Slow Booth Traffic? Tried and Tested Tips and Tricks to Engage Customers

Regardless of industry, trade shows are some of the most lucrative opportunities for any business owner that’s interested in staying on top of the latest developments in their respective niches. As a part of a trade show or exhibit, business owners and marketing executives all have the capacity to showcase their products and gain valuable insights into how competitors operate their business. Furthermore, it also gives them the chance to strengthen existing relations. However, all the endless benefits of a trade show are lost when you get nothing but slow booth traffic — or worse, no traffic at all. What’s the point of having spent so much time, money and energy in a venture that results in no additional leads for business growth?

While most people would probably blame slow booth traffic, it’s often the business owners that fail to capitalize on the opportunity to build new relationships with their target audiences. Here we have put together a list of tried-and-tested trade show tips for exhibitors that want to successfully engage their customers.

Cash in on the Visual Appeal

There’s a majority of marketers who understand the value of visual appeal when putting together a trade show booth.

Unfortunately, most of them fail to put their knowledge to use with lackluster (read: boring) booths that are highly uninviting.

Trade show booths are your opportunity to rope in a customer at first glance – provided you use the right tools. At a trade show, everything from the table and chair covers to the banners and the stands is a chance to advertise your product. You just have to do it in such a way that it appears attractive instead of gaudy. To ensure a sleek trade show presence, opt for a custom pop up display and set up. A great option is the Create Your Own Design feature that allows you to create, from scratch, a beautiful trade show setup to your specifications.

Focus on Approachability

While the visual appeal counts for a lot when attracting customers to your booth and preventing slow booth traffic, it’s your stance and the approachability of the people available at your trade booth that help convert a potential lead into a real one.

If your booth is set up nice and bright, but is mostly empty with only a single bored salesperson and the owner sitting somewhere nearby, it will not appear too inviting. Be sure to have several friendly and approachable people manage your trade show booth. You’ll want to have those that won’t hesitate to engage the customer in conversation and draw them in.

Skip the Monologues

Of all the trade show marketing tips, this is one of the most important ones. Having established the need for an approachable staff on hand to converse with the audience, it’s important to emphasize on the need for your representatives to skip the monologues: they just slow your booth traffic. While it can be beneficial to know your company’s policy, products and services by heart, it’s certainly not beneficial to launch into a boring monologue as soon as a customer approaches — it’s more effective in driving them away than in retaining their attention. Instead, opt for a normal conversation that draws in the customer.

Keep It Personal

Another reason why the monologues are not such a fantastic trade show idea is because they are completely impersonal. There’s no chance of establishing connectivity through a common ground when rambling on with a memorized monologue.

Instead, it’s advisable to begin talking to a potential customer with questions that give you valuable insight into them as individuals, as well as prospective clients. It’s important to remember not all customers are alike, and the same features of your previous conversation will not necessarily fit with a new one. Once you do that, reciprocate with a personal anecdote that humanizes you and connects you to the business you are promoting. It’s not shameless advertising and it drives the point home.

One of the Best Trade Show Selling Tips – Have Freebies At Hand

Have you ever met anyone who doesn’t appreciate something that’s been given to them for free? We can’t say we have. Everyone appreciates freebies and you know that. Use that to effectively market your product.

Invest in good quality promotional products and use a literature or brochure holder to keep them on hand to give out to the customers that make their way toward your booth. Either keep them in easy reach of the customers themselves, encourage them to help themselves or have something on the ready to hand out as the customer prepares to depart from the booth. A conscious gesture is not just appreciated by the customers but tends to stick with customers as well.

Spark Curiosity

The purpose of partaking in a trade show is to attract newer audiences to your products, right? Now there are times where the most attractive or obvious of things tend to get bypassed when there is a large variety of options available  –  such is the case with trade shows. Customers get confused with the sheer magnitude of the number of choices they have that they can’t seem to make up their minds about who to approach or from whom to purchase goods.

A good trade show marketing idea to draw a customers in is to entice them by sparking their curiosity. Deliberately keeping things slightly vague encourages a customer’s curiosity. You can further engage your consumer by offering the things that spark their interest. Impromptu quizzes, contests, prize distributions, special spur of the moment discounts or even giveaways are all fantastic ways to invite, and keep the consumer’s interest.

Maintain That Energy

We realize that exhibitors and business owners displaying their products at trade shows are only human. However, there’s really nothing that puts a customer off more than a dejected-looking salesperson waiting at the booth.

To ensure you maximize on your chances of engaging with as many consumers as possible, and thus growing your business all the more, you have to make sure that you and your representatives maintain that energy until the very end of the trade show. Regardless of the exhibit itself drawing to an end, you shouldn’t miss out on an opportunity just because you’re tired. Trade shows take months of preparation and take place far apart from each other. It’s a good idea to buck up and keep that energy high until the end.

For improved customer engagements for business success, try incorporating any and all of these tips in your trade show game plan – they guarantee immediate results.

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