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Trade shows are a phenomenal opportunity for businesses. For example, they give companies a chance to educate attendees about their business and industry. However, we don’t all have millions of dollars in our budgets to organize a successful trade show. Here are eight tips that will help you stretch every dollar of your budget. Moreover, you won’t have to sacrifice quality.
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1. Concept
Areas that you should freely discuss with your team include design, collaboration, and how you’ll use technology. For example, designing a concept that will blow prospects’ minds, like Steve Jobs did, is one of the most cost-effective things you can do to have a successful trade show experience.
2. Booth Space
Clutter is never a good sign, either in real life or in business. Therefore, use floor space optimally. The goal here is to ration space for exhibitions, whether you have a trade show booth rental or your own booth.
3. Frame Your Audience
Every business has its ideal audience, its “perfect customer.” Therefore, go after an audience in your niche by developing specific interest points. Moreover, learn to ignore other audience types. Your business is not for them. As a matter of fact, doing this can actually make it easier on your budget, depending on your ideal customer.
4. Solicit Vendors
How does participating with you benefit vendors? Show them. For instance, locate vendors who are specific to your niche. Share with them the theme of your event, your floor plan layouts, and more. Vendors who are interested in what you have to offer will be more inclined to jump on board with you.
5. Marketing Budget
No business owner enjoys wasting much-needed resources on promotion and advertising if all it does is amount to a loss of potential revenue.
Therefore, find out if your audience’s chief influencers are on social media. And if they are, forget advertising in the newspaper, or on radio and in trade publications.
6. Partnerships
Find out how many beverage suppliers are in your area. Your research can be as simple as hitting up the search engines and learning about relevant businesses in your area. Also, be sure to contact design students. Give one or more of them the opportunity to expand their professional portfolio. That is, ask them to create marketing materials and other promotions to help you have a more successful trade show.
7. The Right Venue
Not every trade show under the sun needs to be held at a convention center. Plus, such shows might be severely out of reach for your budget. Moreover, they might not match with your company’s mission.
Instead, look to banquet halls, hotel ballrooms, or other rooms that are available for rent by the public. As a matter of fact, you’ll find a variety of venues that you can participate in. Consider the correct ones where your brand can have a successful trade show. What’s more, be sure to book your space months in advance, if possible.
8. Free Media Coverage
One of the authors of The Art of Barter used to host a radio station. In the book, the authors tell about how they got to stay at an expensive hotel—for free.
How they did it was they offered the hotel an advertising spot on the radio station in exchange for a room for the night. The hotel manager agreed to the deal. Therefore, both parties profited from the principle of bartering.
You can use the same principle with local publications, social media outlets, and other forms of media. For example, perhaps you could offer the trade show organizer a discount for your services or products in exchange for free access to the trade show.
Follow These Tips for a Successful Trade Show Experience
Organizing a successful trade show on a budget is about more than looking for areas where you can cut corners. Instead, it’s about making your attendees and visitors feel as comfortable and enthusiastic as possible. As a matter of fact, this should be your main goal.
Therefore, aim to entice people. Create a spectacle. Have the guts to be memorable and yours will definitely be a successful trade show experience.