Pixabay CC0 License: 4 Things To Remember When Planning A Trade Event

Hosting or attending trade shows are a part of a lot of company’s marketing plans for great reasons – they are perfect places to meet new people, network with others in your industry, generate new leads, increase brand awareness, and drive more sales. The more roles you play within a trade event, the more publicity you’ll get along the way which, of course, can turn into sales. If you’re planning on hosting a trade event in the future, check out these important things to remember so that it can go off without a hitch!

Obtain booking insurance

A problem that many event hosts are facing at the moment, especially with cancellations due to COVID 19, is not receiving a refund having paid a hefty amount to hire a space for your event. Buying booking insurance might seem like an unnecessary purchase at the time, but it’s wise to opt in just in case your event has to be cancelled or postponed for some reason.

Consider a marquee

Choosing a building that’s capable of hosting your event can be difficult for many reasons – fire safety, building capacity, and location convenience. A great alternative to consider is a marquee on an ample sized piece of land. Marquees are often more appropriately shaped, allow you to set up your event how you envision it, and allow you to choose a location that’s going to be convenient for guests attending. You can hire event crew agencies to take care of the heavy work for you, and even hire staff to work your event too!

Invest in booth design

Ultimately, the reason for hosting your event boils down to one reason: to drive more sales! That’s why, even if you’re inviting others from your industry to have display booths, you should seriously invest in your booth design. Think about your placement, the size of your booth, colours that stand out, and a kick-ass branding message that will draw people to your stand over everyone else’s. Here are some great examples of booths that stand out at trade events for some inspiration.

Nail your event marketing

One thing you’ll need to be at the top of your game is your event marketing strategy. So you’ve got a trade event. So what? Why should people come? Why should people care? These are all questions you should be asking yourself and applying into your marketing to get as many bodies as possible through the doors of your event. Here’s some ideas to create an appeal:

• Free tickets. Nobody likes paying for anything these days. You can make money on sales in other aspects such as merchandise.
• Give an incentive. Perhaps you’ve got a rewards scheme? Reward booth visitors with points when they visit your stand.
• Entertainment. Why not hire some entertainment for the event to give people something to look forward to after a long day of networking.

Remembering these four things when planning your next trade event will help bring more people in and ultimately, drive more sales!