Last week we looked at the big take away from CES.

This week we’re going to dive into a quick snapshot of what works and what doesn’t in trade show marketing.

Since I just came back from the CES, we’re going to use this as our case study.

Looking at the results, I can tell you, many if not most companies’ trade show marketing stinks - it’s terrible.

Here’s why….

Let’s leave the marketing steps you should take before the trade show even begins for another day. I want to show you some examples from the show.

The reason to have a booth at a trade show is to:
1. Get attention
2. Create awareness
3. Start a meaningful dialog

Then, with that all taken care of there is the all-important:
4. Follow-up stage 1
5. Follow-up stage 2 and so on

So I’m walking around the show and see this. Companies need to think of their booth designs as advertisements…not as space to play with color use as art. Generic words like these say nothing. They don’t get attention, and even if someone happened to take 5 seconds for a glance at the text, they get nothing from it.

The copy here provides no reason for people to be interested.

Folks, use this space wisely. Text should be large enough to get attention, but just as important, it needs to communicate directly to your ideal prospect with a fact, news, or benefit that will make them stop and rush over to your booth.

This company could have said something like this “Save Money Delivering Your Products: We deliver more than 13,000 products a day to global markets”

After they’ve read your copy and feel compelled to come over to you and find out more, than you can start a meaningful dialog with them.

Point: Maximize your booth space to not just look ‘professional’ but also to sell attendees on a reason why they should get more information from you.

We’ll pick up from here next week…and I’ll elaborate more how to complete the trade show experience to get real measurable results and increase profits.

 To your success,
Michael