How to Design a Winning Trade Show Booth

Before you decide the “how” of your booth, it’s important to understand the “why.” Are you looking to generate leads among a well-known target audience? Or are you seeking to build brand awareness within a new market vertical? The following questions can help you determine your goals for the event.

Who is your target audience?

As with any marketing initiative, it’s important to define your audience. Will you be targeting prospective customers, industry peers or potential investors? Understanding your audience will help you refine your messaging and visual approach.

Who is your competition?

Information about your competitors’ previous approaches to trade shows can help you differentiate your booth and set achievable goals. What were their goals and objectives? What kind of messaging and visuals did they use? What do you like about their approach and, more importantly, how can you differentiate your own booth to ensure it stands out?

How will your booth align with your overall marketing strategy?

It’s important to set goals that support your business’ overall marketing strategy. Is your company focused on boosting awareness, generating leads or promoting a new product or service? Considering how the trade show fits into your overall marketing strategy can help you refine your objectives for the event.

What are your goals for the trade show?

Once you’ve identified your target audience, studied the competition and reviewed your company’s overall marketing strategy, it’s time to determine specific, measurable goals for your trade show booth. For example, you might want to gather contact information for a certain number of quality leads, or close a certain number of sales. However you define success, make sure your objectives are SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.

Once you’ve defined your goals, you’re ready to make decisions about the look, feel and functionality of your booth. The following best practices will help you to create an on-brand experience that attracts your target audience and keeps them engaged.

Stay True to Your Brand.

While your objectives may be unique to the trade show in question, your messaging and visuals should align with your branding guidelines. Make sure every aspect of the experience, from physical signage to virtual data-gathering interfaces, reinforces your brand identity while delivering a message that feels specific and relevant to the event at hand.

Keep the content simple.

A tradeshow booth is more often than not meant to be a backdrop for what’s happening inside your booth. With this in mind, it’s important to keep content minimal, embracing large catchy headlines and keeping your company’s logo is front and center. Highlighting a few key points or differentiators is also good if you want to give booth visitors a quick snapshot of what you offer. More than likely, chairs, tables and people will be standing in front of your booth graphics, so small wording or small details will get lost or not seen.

Highlight Key Visual Elements.

As with content, you’ll want to select images carefully and use them smartly. Make sure you’re drawing attention to the specific products and services that reiterate what your company offers. Strategically placed lighting or illumination can further help to guide visitors’ eyes, while also adding to the “vibe” of your booth. When selecting lighting, consider how you want guests to feel – relaxed, energized, solemn, powerful? Once you know how you want booth visitors to feel, you can select visuals and design a lighting scheme that achieves the effect.

Embrace the Power of Play.

It’s not enough to drive traffic to your booth. To achieve measurable results, you have to delight, engage and inspire attendees to take action, whether that means providing their email addresses or making a purchase. Interactive activities, such as live product demonstrations, touch screen displays, games and trivia, photo booths and even virtual reality simulators encourage guests to linger and explore — giving you the opportunity to make one-on-one connections.

Don’t Sleep on the Swag.

Who doesn’t love a free tote bag, t-shirt or travel mug? Treating your attendees to useful, high-quality branded items is well worth the investment. They not only drive traffic to your booth, but also increase the likelihood that visitors will remember your company fondly. Whatever you choose, make sure the items clearly reflect your brand and connect to your product or service. If you’re a fuel carrier with a fleet of delivery trucks, for example, you might offer branded keychains that remind prospects of your professional team of truck drivers.

Designing a trade show booth can be overwhelming, but by keeping these best practices in mind, you’ll be well on your way to a successful event. Better yet — let Design At Work do the heavy lifting! We can help you plan, design and execute a booth that attracts visitors and generates leads. Let’s talk about your next trade show.