How to Choose the Right Trade Show for Your Business

Trade Show Business
Reading Time: 4 minutes

How to Choose the Right Trade Show for Your Business

A lot of companies do not incorporate trade shows in their marketing strategy and prefer to rely solely on digital marketing to reach their target audience. The effectiveness of face-to-face interactions can never be denied, and this makes trade show exhibits to be a worthwhile investment. Around 74% of attendees say that engaging with the brand during event marketing makes them more likely to purchase the product that is being promoted.

While trade show participation is surely going to bring ROI, choosing the right trade show to exhibit your brand is another game. Making apt decisions and representing your company in the best possible way is going to bring a lot of difference to your success. By being at the most suitable exhibition and in front of the target audience, you’ll be able to add value to your company and generate leads and revenue.

Here are a few considerations which should be kept in mind before presenting yourself in a tradeshow:

Understand Your Objectives

Your trade show success is highly dependent on the objectives you’ve set. Before you select the different trade shows you want to participate in, it is essential to define your strategy and objectives. There’s no point of making the effort if you and your team don’t know why you’re exhibiting and what are your expectations from the show?

  • Are we building awareness for our brand?
  • Is it for the promotion of our new product or service?
  • Do we need to strengthen our relationship with our customers?

Reflect on your reasons for wanting to exhibit at a particular trade show before you spend a huge sum of money on it. Always remember that your objectives must be unique to your brand and should be able to contribute to its well-being in one way or the other. A professional trade show exhibit design company can help in aligning your objectives according to your requirements.

Develop a Budget

Trade show exhibitions are never a cheap affair, but there is no denying that they bring numerous benefits to your business. As you choose the different exhibits where you want to display yourself, it is important to consider your budget and affordability beforehand. Planning the exhibiting budget carefully is essential before you book your trade show space.

Get an aggregate estimate of the total expenditure at a trade show, including the space rent, registration fee, display costs, giveaways, and other marketing expenses. You must also be aware of cost-friendly options like which one will help you in saving more money in choosing between rent vs buy trade show booths.

Add up all the likely expenditures that will contribute to the total event marketing budget and this will include travel and accommodation as well. This is only possible if you have set goals during trade show planning. Stay ahead in the game and avoid surprises by keeping all the factors into consideration during initial planning.

Research All Your Options

Once you know about your objectives and how much money you can spend to be a part of the trade show, it is time to start through the trade show research process. Categorize the different trade shows as per their cost, industry, date, location, and size. As you make a decision, you must know the answers to the following questions:

  • Can we afford this trade show?
  • Is it established among all the stakeholders?
  • Who attends it?
  • What industry does it target?
  • How is the marketing of this trade show done?

According to marketing experts, a corporation should always consider both large and small-scale trade shows as each of them contribute to the company objectives in a different way. Before you decide to participate in a certain show, you have to be aware of its contribution towards your objectives to decide whether it is worth attending or not.

Look into the Event History

After you’ve prepared a list of the potential trade shows, you can narrow it down by gaining more information about each event. Is the show relatively new or has it been around for years? If you’ve set your eyes on a certain trade show, gather as much information as possible to evaluate its potential.

Dig into the show statistics, reviews, and demographics of the previous shows, and verify the information provided by show management from other sources. You may also speak to past attendees if you get a chance and ask about their show experience. What was their company able to gain by participating in this show?

It is a lot more affordable to send one person to a show to gather as much information as possible as compared to participating without firsthand knowledge and not being aware of the pros and cons. You will get answers to all your queries and that will contribute to make a worthwhile decision.

Consider Your Target Audience

A trade show can be the largest in magnitude and has thousands of attendees, but it doesn’t mean anything if the attendees or your booth traffic don’t align with your target audience. Your consumer dynamic is your key to success! It is essential to figure out who you’re targeting before you decide to attend a certain trade show.

Never assume that your target audience will always be present at big industry events; some of your important buyers may only attend small-scale exhibits. To do research regarding this, you can ask your existing customers about the trade show events that they attend. Your main purpose is to get maximum attention and increase your ROI.

Some trade shows are specific to the general public whereas others are attended by wholesale distributors, retail buyers, and industry influencers. You have to determine the kind of audience you would like to target to ensure maximum trade show engagement.

Conclusion

Take enough time to make your decision as a lot of money and the reputation of your company are at stake. A professional trade show exhibit company will help in having a good marketing plan and running it smoothly. Just follow a calculated strategy and you will get good rewards for your efforts.


This content is a joint venture between our publication and our partner. We do not endorse any product or service in the article.

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