Trade Show Graphics: 3 Ways to Make Your Booth Stand Out

With signs looking optimistic for the economy, the return to in-person events like conferences and trade shows is imminent – trade show graphics offer an excellent avenue to get your exhibition booth on the radar and keep clients talking about your business. But with so many booths in a convention center, how can you get your company to stand out and attract new customers?

While companies with a large budget can afford to build elaborate sets around their products, you don’t need to break the bank to attract customers. The best trade show graphics respond to a customer’s needs first and foremost, while serving as an entry point to a conversation with the people staffing the booth.

What makes trade show signs enticing to customers? In this blog, we share some of the top tips that have proven success for businesses in the past, and give insight into how your signage needs can respond to a changing environment.

The Coachella Effect

Look up pictures of innovative booth design, and you’ll notice that the most elaborate designs might contain structures, seating, or even light shows. Outside of the tremendous cost that goes into these booths, what do they all share in common?

In short, they invite people to visit the booth.

First impressions are hard to break, and for many prospective customers your booth will be the first time that they have dealt with your company directly. Design should focus around sparking a conversation.

Customers who have embraced social media are likely to take photos of the most eye-catching displays. Some expo graphics include photo walls that people can take selfies with so that your brand gets shares on their social platforms – it can also serve as a reminder for them to reach out to you after the trade show has adjourned.

Swag and freebies have always been a popular option in trade shows and serve as a memento for your booth, but a photo stored on a smartphone can offer the same benefit at a fraction of a cost.

Let Your Product or Service Speak First, Trade Show Graphics Second

We’ve all seen Super Bowl Ads where we were completely immersed in the action of the commercial. Afterwards, however, we forgot what was being advertised by the end of the commercial. The same happens with loud trade show graphics that distracts from the offer.

A trade show booth is meant to be a spectacle, but the goal always remains the same: ensuring that your product or service is on central display. For some companies this is easier than others. A physical product can be immediately visible on a central pedestal or served to customers. But how do you sell something more abstract, like software or a service?

Some companies have leveraged iPads attached to a counter space with seats available, much like you might see at an airport serving menu items off a digital screen. This can help facilitate a conversation on how a platform is used or accessed, and allows presentations to be given in real time.

Whatever you are trying to pitch, focus on facilitating conversation first. Some products can sell themselves, but expo graphics should engage on building customer relationships.

Design Tips for Great Trade Show Graphics

At Bishop Image Group, our specialty lies in designing world-class signs for businesses like yours. From experience, we’ve found that the best trade show graphics share these features:

Telling Your Story – How do you intend to engage with your audience? Your trade show graphics should build around the narrative you’re looking to tell your customers. Draw them in with captivating images, statements, or products, and use this to begin the conversation.

Presenting Balanced Information – With the rise of social media, people have stopped using reading as their primary mode of information intake. They resort to captioned pictures and infographics to learn instead. For this reason, large walls of text won’t cut it. Even if the information presented on these are of high-quality, you’re here to tell rather than show.

Focus – Your product or service is chock full of features and benefits. These are secondary to the actual thing you are trying to sell. Graphics and imagery need to be centralized around a single message. It needs to say: “my product is X, and here is why it matters to you.”

With 20+ years of experience, Bishop Image Group has led the way for success in expo and trade show graphics. How can we make your business the talk of the conference? Contact us today for more information about our services.