Does your small to medium size businesses attend trade shows, Small local entrepreneur events or large corporate conferences on a yearly basis? If you answered yes keep reading. 

Do you have a both design that is cohesive with your marketing materials and website? If you answered no, this is a good post for you. 

Creating a cohesive branded experience at a trade show or conference or smaller gathering is extremely important and often smaller businesses miss the opportunity to excel and surpass their competition, also attending the events, because they think it is too expensive. 

Recently we helped a small business called Shift Profile up their conference game and attract more visitors to their booth. Check out some of the images below of items that Inzpire helped to up-level their space and the few pointers we have for you to do the same. 

Here are a few items we suggest you make sure to include in your booth. 

Backdrop

These can be expensive depending on the size but know that quality is better than quantity and volume. The quality of your design will shine even if you just choose to have a retractable banner over an 8×8 full background that doesn’t look good. Never compromise the amount you are willing to pay for the design for the size of the item. If you can’t afford a large backdrop, retractable banners are a great way to go and Vistaprint has them at a larger size for only 172.99 or even a smaller on for 98.00. 

A backdrop is a great way to catch your viewers attention even if they are not necessarily right in front of your both. Know your audience and use verbiage that you know connects with them and have the wording higher up on the banner so that it can be seen above the heads of other attendees. Pose a question or make a bold statement. 

In the examples from Shift Profile above, we included an interactive booth design so that viewers could interact with the question posted on the banner by placing a sticker in the quadrant they choose. This brought the viewer/potential client further into the both giving the sales representative the ability to present more information about the business and answer any questions they may have. 

Brochure/Handout

Your question or bold statement on your banner will draw viewers in and then you or your sales reps and your brochures should answer any questions they may have. Make sure you include what your services are, why they should choose you and how they will benefit on your handouts. The look of your brochure should match your banner and you over all branding. They will then leave your booth with that handout so make sure it answers questions that they may have and contact information if they may need it. 

Some ways to cut costs on brochures could be to instead of doing a traditional trifold, choose a double sided 8.5×11 or smaller size but in a thicker stock and some gloss so it doesn’t look like you just printed them at the office. How you handle your marketing materials and the quality you chose to print in will factor into a viewers opinion on the quality of your services if not with you face to face. 

To find a cheaper way to print these items I like to use online printers like Primoprint.com or gotprint.com. Not sure how many to get printed? Take a look at how many attendees will be at the conference you are showcasing at. You never want to run out and not have something to hand a potential client. 

Small Giveaway

It is always a good idea to give an attendee something that they can remember you by. The normal items you see at a lot of tables are pens, water bottles, candy etc. Think outside of the box. In the example above. Shift Profile handed out mints with their logo on the tin. This was different then most booths and was a subtle reminder that you should always have a mint before you interview because no one likes bad breath. 🙂

So the moral of the story is to make sure everything looks cohesive, speaks the same message about your business and connects with your website where viewers will most likely go when looking for more information. 

Need help creating items or coming up with what you should be choosing to purchase for your next conference? We would love to help! Email us at info@inzpirecreative.com