There’s no doubt that a trade show or live event can be a great avenue for filling your marketing pipeline with eager, qualified leads. They can be. But will they?

Here’s the thing: whether they will be or not is largely up to you. You can’t leave it to chance and “hope for the best”. So what can you do to ensure you leave your next trade show, the one you will pour so much time, effort and financial resources into, with a bunch of quality leads? Let’s talk about it…

How Will You Stand Out From The Crowd?

Don’t wait until you are at the show to think this critically important topic through. In your quest to succeed at capturing as many eager, interested leads as possible, and turning as many of those as you can into satisfied buyers, be proactive. Prepare thoroughly before the big event starts.

Ask yourself how your company can stand out from other exhibitors at the event. Put yourself in the shoes of your booth’s visitors. Understand them very well. What are their problems, their fears, their frustrations, their aspirations? How can you help them? What problems do they have that you can solve?

Why would they want to stop at your booth? Why would they want to spend time there and engage with your people? What will you do to cause them to remember your brand and want to learn more about your products or services? How will you create buzz and get event attendees talking about you, both at the show and long after?

Assemble your team to brainstorm these questions and formulate powerful answers. Act accordingly as you design your booth, plan your agenda, write your show-related content, and so on.

Here’s a tip to help you stand out in a big way: focus your written messaging, your conversations and your approach on your potential and actual booth visitors. Don’t focus on you, your company and your products, even though they may be awesome. Rather, focus on the solution that you provide. Remember this acronym-WIIFM? It stands for “What’s In It For Me?”. And it is what your visitors are asking themselves when they are determining whether or not to engage with your people at your booth. So tell them what’s in it for them!

Mom Was Right

Yes, your mom was right. First impressions matter. A lot! This goes for the event experience you offer attendees. What impression does your booth staff give to visitors?

Before your big event, train your staff to observe the following rules of trade show booth etiquette:

• Offer a genuine, sincere, friendly greeting. Make booth visitors feel welcome and important

• Smile and maintain eye contact

• Demonstrate open, confident, relaxed, non-threatening body language

• Listen attentively. Don’t merely keep quiet until it’s your turn to speak, thinking only of what you want to say next. Actively listen to your visitors!

Please do not discount the importance of these tips to your event lead capture success. An unfavorable impression can turn booth visitors off and destroy their interest in buying from your company. But the right impression can have the opposite effect. It can help set the stage for event lead capture and lead management success.

This Barrier Could Cost You Trade Show Leads

You want to make your booth space itself as inviting as possible. Be aware of physical features in your booth that may act like physical or psychological barriers that keep potential visitors from wanting to engage with your team.

Here’s a common example: many booths have a table across the front of the space. This barrier can give an unpleasant “us-vs-them” impression that repels potential visitors, thus costing companies valuable leads.

Before the event, as you are planning the layout and design of your booth, carefully scan for such barriers. Eliminating them just might make your event lead capture results more fruitful.

Here’s a subtle tip that can help you naturally and effortlessly draw visitors inside your booth: if given the choice, choose to make your booth carpet the same color as the aisles in the exhibit hall. This will give the appearance of visual continuity between your booth and the aisle in front of it. Visitors will be more inclined to enter and engage with you.

Help trade show attendees have fun!

According to legendary marketing consultant and author, Dan Kennedy, “People buy more and buy more happily when in good humor”.

So make your booth a fun place! How? First of all, encourage your booth staff to have a fun time themselves. And then have a game. Or a contest. Or a valuable prize giveaway. Tie it all somehow to a prominent theme related to your company’s offering.

The prize putt is a tried and true example of a popular booth game. It’s something that requires little or no skill that even non-golfers can enjoy. Another idea is a roulette or game show-style prize wheel.

These are just two fun examples you might want to consider. The possibilities are endless.

The right decorations, fun games and contests, and a happy, lively attitude oozing from you and your team will go a long way toward giving people the experience they want. You’ll create more buzz, win more attention, attract more engagement, and capture more leads. Here’s a bonus: your leads are likely to remember how much fun they had with you. Could this help you make the sale? It just might!

Do you want to help ensure the lead capture success of your next event? Then you need the right lead capture software. When you leave the event with a lot of new, interested, eager leads, you will need a way to manage them as effectively and profitably as possible. So be sure you have a proven platform such as the cloud-based marketing and sales solutions Lead Liaison offers companies like yours.

We have created a truly user-friendly event lead management solution. We also have many resources to help you prepare for and enjoy the fruits of a very successful event. Want to find out more about what we can do for you? Contact us today!