your trade show booth. You can do this in multiple ways, whether it’s creating a small sitting area for guests to lounge or utilizing technology and smartphones to create an immersive experience. You can even combine the two by creating a lounging space where guests can rest and charge their phones, allowing you to chat with visitors and let them know your business.

Other ways you can create an immersive experience include:

  • Playing interactive videos so they can learn about your product or service.
  • Having guests fill out polls on tablets.
  • Going live on different social media platforms, such as Instagram or Facebook.
  • Creating a photo spot where guests can take photos in front of a background or with props.

5. Man Your Booth With Engaging Personel

One of the most significant ways to generate traffic toward your booth is staffing it with engaging personnel who can keep guests interested. Ideally, these employees should be extroverted enough to handle a large crowd and have a welcoming demeanor. These employees should also have a good knowledge of your business to communicate accurate information to the public. Remember that these individuals will act as the representation of your brand while they’re operating your booth, so you want to pick the best candidates possible.

Trade Show Swag Ideas to Attract Leads

As mentioned above, giving away swag is an excellent way to draw leads to your trade show booth. You’ll want useful items that will remind guests of your business while in use or after they take them home. Below are some ideal choices for trade show swag that are proven to work:

1. Promotional T-Shirts

While many consider them overdone, t-shirts can still work if you make them more creative than just pasting your company’s logo on the front. Include a clever saying relevant to your industry that will make people envious of those with your shirt — something that will have people asking around to find out how they can get one for themselves. This kind of memorable swag will get people talking and drive more people back to your booth.

You have many options for promotional t-shirts, with many unique styles, materials and designs to choose from. You can choose a classic cotton shirt with a large logo on the front. You can even select t-shirts with an array of colors to show that your business is fun and creative. T-shirts will help your brand stick out at a trade show, so you want to choose colors that catch the eye and designs that draw attention while communicating your brand values.

Promotional office supplies

2. Promotional Office Supplies

Office supplies are an excellent option for any occasion. All industries need office supplies for business and personal needs, making them an excellent choice for branded swag at a trade show.

You can choose from numerous options, including pens, mousepads, sticky notes, small notebooks and more. You’ll need to have many office supplies at a trade show booth to give away, so it’s best to stick with something small that’s easy to store and hand out quickly. Pens are an excellent option since they have great utility and can include your brand messaging right on the casing of the pen. Mousepads are another perfect choice for the same reason.

3. Promotional Drinkware

People need to stay hydrated, especially at a busy trade show. Promotional drinkware makes excellent tradeshow swag. You can hand out bottles to those who stop by your booth, and you can even have more premium options for valuable clients. Simple plastic bottles with your logo or business message are an excellent, budget-friendly option.

People will be more inclined to stop at your booth if they see you giving away drinkware, especially paired with water bottles, so they can quickly fill up their new gift right on the spot. Reusable drinkware is also great for the environment, boosting your brand as eco-conscious, which consumers love.

4. Professional Health Care Items

While we’re emerging from the pandemic, it’s still essential to watch out for your health. At a trade show, people are within close proximity to one another and touching multiple surfaces. You can put people’s minds at ease and draw attention to your trade booth by offering promotional health care items, such as hand sanitizer or wipes. You can even offer masks with your brand logo printed on the front.

Using health care items shows consumers that you care about their health and safety, which creates a positive image of your brand. People are more likely to engage with a business they believe cares about their health and well-being.

Promotional gadgets pinterest

5. Promotional Gadgets

Of course, you can bring the conventional pens and notepads, but offering something more functional is great. Think about what all conference attendees are going to need. In many cases, the answer is likely food, coffee and battery life for their phones and other devices.

Mobile device chargers, also known as power banks, are a practical item that can help you stay top of mind with an attendee, as they’ll likely run out of battery life around noon each day.

You can also choose other promotional gadgets, such as cellphone accessories like phone stands or styluses, to hand out to guests.

Entice trade show attendees

Entice Trade Show Attendees With ePromos

Trade shows are an excellent time to promote your brand. What better way to do so than with promotional products? ePromos offers various promotional items that you can customize to include your brand logo, message or design. You can choose from t-shirts, office supplies, technology, health and safety items, drinkware and more. We have thousands of products, and our team can help you find the perfect options to suit your needs.

Browse our trade show collection today or visit our education center to learn more about how you can excel at your next trade show.

Updated 12/7/2022

Sources:

http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/06/boosting-trade-show-booth-traffic.html

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenkrogue/2013/04/05/the-12-commandments-of-incredibly-successful-tradeshows/#2a5f03c07ffa

Additional Tradeshow Resources:

About Author

Katie Salerno Avatar

Katie S.

Reviewed By: Kaite S. - Marketing Brand Specialist

Tenacious brand warrior who is laser-focused on boosting our brand through effective social media presence and multiple resources. Principal producer of marvelous messages and email exposés. Message + Creative maestro who has an opening for a puppy co-worker with the expectation they stay clear of her pommes frites.