Trade shows are fantastic opportunities to show everything your business has to offer. A well-designed booth will tell your story, display your products and services, and invite prospective customers and clients to engage with your brand.
However, before you can start establishing relationships with attendees, you must attract them to your booth—and competition is fierce. Your trade show booth has to stand out in a crowd of visitors, booths, flashy displays, and other vendors.
Our guide will help you design a trade show booth that captures the attention of passersby and provides you with an opportunity to engage with visitors.
How to Design a Booth for a Trade Show
Follow these steps to create a unique trade show booth that stands out from the crowd and sets you apart from the competition.
Consider the Layout
When designing a trade show booth, one of the most important things to keep in mind is the layout of the floor space allocated to your exhibit.
A well-organized trade show booth is easy for visitors to navigate, which reduces confusion and prevents people from missing important highlights. Create a path using product displays, walls, or other features to guide visitors through your display. Be sure to include plenty of empty space; you don’t want too much clutter.
Illuminate Your Display with Exhibit Lighting
There are many types of exhibit lighting you can use to illuminate your display: spotlights, strobe lights, ambient lights, accent lighting, hanging lights, flashing lights, and more. Effective lighting will draw attention to your booth, make your exhibit look more exciting, and enhance the visibility of your products.
Tell Your Brand Story
Your brand is unique, and your trade show booth needs to tell your story.
What makes your products or services unique? Why should customers choose you over the competition? Why should your customers trust you?
Consider how you can add these elements of your brand story into your booth, from the graphics and messaging to the design and giveaways. All parts of your booth should align under your brand in a way that prompts visitors to take action.
Focus on a Clear Message
Many exhibitors try to share all the great things about their products, services, and company, which results in conflicting messages, overwhelmed attendees, and confusing takeaways. Instead, focus on one clear message that you can weave throughout your booth.
For example, choose one thing that makes your brand unique or sets you apart from your competitors and incorporate it into your graphics, visuals, and text.
Choose a Color Palette
Too many colors can strain the eyes and make passersby avoid your booth, and too few colors can result in a boring display. Create a color palette with three to five focus colors: one main color to unifies all elements, a coordinating color to create contrast, and one to three accent colors to emphasize important elements.
Your color palette should also follow your brand colors and style. Make sure the colors you choose complement your company’s aesthetic.
Use High-Quality Images
Properly formatted, high-resolution images are essential for your trade show booth. Otherwise, the images you want to display may be pixelated, blurry, or stretched beyond recognition. Check with an experienced graphic designer to ensure your images—whether they will be printed in a brochure, showcased on a banner, or displayed on fabric—look professional and high-quality.
6 Trade Show Booth Design Tips to Make a Big Impact
Make a big impact and draw a crowd by incorporating any of these trade show booth design tips.
- Think About the Climate
What is the climate like in the area where the trade show will be located?
When planning branded swag for your booth, remember that attendees will likely have time to explore the area around the convention center. If the trade show is in a hot, sunny place, consider offering fans, sunscreen, or sunglasses to visitors. If the climate is rainy, provide umbrellas. If you’re in a cold part of the country, giveaway ice scrapers or gloves.
Visitors will appreciate these items throughout their time at the event—building goodwill and cementing your company in their minds.
- Incorporate Motion into Your Booth
Most of the exhibits and displays at trade show booths are static and immobile, featuring tables, counters, banners, and walls. Draw eyes to your booth by incorporating motion. Add a video wall, bring in a live mascot, or hold a product demonstration to bring some type of motion to your booth.
- Hold Contests or Offer Giveaways
A great way to attract people to your booth is to hold a contest. It can be as simple as a business card draw or as interactive as a game. And, you can ask people to come back at a later time to get the results of the contest so they will be thinking about your exhibit all day.
Giveaways like branded freebies, industry-related products, or even foods or snacks are another excellent method to grab attention.
- Reach Out to Passersby
Not everyone is going to stop and interact with your booth (at first). Some people wander the exhibit hall and browse the aisles, passively looking for products and services that fit their needs. Print brochures and other materials that share your company’s story and solutions and make them easily accessible for passersby. If they look at your materials and find something that interests them, they’ll stop by your booth for more info.
- Make It Interactive
Interactive activities draw attention and get people to spend more time at your booth. You can have a photo booth, hold an educational seminar, host an interactive product demonstration, incorporate touch-screen technology, set up a virtual reality (VR) station, and more. Anything you can do to make attendees interact with your booth will make a big impact.
- Keep Visibility in Mind
It doesn’t matter how well-crafted your messaging is if people can’t see it.
Ensure your logo, graphics, and key messaging is above waist-height and in large, readable font so people can view it from a distance.
Need Help Designing a Booth for Your Next Trade Show? Contact Alliance Exposition
Is your company looking to design a booth for an upcoming trade show? Are you ready to create a trade show booth that draws a crowd? We can help.
At Alliance Exposition, we provide high-quality convention and trade show services for companies in a variety of industries. We focus on small and mid-sized hotel events, and we pride ourselves on taking the time to understand your unique market, needs, and vision.
Our trade show experts are ready to guide you through the entire planning and production process, from our in-house design, graphic, and exhibition production to the on-site, show floor experience. We’re always in your corner, here to assist you with whatever you need.
Contact us today to submit an exhibit proposal or get more information on how we can help your business at your next trade show.
