A handy guide specifically built for marketers, sales executives and business owners at all levels and across all industries to ensure a successful trade show experience now and in the future. If you'd like to explore how we can help your company with trade shows, please shoot us a note at graphicadesign.com/contact and we'll be sure to follow up.

1. The Comprehensive Guide to
Trade Show Marketing

2. 3 Phases:

3. 1. Pre-Show
2. At the Show
3. Post-Show

4. 1. Pre-Show

5. develop your strategy.
determine your tactics.
design the experience.

6. Create your checklist.

7. Your checklist should be a high-level brief to
keep you on track and ensure you don’t
forget any key items along the way.

8. Strategy: goals, objectives, tactics, lead tracking
Communications: promotion, advertising, sponsorship
Schedule: trade show calendar, meetings, events
Logistics: hotel, travel, booth size, design, traffic flow
Legal: contracts, deposits, insurance
Be sure to include:

9. Consider your strategy.

10. What are your goals for this event? Let’s
map it out. Put together a game plan that is
quantifiable, timely and realistic.

11. “We want to come back with 50 solid
prospects, which will lead to 25 meetings,
which will lead to 5 new sales for a total of
$2.5M within 6 months of the show.”
Something like this:

12. Design the experience.

13. Design can mean the difference between
success and failure at any trade show. Be sure
to choose the right partner for the job.

14. Some of our designs.

15. 2. At the Show

16. engage your audience.
think beyond the booth.
keep it fun and free.

17. Engage your audience.

18. Striking up a conversation with
a stranger can be a bit
daunting, right? We all have a
heated battle going on inside
our heads at any given time.
Here are a few thoughts to
keep in mind:

19. You’re at this trade show for a reason. You
are a capable and trusted member of your
team who was chosen to represent your
company and you know your stuff. What is
there to be nervous about? Do your thing.
Be confident.

20. The most interesting people in this world
are the ones who find others interesting.
Ask questions and really listen. Become
genuinely interested in other people. You
might even consider coming up with a few
questions to ask as attendees are walking
by your booth.
Be curious.

21. Offer time-sensitive raffles and giveaways
via social media to encourage attendees to
follow your brand’s social media channels
during the event. Take pictures with the
winners and share on your channels.
Raffles and giveaways can build excitement
around your booth and really draw a crowd.
Use time.

22. Video should be a key part of your trade
show strategy. This could be a clip to demo
your product or service. Just be sure to
keep it short, simple, engaging and
memorable to create interest and leave
your audience wanting more.
Use video.

23. Some of our videos.

24. Think beyond the booth.

25. Don’t forget that you’re
in the same city as your
prospective customers.
Set up get togethers
away from the booth for
key 1:1 time with the
people you most want
to meet with. Happy
hour party, anyone?
Expand your reach.
You’re close.
Remember that awesome
demo video you’re showing at
your booth to catch attention?
Share it on social media. By
doing so, you can reach both
trade show attendees and those
who couldn’t make the show
but follow your company.

26. Keep it fun and free.

27. Dust off that selfie-stick.
Ask people for a picture as they are walking by. Have a
little fun with it. It helps if you have something at your
booth (besides yourself) for them to take a picture with,
such as an oversized product replica or company/team
mascot, etc. The idea is to make it something they’ll
want to share with their team and others.

28. After you get the picture, tell them you will
email it to them and post it on social media
with a shout out to them. This will also help
you gather their email address and social
media account(s) so you can keep in
touch. Try posting something like this:
Share it.

29. “Thanks to @ABCCompany
for stopping by our booth
#345. Stop back tomorrow to
enter our raffle giveaway
contest! #yourcompany
#eventhashtag”

30. Popcorn, pretzels, cookies – they all work
like a charm. Candy is ok, but you might
want to stick to more "filling" foods. Put
them in the middle of your booth to
encourage a friendly hello. And who
doesn’t love some cold beverages at
hand?
Offer free food & drinks.

31. Keep in mind, many of the attendees will
be traveling dads and moms. They’ve got
kids who expect a souvenir of sorts when
they get back, so help them deliver. Offer
T-shirts with a few kids sizes in the mix.
You’ll make that mom, dad, aunt or uncle
an absolute superstar...if only for a day.
Appeal to the family.

32. 3. Post-Show

33. follow up.
add value in every message.
be patiently persistent.

34. Follow up.

35. After the show you’ll want to follow up with
two key groups – your leads and your
trade show team.

36. Lead follow up:

37. Remember those great conversations that
were started at the show? Keep em’ going.
Sincerely thank your contacts for attending.
Express appreciation in meeting them as
well as your interest to continue the
conversation and to keep in touch.

38. • Handwritten card
• Personal email
• LinkedIn invite with personal message
• Social media posts, tags, follows, likes
• Email newsletter campaign
• Direct mail campaign
• Custom gift
Follow up ideas:

39. Conduct a de-brief with your team
following the event. Talk about what they
felt went well and what areas they think
could be improved. This post-show
communication is crucial to creating the
very best trade show experience for
everyone involved – so don’t skip it!
Team follow up.

40. Add value every time.

41. Don’t just follow up to ‘check in’ or ‘touch
base.’ This is a waste of your prospect’s
time and yours. As marketers, you can help
your sales team bring value at every
touchpoint. Here are a few ways to add
value at every step in the process:

42. You can create valuable content by using
the very questions asked about your
product or service at the show. By doing
so, you’ll become a trusted thought leader
and problem solver around these topics.
This will draw your prospects closer
to you.
Answer questions.

43. Even if it’s not your work, share something
that you know they would find valuable and
that may spark some ideas. Keep doing
this and you’ll become a trusted, valued
resource to them.
Share work.

44. We all have our networks. We all want to
connect with people that we value and who
can help us grow our business and enrich
our lives. So, become a connector.
You’ll be helping them and yourself at
the same time.
Connect them.

45. Be patiently persistent.

46. Be proactive in keeping in touch with trade
show leads. Be aware that there is a fine
line between demonstrating “polite
persistence” and being so aggressively
relentless that you damage the very
relationship you were trying to build.

47. Create a schedule to contact each trade
show prospect around 6-8 times within a
period of six months or so following the
event. Patient persistence in your
sales and marketing communications
will result in growing your business –
it’s all just a matter of time.
Schedule it out.

48. 3 Phases:we know trade shows.
let’s talk.
graphicadesign.com | 937.866.4013