Trade shows are a great way for brands to display their products, engage with potential customers, and grow their businesses more quickly. However, regardless of your experience as an exhibitor or marketer, it can be easy to make some common mistakes that are entirely avoidable. Poor planning, design, and logistics can lead to lost time, money, and business opportunities.
Fortunately, working with an experienced Houston exhibit company will help you avoid these mistakes and provide a more successful event experience.
1. Waiting Too Long to Plan
Many exhibitors make the error of waiting until the last minute to begin planning. Making decisions regarding graphics, booth designs, and promotional material can lead to increased costs and lower quality than if planning had started well in advance. If you wait until just a few weeks before the event, you will likely have trouble finding available materials and will likely incur additional charges for expedited shipping.
Trade show experts from popular trade show companies in Houston recommend beginning your strategy for trade shows at least two to three months prior to have the best possible chance of obtaining the best deals, scheduling, and vendor coordination.
2. Location and Design are Key
The placement of your exhibit in relation to the rest of the show floor can be critical to its success, and many exhibitors fail to consider this before placing their exhibit. For example, if your exhibit is in a remote corner with little or no traffic, no matter how attractive the exhibit may be, it is unlikely to be highly visible to attendees. Likewise, the physical arrangement of your exhibit can discourage visitor interaction if it is poorly designed or cluttered.
Well-informed exhibit companies in Houston can help you assess the various options available on the show floor; assess your exhibit space; provide suggestions on how to maximize your booth's size; and assist you in developing an inviting and engaging layout.
3. Neglecting Lead Flow & Engagement Strategy
The design of your booth and its surrounding area is just one part of exhibiting. Many exhibitors do not realize that the actual people in your booth are the ones who help convert potential customers into business opportunities. If your team is untrained, has no method for capturing leads effectively, or does not have a follow-up plan, there is no way for you to convert your leads into business opportunities with even the most strategic exhibit design.
Working with an exhibit professional from top exhibit companies in Houston will enable you to train your staff on engagement techniques, provide tools for capturing quality leads, and develop a solid post-show follow-up strategy so that all of your leads don’t simply fade away once the trade show ends.
4. Failing to Integrate Marketing Before the Event
Many exhibitors will treat their booth as its own marketing activity and not promote it beforehand. Without targeting your outreach through email, social media, or individualized invites, you are hoping passersby will discover you by chance.
Reputable trade show companies Houston encourage creating aggressive marketing plans (beforehand to create hype, build excitement and ensure there will be real traffic through your exhibit space.
5. Ignoring Budget Considerations
Exhibitors often will focus solely on the cost of their exhibitor space and neglect to factor in costs associated with shipping, set-up, lighting, labor, lead tools, etc. This can result in budget shortages for either the booth or mid-show budget trade-offs that will affect the exhibit space negatively. An experienced Houston exhibit company will help to forecast the total cost of the project, formulate a complete exhibit project budget and eliminate unexpected expenses.
6. Neglecting Follow-Up and Post-Show Plans
It is very common for exhibitors who have collected leads not to have a plan to follow up with those leads after the show. Many exhibitors invest a lot of money in attracting visitors to the booth, but they don’t convert them to real business because they don’t promptly or strategically follow up.
Trade show professionals from reputable trade show companies Houston will tell you that the importance of communicating with people post-event and having a plan to nurture leads to turn those conversations into actual conversions is important.
Conclusion
You can greatly improve your performance by avoiding these common pitfalls that most exhibitors commit at trade shows. By planning, properly laying out the exhibit, having an engaging booth team, and following up post-show, you will have a better understanding of what may go wrong in the booth and will be able to proactively make it better.
Working with a qualified Houston exhibit company will also help you have a successful event that produces measurable business results. To learn more about what options and solutions are available to you, you can visit Houston Trade Show Exhibit Rentals.