Planning an exhibition stand for a trade show

Planning an exhibition stand for a trade show needs a lot of time and effort if you want to make a success of your investment.

Every trade show is competitive so you will find your direct and indirect competitors vying to grab the attention of the audience. Your exhibition stand will need to be well planned so that it stands out from the competition.

Let’s look at some of key areas that you should focus on

Set objectives and targets for your exhibition stand

It is crucial that you consider and write down the objectives of your trade show stand. These objectives can then be shared with and discussed with your team. The objectives need to be clear, and the results should be measurable. The vaguer the objective the harder it is to measure the results.

If the objective is for example to ‘raise brand awareness’ the success could be measured by the number of visitors to your stand and possibly the number of active enquiries as a result. You could also look at the number of visitors to your Web site following the show.

Target Audience for your exhibition stand

The target audience will all depend on the type of trade show you are exhibiting at.

If it is an industry specific show, then the audience will be a wide range of people but all from your industry group. You will need to consider which part of the audience you want to target. The more you define your target audience the more likely your exhibition stand will deliver the right message to attract your targets.

If the show is more general and not industry specific, then you will have an audience from a wider range of industries. There will also be a diverse range of vendors who will be exhibiting. Some will be competitors, but a lot will not be. Defining your target audience is even more crucial since you want to make sure you spend your time on visitors who are relevant and not waste too much time on visitors who are not your target audience.

Designing your exhibition stand for a trade show

The design of the exhibition stand should factor in your objectives and all the other information you know about your audience and your competitors.

If you have exhibited at trade shows previously you will already have a lot of information about what worked and what did not. In particular the design and messaging on your exhibition stand need to ensure that it reached your target audience.

There are a multitude of factors to consider with the design which we have covered in other articles. Here are a few of the relevant articles which you can click on to take you to the article in question.

How to make the most of your exhibition space

Why light and movement will elevate your exhibition stand

Get in touch if your need help with your exhibition stand

If your need help with your exhibition stand, we have all the skills needed at Coker Expo and can help you will all aspects of exhibition stands for a trade show, so get in touch if you need help.