Exhibitors—if you want your next trade show to be as stress-free as possible and to attract high-quality leads, make sure you have these seven essential items in your booth.
Not to be too dramatic, but they’re be the difference between success and failure on the show floor. Choose carefully.
1. High-impact signage
In an era defined by the rapid development of advanced technologies, it's easy to forget the impact of a good, ol' fashioned sign.
Your signage doesn’t need to capture everything you do. It simply needs to be bold, legible, true to your values, and capable of stopping people in their tracks.
From our experience, the best trade show booth signs:
- Feature carefully selected color combinations and fonts.
- Use large, legible logos.
- Convey a simple, easy-to-understand message.
- Utilize white space.
For more advice like this, check out our blog 9 Tips for Creating Impactful Signage.
2. Strategic lighting
Well-placed, strategic lights are key to standing out at any trade show—but ‘strategic’ is the operative word here.
Don’t make the classic exhibitor mistake of opting for the Vegas vibe. Your lighting shouldn’t be in people’s faces from the minute they enter your booth.
Instead, it should be warm, inviting, and accentuate key messaging, products, and points of interest.
LED, or edge lighting, is the best option if you’re looking for the perfect balance of showy and subtle. This is our go-to choice when creating booths for exhibitors.
Mike Graziani, our Vice President of Design, and Noel Mares, our Creative Director, talk about this in more detail in our blog Trade Show Booth Lighting: The Do's And Don'ts.
3. Comfortable, functional furniture
Signage and lighting will attract your ideal customers to your booth; good furniture will keep them there.
Attendees spend hours on their feet every day, and the last thing most of them want to do is stand talking to you for ten minutes or longer, especially if they have a notepad or tablet on their person.
If you can offer them an added layer of comfort that other exhibitors don’t, they’re much more likely to stay and find out more about your solution.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be a luxury modular sofa (although adding this to your booth could be a masterstroke.) It could be something as simple as a standing-height counter for people to lean on and for you to offer quick demonstrations.
It could be stools, cocktail tables, or brochure racks from which you can showcase your marketing materials.
By incorporating this furniture in your booth, you’re not just building a display—you’re creating different touchpoints for attendees or spaces in which your team can have meaningful conversations.
4. Branded promotional materials
Just like signage, printed materials are tried and tested, and right at home in any trade show booth.
Whether it’s a brochure, flyer, or spec sheet, these materials still pull their weight. In our opinion, they’re every bit as effective as other marketing collateral in allowing prospects to understand your company at a glance.
The key word here is branded. Every promotional item in your booth should contain your logo, contact details, and ideally a clear next step for the people who collect them.
Stack these items neatly, use display stands to keep them organized and accessible, and bring more than you think you'll need. Running out on day two is a rookie error.
We use this word a lot, but being at a trade show is all about creating as many touchpoints as possible. In this case, promotional materials act as vital touchpoints for attendees long after they’ve left the show.
If you’ve given someone a brochure they can sift through on the plane home, it will keep you at the front of their mind that bit longer. In the meantime, you can begin executing your follow-up strategy and work on a plan to take them from prospect to customer!
5. A lead capture device or tool
Think tablets, scanners, or a designated clipboard just in case the venue WiFi fails.
Whatever form it takes, a lead capture tool is arguably the most important item you can have in your trade show booth.
Without one, you risk letting valuable conversations with qualified leads go to waste and a huge amount of potential revenue slip through your fingers.
For one thing, you can’t even capture basic attendee information, never mind track who was and wasn’t a warm lead!
Incredibly, companies lose up to 80% of leads from trade shows due to poor follow-up and tracking systems, according to the Center for Exhibition Industry Research.
Don’t let this happen to you. Have a dedicated lead capture tool so that you don’t leave any money on the show floor.
On the subject of lead capture, check out our blog The 5 Best Lead Capture Apps For Exhibitors for more tips on how to record, track, and convert your trade show leads.
6. Branded giveaways people will actually use
Not all swag is created equal. Some giveaways are infinitely more valuable to trade show attendees than others.
If you scour the various Reddit forums online, you’ll work out which items win out in the long run.
The frontrunners include:
- Wearables such as socks, hats, or beanies that people would actually buy and wear over and over, not just throw away when they get home.
- Metal water bottles.
- Thermos cups.
- Practical items like pens and wireless phone chargers.
- Branded sugar cookies (yes, we’re serious).
- Reusable tote bags
We could go on, but you get the idea. There are many items you could give away, depending on your target audience, industry, and goals.
Even if your industry is exclusively B2B, don’t be afraid to think outside the box and offer something quirky. It can be quirky while still aligning with your brand and offering.
As long as it gives attendees another touchpoint (there’s our favorite word again) and helps them remember you for the right reasons weeks down the road, you’re golden.
7. Basic technology and AV equipment
We saved the most self-explanatory item until last, but you’d be amazed by how often exhibitors show up to trade shows without a reliable laptop or backup charger cables.
We’ve come across a few horror stories in our time, and trust us when we say—you don’t want this to happen to you.
Imagine you’re in the middle of an engaging conversation with a hot lead. You’ve nailed the pitch up until now and whetted their appetite to the point where they’re ready to see your solution in action. Then you go to get your laptop or tablet and the power cuts out and you don’t have a backup charger.
Yeah. Not ideal.
Neither is your audiovisual (AV) equipment cutting out on the show floor and your booth staff having to spend potentially hours attempting to get it back up and running, missing out on countless opportunities to talk to prospects in that time.
This is why you need:
- Adequate power access.
- Backup cables and chargers.
- Reliable AV equipment.
- Power strips and extension cords.
- Laptop, phone, and tablet chargers—plus one or two spares.
You can never be too cautious or overprepared when you’re in front of people who could spend hundreds of thousands of dollars with you.
We’re not an item—but we’re still essential
Ticking off this shopping list of essential booth items will get you so far, but it’ll count for very little if your booth’s design doesn’t hit the perfect note, engage the right people or stand out on a crowded show floor.
That’s where The Trade Group comes in.
We specialize in creating immersive, storytelling assets for exhibitors like you to take to their next trade show.
Since 1986, we’ve helped businesses bring their offering to life and make unforgettable impressions on the show floor.
You can find out how we do this by watching the testimonial video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ads3oV-x24g
If you’re interested in partnering with us, contact us here or give us a call at (800) 343-2005.
