Exhibiting at a Trade Show is a great way to promote your business to potentially hundreds of new customers. Â Having a successful exhibit takes months of planning from booth design, to brochures and promotional materials. Many think of just planning for the time during the exhibit, but there are really three parts – before, during and after.
Make sure to reach out to your target audience a few months in advance to announce the upcoming show and where your booth is located. Custom printed postcards are quick and inexpensive to print and mail. Work with a professional graphic designer to make sure the cards are eye catching. This is also the time to work with a designer and commercial printer for ideas on your booth design and your marketing pieces.
An attractive booth that’s well designed, of good quality and captures your company’s essence will attract visitors. The booth should be something that visitors can see from about 20 feet away so you’ll want to use custom printed pieces such as large format posters, retractable  banners, and printed table runners. You’ll also want to have souvenir journals and fun promotional products  available for them. Helpful hint: keep your more expensive pieces like custom pocket folders behind the table for more serious customers.
The show is over but work still has to be done. Gather all the business cards and names you acquired at the event and contact, contact, contact! Along with follow-up calls send them a marketing kit – a professional presentation folder holding a personalized letter, business card and other brochures. Since you’ll probably have about a couple of hundred contacts it’s less expensive to have these digitally printed. But, again, make sure to use a reputable commercial printing company that’s known for high quality work. A marketing kit should be a reflection of the professionalism and quality of your company.
