Trade Show Success: Put Your Best Sign Forward

Trade shows are the perfect place to put your best foot forward. You want to make sure everything is superior – take your sharpest business representatives, don your best logo wear, and put up your highest quality signage. Do it well and prospects will flock to your table and competitors will watch your every move!

Here’s how to make your trade show display successful:

• Layer your visibility. You want to make sure your booth is able to be clearly seen from afar, mid-way and up close. To do that, you’ll need a combination of graphics – long-range, mid-range and short-range. Long range graphics are oversize signs usually with only your company name and logo displayed at maximum height. Attendees can see these from long range, making it easier for them to find you on the showroom floor. Mid-range graphics are placed at eye-level up to 50’ from the aisle, where attendees walking the aisles or visiting other booths can clearly see them. Lastly, short range graphics are those that can be seen up close and personal, usually 1’-10’ away. They display the details – product specifics, pricing, application instructions, and more. Layering your visibility allows you to be seen from anywhere on the floor!
• Choose your fonts wisely. Keep your fonts simple. You do not want to use script fonts that are hard to read or creative fonts that are fun, but distracting in a business setting. Stick with fonts that are professional and clearly legible up close and far away – i.e. Sans serif fonts like Helvetica and Tahoma, or serif fonts like Palatino or Times New Roman. Remember, the goal is to clearly communicate your message. So, choose your fonts wisely.
• Contrast your colors. Choose three key colors and keep them consistent across all of your signage and set up. And, make sure the colors contrast for the most effectiveness – in other words, making the background dark and the text lighter (or vice versa) increases readability drastically. The more you do to be more visible the better.
• Keep it short and simple. Do your best to keep the text simple. You want your messaging to be read quickly – within 3 seconds, to be exact. So, keep the text on your larger signs short and simple. A great goal is six words or less. You can use more detailed explanations and messages on the smaller, short-range signs. If they’ve gotten that close, your simple, yet focused long range signs have done their job.
• Make your signage people-oriented. It’s true that “people love people.” So featuring people in your signage, particularly people interacting with your product would be a good idea. It gives a more personal look and feel to your set up – something products and objects just can’t do alone.
• Focus on the benefits. Listing the features of your products is not as effective as highlighting the benefits of them. Attendees are there to determine how your products can help them – be proactive and give it to them up front! For example, they don’t want to know how much your product weighs, but how it being lightweight makes it easier for them to transport it from one location to the either. Makes sense? Benefits over features!
• Offer access to information. Yes, it’s best for you to focus on the benefits, but features are still important. So, make sure you give the attendees access to all the details. Have catalogs and info pieces on hand, or even more convenient, QR codes available for them to scan and download more specifics. Be sure to retrieve their contact information or email address to add to your database. And don’t forget your own business cards. There’s fortune in the follow-up.
• Smile…a lot. You can have the most eye-catching display, with the best product information, and the greatest follow-up system in place, but without smiling faces to attract people and make them comfortable enough to engage, it’s all for naught. So encourage your team to be personable and smile. Friendly, welcoming smiles are always the best accessories for your trade show display.

Trade show time is when you bring your A-game! Invest in quality signage that is not only well-designed but strategically designed to accomplish your goals. Carefully craft and display your messages, and give it all you’ve got, and your success is almost guaranteed. This is the time to put your best foot – and signage – forward!