How To Increase Traffic To Your Trade Show Booth

Whether you promote or sell a product or service, your trade show objective is to drive a many potential customers to your booth as possible.



The old sales adage, "see more people" also holds true for trade shows.



Here are 5 tips to increase the amount of traffic.



1) Tell existing clients about the event.

You can do this by mailers, telephone, or better yet, email.



Why existing clients? Well, they have already purchased your product and you can tell about upgrades or newer products you may have on display.



Moreover, think of the testimonial opportunity when you have a client at your booth telling your prospects how great your product is and how it helped them solve their problem.



2) Have a positive attitude.
No matter what's happening that day with your business, keep your attitude upbeat. It never hurts to have a smile on your face when greeting prospects.



3) Serve a freshly baked or cooked snack.

Here's where you say, "He has lost his mind". But seriously, studies show people purchase more when hungry. Plus a snack keeps them at your booth longer and gives you a chance to pitch your product or service.



Snacks such as freshly baked cookies in a convection oven or freshly popped corn will suffice. Make sure the venue allows you do this; otherwise, consider pre-packaged snacks.



Place them out one hour before lunch or dinner.



4) Provide Entertainment

A variety entertainer such as a magician, caricaturist, or perhaps a juggler may keep your visitors longer around your booth.



If you hire a caricaturist, there are usually prospects hanging around your booth waiting their turn or admiring the artist's work.



Either way, increased traffic is good thing.



Magicians doing close-up magic may wow your visitors and keep them around longer than usual. Another opportunity to spring into action.



You can also have a contest to guess how the magician pulled off his trick. Have all the participants place their name, email address, phone number, etc into a fishbowl. The winner will receive a prize related to your product or service.


The key here is to make the prize useful or something of value. Cheap trinkets will drive away traffic just as quickly as you gained it.




5) Provide Giveaways.

Since this article is on attracting traffic, I would suggest you market your giveaways in all pre-show literature. The giveaways must be added incentive for your prospect to visit your booth.

Make sure it's easily noticeable to the visitors.

There are many other methods of driving traffic to your booth, but these have been used effectively by many organizations over the years.