Whether you’re a trade show expert or a novice, preparing for an exhibition or trade show can be quite challenging especially when your success is dependent on how prepared you and everyone else involved is.

You can know your target audience, have the ideal strategy and key messaging and still get it wrong if you aren’t fully prepared.

Understanding and accepting the fact that the majority of your work will take place months, and sometimes even years before the actual event is the first step in what could be a great way to achieve your goals and ROI.

Let's face it – trade shows are nerve-wracking! They can be extremely stressful, dominate your waking hours and be the source of every Event Manager’s nightmare. But, (a big but) on the flip side they can be immensely fun when everything is working the way they should, and even more rewarding once it’s over. It’s the perfect opportunity for businesses to engage with customers as well as learn ways in which they can improve.

Trusting that you’re working with people who know exactly what’s required, when it is and your vision is perhaps even more important, which is why quite a few businesses choose to work with professional exhibition companies, but for those who want to go it alone or even want to know some of what goes into creating a first-class tradeshow then look no further than below. We’ve put together a shortlist of things to consider when looking to elevate your event using digital solutions.

Let the list begin…

1. Refrain from breaking the bank
2. What are you looking for?
3. Learning from the past
4. Knowing your audience before you have to stand in front of them
5. Go back to the 7 P's of marketing, namely place
6. There's no engagement without communication
7. The aim is to be overprepared
8. Performance reviews
9. Live shows

Refrain from breaking the bank

Budgeting is a far more demanding process than most people realise, it’s not about picking any old number out the air and thinking “Yes! That seems about right”. No, there’s research and scoping involved before you can place a number on a spreadsheet document, but even before that, you have to have some sort of idea of what you want to achieve. Adding a digital element to your strategy can be unnecessarily expensive if you’re not careful, so research is advised if you want to save yourself heartache later on down the road.

Tip: Put together a detailed, itemised budget so you can see exactly where each penny is being spent, then assume you’ll spend at least three times the cost of your exhibit space. It’s also wise to allow wiggle room for any of those unexpected hurdles.

Budgeting like this ensures control is kept over how much is spent and that you're prepared (as much as can be) for every aspect before work has begun.

What are you looking for?

Is your ultimate goal to generate leads, sell, increase brand awareness or introduce a new product into the market? If you don't know what it is that you want, it's almost impossible to achieve anythingworthwhile and this can confuse your audience.

Tip: Begin by having key conversations with individuals within your organisation to determine any overarching objectives, then start building out your marketing and event objectives to feed into those. Remember every action after this should all lead to these objectives and your success will be judged by how well you did at achieving them. If you plan on having digital screens it’s important to map out each stage of the audience journey for a seamless process, think about what the call to actions should be and what are the end goals.

Learning from the past

Be very clear about how you will calculate your show ROI. This will avoid any confusion at a later point when more people from different departments are involved. Although you might want to make your company come across as innovative or part of the here and now, sometimes the only way for you to do this is with severe reflection.

Tip: If you’ve got experience putting together trade shows or have recently attended one, why not try picking out things you liked or disliked, or even things that went well and not so well then use them to form the basis of an improvement plan. Alternatively, speaking with others can be a great source of useful primary research.

It’s better to learn from your own mistakes and even better to learn from someone else’s.

Knowing your audience before you have to stand in front of them

It’s a fact that trade shows attract varying types of people and everyone is there for different reasons, so it is never wise to assume that everyone’s motivation or ‘pain points’ are the same and require a one size fits all solution. If you do, you’ve failed before you’ve even begun.

Traditionally at a trade show you will usually come across executives, purchasing managers, marketeers, founders, freelancers, vendors and more from a range of industries, which means identifying your target audience is not only important to ensure you’re messaging is built with the right people in mind, but your sales team also know what a great prospect looks like.

Tip: Create an ideal customer profile for all involved to ensure everyone’s singing from the same hymn book. You might also be able to get attendee demographic information from organisers upon request. This also makes for an easier time when looking at what digital solutions you believe will be more useful, why and how you can utilise them.

Go back to the 7 P's of marketing, namely place

With more than 400 other businesses on average usually exhibiting at tradeshows, standing out can be quite difficult which is why where you decide to set up your booth can be the deciding factor between tons of traffic and no traffic.

At the right place, you will have an advantage over your competitors, but in the wrong place, you're at risk of looking like everyone else, or worse – boring and uninviting.

In addition to your booth, where you place your digital screens determines how they are received, believe it or not, a screen with too much light exposure will not have the same result as a screen ideally placed in a way where the eyes naturally are drawn to the content.

Things to ask yourself before you do anything:

• Do you want to be the first thing your visitors see or the last after they’re done seeing what others have on offer? Either way where’s the best location for your screens?
• Is there a hot pocket area that you could do with being close to? Perhaps somewhere close to a big player who’s always guaranteed to draw in the crowd. If yes have you looked at your content that plays to your environment?
• Are there other exhibitors who have products/services that could complement your own? If yes it might make sense to keep close to them and strategically place your digital signage.

Tip: Do research in advance for an idea of high traffic areas, booth sizes and digital solutions that are fit for your needs, then put into action as early as possible giving yourself enough time to craft content that plays on your environment and USPs.

There's no engagement without communication

It's difficult to stand out and be remembered without graphics, marketing collateral or an experience (good). Knowing that your audience is relying on you to provide compelling reasons to visit your stand or spend time interacting with your sales team should make it easier to see the need to communicate your USPs in a way that is beneficial to them. How do you do this?

• Put plenty of thought into your booth graphics, then work in partnership with a vendor who understands your vision and can be trusted to bring it to life.
• Design, prepare and print your sales and marketing collateral. Everyone loves a freebie that’s either of use or connects with them, so why not give your sales team an ice breaker?
• Have you thought about adding a digital element to your booth? Quite a few companies have yielded great results from incorporating gamification into their event marketing strategy (see our ‘Choosing Between Cardboard and Digital Signage’ blog about this). Statistics also suggest that providing interactive experiences at trade shows can be a great way to connect with visitors.

The aim is to be overprepared

What most people who don’t organise events don’t understand is that setting up is more than simply showing up and turning on all equipment. Setting up can actually begin days before the show and determine your stress levels on the day. You should always expect something not working as planned on the day, but it should never be your digital signage.

Things to consider:

• Have you chosen your shipping, installation, tear down and storage vendors, and do they have all the necessary information?
• Have you got a digital engagement partner who is supplying you with solutions fit for purpose and your environment?

Tip: Go over all the serious logistical requirements well in advance to avoid on the day setbacks. You should be asking yourself things like, ‘how far am I from the nearest power outlet?’ and ‘how long will I and/or third-party companies need to set-up?’ If you're reusing elements from a previous booth then does everything fit correct – by that, we mean how it should for safety and aesthetic purposes.

The more questions you have that are answered the more prepared you are, and trust us when planning for an event there never can be too many questions.

Performance review

In the following weeks and months no doubt you and your sales team will have quite a bit of following up to do, whether it’s with leads or with your team everyone will likely want to know what return on investment was made. Personally, you will want to go through what went well and what could have been better, which takes us back to point 3 (learning from your past). It is the experience that feeds future success so as long as you know what went wrong it’s never too late to fix it.

Live shows

According to Smart Insights ‘exhibitors who present live get 2-4 times as many qualified leads as those that do not. They also increase awareness at a rate 5-10 times greater than exhibits without live demonstrators.’

If this is the case then the presentation needs to be better than great in order to make use of such an opportunity! Read our ‘How Digital is Transforming the Trade Show and Events Industry’ blog to find out how you can utilise digital solutions to elevate your messaging and trade show delivery.