1. Start with the audience. Who do you want to reach? Be specific, creating clearly defined buyer profiles. What do these people care about? What challenges are uppermost in their mind? What market forces influence their behavior and buying patterns? How can you help them? Why would they care?
2. Get real about your objective. What do you want to have happen as a result of this engagement? Is it enough to drive more traffic into the booth? If so, how much traffic and compared to what benchmark? Maybe you need to increase the number of demos give, the number of requests for follow-up by the field sales force, or the dollar volume of opportunities opened. You’ll never know if you’ve achieved success if you don’t first define the desired outcomes.
3. Make the first move. Too many brands take on a passive role in the engagement process. They create a booth activity, send out a pres-show announcement and then hope that attendees show up. “Engage” is an active verb form. Train your staff to be proactive. They should approach visitors along the aisle and always be ready with a strong, well crafted call to action. If your staff isn’t up to the challenge, hire professionals who can get the job done for you.
4. Don’t forget the human factor. No matter what business role or market segments your audience might fall into, they’re still people. People are meant to connect with other people. It’s how we’re wired. So make sure the engagement process is driven by a staffer or a hired hand. Technology helps to facilitate the interaction and it’s great for collecting data, but it’s no substitute for face-to-face relationship building with a human being.
5. Appeal to multiple sense inputs. Trade shows can be disorienting. Attention spans are bombarded with external stimulus from all sides. Cut through the clutter by immersing your audience in an experience that engages them on multiple levels.
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