Businesses go to a trade show company and set up exhibits at trade shows for many different reasons. Sometimes it’s for building brand awareness; other times, it’s for introducing new products or services. But some businesses operate at trade shows to generate new leads, initiating new relationships with people who may be interested in your product or service.

Here’s how to maximize this potential if you’re working at a trade show.

Target Your Market Ahead Of Time

Planning is the key to any successful venture, and in the context of lead generation at trade shows, this means taking the time to find out who your best prospects are. For example, if your business sells water pipes and you’re attending a construction trade show, you can increase your prospects for successful leads by finding out who the plumbers and plumbing-related clients are that will be in attendance.

This saves your marketing team time approaching people who are only interested in foundations or insulation and thus wouldn’t be interested in your product. Always find out who are your most likely prospects.

Pre-Show Outreach

When you have a list of prospects, you can start approaching them. Your sales and marketing teams should be coordinating with possible leads based on the following:

• Industry—which businesses or industries are relevant to you
• Revenue/Corporate Size—the company size and how much profit they generate
• Location—whether they are within easy reach of your business, or the site of the trade show itself

Your teams should now coordinate to reach out to the most likely prospects and see if there’s any way to secure advance bookings for meetings or demonstrations.

General Marketing

In the days leading up to the trade show, you can also do general outreach via direct mail, email marketing, or others. You can use trade show attendee lists as is, or your teams can continue to do more precise targeting for a higher likelihood of interest and response.

Work The Show

Once your trade show company has set up your exhibit and you’re ready to go, it doesn’t stop there. You can use brochures, flyers, apps, or any other marketing tool you like, including talking to attendees on the floor to gauge and garner more interest in visiting your exhibit.

Remember that while planning will get you results ahead of time, you can continue o pull in more leads from unscheduled visitors.

If you’d like to have a trade show exhibit that meets your specific meeting needs, we can help. ,Contact us and ask us about exhibit design services.