Trade Show Woes
September 17th, 2006 by Chief NutIf you attend expos and tradeshows as part of your marketing strategy, are you creating an “end user experience”??? And, NO, handing out business cards with a squish ball doesn’t count. If not, you’re not optimizing your opportunity for success at the event!
At the fall VON convention, we witnessed HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS of vendors from all over the world come to Boston to pitch their wares. Just the space rental on a 10×10 booth alone was $6500 … no small price tag! At the event we saw (no exageration):
- Dozens of booths with a single person sitting in a chair waiting for people to come up to them and ask questions.
- Booth graphics with literally dozens of bulleted, acronym riddled services in 8 point font.
- Booths with no visual graphic support … just text.
- Tchotchke HELL. There were fewer than 10 booths that had something other than: pens, blinking doo dads, squishy balls or candy.
This was MILLIONS of dollars of lost opportunity. If you’re going to spend that much money on an event, plan to take FULL benefit of the audience. Folks, these are warmed up, ready to buy, prospective customers walking within feet of you. Your booth should grab them and drag them across the room - metaphorically.
Here’s a test for your next trade show. Watch people as they walk down the aisle coming towards you. They’ll glance up at the booths (avoiding eye contact with the people) and will casually walk slowly enough to “absorb” information. They’re searching … searching for services and products that interest them. As they walk by your booth, do they continue this slow scanning walk? OR, do they behave as if they’ve encountered something different? …. something worthy of a few seconds more. Better yet, do they actually stop at your booth after they’ve passed others by? Is your booth always filled with people? If not, you need to work on your “end user experience.”
