What You Need to Prepare for This Year’s Trade Shows
It’s official: trade show season is in full swing. As someone who attends his fair share of them, I can attest to it. This week, I will be attending the DeckExpo and Remodeling Show, where I will visit booths from many companies in the building industry. I already have an idea of which booths I want to visit and which products I want to learn more about. This isn’t uncommon in the building products industry—in fact, about 76% of attendees already have an agenda of which exhibitors they want to visit. So how can you, as a building products marketer, capitalize on an exhibit to get the best value out of your time there?
Before you ship anything, read the show’s Exhibitor Service Manual, it spells out rules, forms, and ordering deadlines. Pay attention to cutoffs for electrical, internet, rigging, and furnishings, late orders often cost more and limit options. Know your shipping plan, advance warehouse versus direct-to-show-site, target move-in windows, marshaling yard check-in requirements, and possible penalties.
In the past, I have written several blog posts about trade shows and what building products marketers need to do—and avoid—to maximize their return on investment. Here is a quick roundup of those posts:
- Bring Your “A” Game When You Exhibit: Many companies who exhibit at trade shows can spend thousands of dollars (or even millions) to draw in new customers and show off products. 67% of attendees represent a new prospect, and 81% of them have buying authority. Read this article for 5 tips and tricks to raise awareness and create memorable experiences for your building products trade show audience.
- Is Your Brand Ready for the Big Show: There are a lot of questions that building products need to consider when planning their trade show exhibit or booth. This article isolates several of the most important questions you can ask yourself before attending the trade show to make sure that your booth represents your brand well during the “big show.”
- The 5 Most Common Trade Show Mistakes (Part 1 & Part 2): After more than two decades in the building products industry, I’ve seen it all: the good, the bad, and the oh-so-ugly. In a two-part series of blog posts, I outlined the five biggest mistakes that building products marketers can make when planning their trade show exhibit.
- WHITEPAPER: Killer Booths!: What can building products trade show marketers learn from horror movies? As it turns out, a lot. Download this free whitepaper if you’re afraid that your trade show marketing is falling victim to horror movie clichés—it just might help you live long enough to make it to the sequel.
Use the show-approved lead retrieval, then back it up with your own QR codes at demos and displays. Point those codes to UTM-tagged URLs so you can attribute traffic by show, booth asset, or message theme. Google Analytics, including GA4, reads UTM parameters, and most CRMs accept that data for campaign tracking and routing.
Building products trade shows can be an enjoyable time and a great opportunity to produce qualified leads. But they also take a lot of planning, research, and hard work to make them successful. Any one of these articles are a good start for building products marketers who want to make sure their booth is up to snuff.Set a follow-up plan before the show, with outreach to new leads within 24 to 48 hours.
Read more of our recent posts at Navigate-the-Channel.
