Trade Show Marketing Blog

Most companies who use trade shows as a part of a larger marketing campaign actually spend less than they should on their trade show marketing campaign. If you spend too little on your trade show marketing campaign, you will appear underfunded and unprofessional, which is actually worse than if you never exhibited at the trade show at all. Appearing underfunded will leave visitors and attendees with a bad taste in their mouth with regards to your company brand, which is the last thing you want.

If you’re looking for ways to cut your trade show budget, there are some simple strategies that you can use that will reduce your expenses without resulting in an unprofessional look. The goal should be to reduce your expenses and yet still improve your appearance and brand presence at trade shows. I’ll outline a few strategies below:

The first thing you can do to reduce your trade show budget is to focus tightly on the things you can improve without incurring any additional cost. At little or no cost to your company, you can train your booth staffers in trade show marketing and lead collection, which will pay off tremendously with even the slightest improvement. No matter what your display looks like or what kind of marketing material you have invested in, the people who represent your company will make a bigger impact on visitors and attendees at the show than any other factor, so be sure that they are well trained and prepared for the rigors of the trade show environment.

Planning ahead is also a great way to reduce cost. You can save thousands of dollars on travel and lodging expenses by booking flights and hotel rooms far in advance. It is common knowledge that good rates on hotels and flights can be easy to get when you plan ahead. You can also save a lot of money in shipping and logistics services by planning ahead with regards to the purchase of your trade show display. There is an enormous difference between the cost of overnight shipping and ground shipping, and planning in advance can result in massive savings.

You can also reduce your expenses by analyzing what employees spend on trips. Dining at fine restaurants, flying first class, and other perks should be avoided to reduce the feeling that a trip to a trade show is a vacation. You can still have fun, but ensure that business is the primary feature of your trip, and don’t get caught up in distractions.

The number one way that exhibitors can save money is by carefully considering where they exhibit. Many exhibitors attend shows year after year without any analysis of the profitability. Eventually, exhibiting at unprofitable shows becomes a habit instead of a conscious decision, and this causes results to decline further. Most exhibitors could do well by carefully considering which shows they exhibit at and eliminating the ones that are not profitable (even if they are industry specific trade shows where your company is “supposed to make an appearance”).

In an effort to give back to our community, MODdisplays has set up a system that allows us to give 1% of every purchase made through our online store to the charity of our customer’s choosing. By entering the coupon code associated with the charity of your choice, you guarantee that 1% of the purchase price of your product(s) will go to the charity you select.

Currently we are working with six charities, but more can be added upon request. The current charities are:

• Boys and Girls Club
• UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund)
• United Way
• American Red Cross
• Fruit Tree Planting Foundation
•  National Breast Cancer Foundation

There is no minimum purchase, and the offer will never expire. This is a great way for you or your company to make a small difference in the community we all live in. You can learn more about how this offering by visiting our charity page. Please feel free to leave any feedback you may have, or call our sales department for more information at 877.663.3976.

Allure banner stands will do more for your exhibit marketing program because of their unique style. A typical retractable banner stand will provide you with a large graphic that is extremely portable, but the Allure banner stand systems will help your graphic stand out in the crowd. At MODdisplays, we offer a number of different options within the Allure family, and each has a unique shape.

The structure of Allure banner stands is formed using aluminum tubing. When you purchase an Allure, the tubing comes shock-corded together for easy assembly. Once the tubing is assembled, simply stretch the durable fabric graphic over the frame and you are ready to exhibit. Most Allure banner stands can be set up in a matter of minutes, which makes it a favorite among exhibitors everywhere.

The Allure banner stand graphic is created using a process called dye sublimation. With this advanced printing technique, your image is essentially burned onto a durable, washable fabric graphic that is guaranteed never to wrinkle or fade for as long as you own your banner stand.  Dye sublimation also allows for very vibrant images, which helps you avoid the “washed out” look that plagues so many banner stands on the market today. If your Allure banner graphic ever becomes dirty, you can wash it in the washing machine to get rid of any grime or dirt.

Each year, outdoor trade shows become more and more common. Why be cooped up in a crowded exhibit hall when you could be enjoying a warm, sunny day? Outdoor trade shows are usually set in beautiful locations with stable and predictable climates, which allows exhibitors to prepare for the weather in advance. More and more trade shows are moving outdoors, and these trade shows are statistically more profitable for exhibitors and attendees than indoor trade shows.

Exhibiting at outdoor trade shows can create interesting challenges. Wind, sunlight, rain, and even humidity can cause problems for traditional trade show displays, but the outdoor trade show displays we sell at MODdisplays are guaranteed to hold up in all types of inclement weather. Our outdoor banner stands are printed on durable fabric that will not fade in the harsh sunlight. Even in rainy, windy conditions, our outdoor banner stands will remain firmly planted in the ground if properly installed.

Most exhibitors at outdoor trade shows use trade show display tents. These tent displays allow you to clearly define your exhibiting space, and the fact that we offer custom printed display tents allows you to further enhance your marketing campaign by highlighting your company brand. Walls can be added on the sides of the tent, which allows your exhibiting space to be as private or as public as you need it to be.

Across the board, one of the big trends in the trade show industry is toward outdoor trade shows. Understanding how these environments work can allow your company to use them to your advantage. Outdoor trade shows are catching on because they are simply more fun than indoor trade shows. Exhibitors feel more relaxed and comfortable, which helps to create a business-friendly environment. Aside from the travel expenses that you’re likely to incur moving your booth staffers and exhibit material to a sunny, warm location, there really is no downside to outdoor trade shows.

Alumalite is one of the most popular portable exhibits on the market today. Its unique canopy and lightweight construction make it a favorite among exhibitors who are looking for big value at a relatively low price tag. As of this morning, all of our Alumalite package prices have been reduced by up to $640!

This price reduction does not reflect any reduction in the quality of our product or our services. MODdisplays is committed to cutting cost for our customers because we believe that this will result in increased customer loyalty. We understand that most of our clients are not experts in trade show marketing, but we will not game our clients to make an extra buck. You can shop MODdisplays with confidence knowing that we are always striving to provide you with the lowest price.

We regularly compare our prices to that of our competitors, and we are always the lowest. Unlike many portable trade show display companies, we won’t play the “bait and switch” game with the Alumalite products on our website. The prices you see on our websites will always match the image you see. Many companies place images of fully-loaded displays with low price tags, but the fine print mentions that the purchase price does not include everything you see in the image. These deceptive tactics confuse potential customers and result in a general distrust in our industry.

If you’re interested in an Alumalite display, give us a call at 877.663.3976. We look forward to hearing from you!

Most 20 x 20 trade show displays on the market are constructed using custom exhibit material that is too large to ship via UPS or FedEx (truss displays are a perfect example). Why use custom exhibit material when you could use stocked exhibit material in custom configurations? Using stocked exhibit hardware ensures that your display can be shipped via UPS or FedEx without any problems, which results in a drastic reduction in cost when you purchase your trade show booth.

The Exhibit One displays we offer in 20 x 20 configurations can be completely customized with monitor mounts, literature holders, kiosks, counters, graphics, pedestals, and hundreds of other accessories. We’ve done our best to think of every feature that you could ever want from a trade show display. Because we stock the components needed to make those accessories, we don’t have to custom-design every trade show booth we sell. This means that your turnaround time on a 20 x 20 exhibit could be as low as one week (most custom exhibit houses would require a much longer turnaround time for displays that don’t do the job as well).

During the time when you are customizing your booth, we are working hard to create a rendering that works for you. Within as little as a half hour, we can send you a custom rendering with your company’s brand and a quote to match that rendering. As you can see from our website, our renderings are not merely line drawings like many of our competitors, they are realistic 3D images of what your display will look like when it has been set up. We will go through the process of creating numerous renditions until you find something that meets your needs and your budget.

Once you have settled on your hardware, our trade show graphic designers are at your disposal for free. This is just one of many services we offer exhibitors, so take advantage of all of them by visiting our website. When your booth is ready to ship, we will manage the logistics from start to finish to ensure that your display arrives exactly when you want it to.

Anyone who is exhibiting in a 10 x 30 space is trying to make a huge statement at their trade show. The cost of registering such a massive booth can be as high as $50,000 at some shows, and that doesn’t even count the cost of purchasing a 10 x 30 trade show display. If your company is willing to invest that much money in exhibiting at a trade show, you had better purchase a display that will generate big results and positive return on your investment.

MODdisplays staffs exhibit designers and graphic designers, and these specialists are at your disposal free of charge to help you create and test ideas for your trade show marketing campaign. Over the past few weeks, our design teams have created a number of 10 x 30 configurations, and we have placed them on our website for you to browse. The goal of these packages is to help you find combinations of exhibit hardware that serve your needs.

Our most popular solution in the 10 x 30 range are our Exhibit One 10 x 30 displays. Despite the massive size and custom look of these trade show booths, they can be shipped via UPS or FedEx and set up without the use of any tools. You won’t need to waste money hiring laborers at your trade show because any of your booth staffers can set up the display in only a few hours.

Our goal is to help our clients take their trade show marketing campaign to the next level. Competition on the trade show floor is ruthless, but a clean and professional-looking trade show display can help your company stand head and shoulders above the competition. We make the process of ordering these displays simple. Because we offer free graphic design and free exhibit renderings, you will know exactly what your trade show display will look like before you purchase it. This is absolutely unheard of in an industry where most companies charge $75 - $200 per hour for graphic design, and NOBODY offers rendering services that can match our capabilities.

If you have any questions about our 10 x 30 trade show displays, give us a call toll free at 1.877.663.3976, or e-mail us at sales@moddisplays.com.

If you have ever attended a trade show, you know that many companies struggle with designing graphics that represent their company well. Even large, nationally recognized corporations make glaring mistakes in their graphic design that could have easily been prevented with a better understanding of the trade show environment. By collecting information from designers experienced in working with trade show graphics, we have compiled a number of tips that we believe are crucial to a successful graphic design.

1- Less is more in the world of trade show graphics. Many designers seem to think that they are designing a museum exhibit, because the entire display is filled with small text and bullet points. You only have three seconds to grab the attention of attendees and visitors at a trade show, and a large graphic full of tiny text is the last thing you want. We have found that large, boldly colored images that relate directly to the brand identity of your company will not only increase your visibility at the trade show, but increase the return on your investment. If you are designing graphics to promote a company that sells orange juice, you would do much better by using a large image of a fresh orange than by writing bullet points about the advantages of purchasing your brand of orange juice.

2- Do not sacrifice a professional image in order to market a smaller facet of your company. At a trade show, you are marketing your brand, not your products. Unless you offer a cutting edge product, visitors to your booth will not be impressed by what you sell. If you design simple but professional trade show graphics that focus on the feel of your company, you are much more likely to leave a lasting impact on attendees by raising the profile of your company brand. The biggest motivating factor that changes potential customers into loyal clients is the perception that your company is professional and legitimate.

3- Maintain a consistent scheme with all of your marketing material. Your large format trade show graphics should be closely tied in with the literature and giveaways you are handing out, as well as any pre-show mailers you have sent. Your trade show graphics should also work with your company website, letterhead, and business cards. In other words, your trade show marketing campaign needs to be a part of a much larger approach that is well planned and consistent. This will help you to appear legitimate and professional to your potential clients, which will help to earn business for your company. If your trade show graphics are well designed and make a big impact at your show, visitors will be disappointed if they are pointed to a poorly designed, outdated website.

Many companies that sell trade show displays offer graphic design, usually at a cost of roughly $100 per hour. There are a few companies that offer free trade show graphic design with the purchase of a trade show display or banner stand, which can be a great way to save money and time. Companies that sell exhibits usually staff designers that specialize in large format graphic design and printing, which means that they know exactly what types of design works well in a trade show environment. The expertise of a professional can drastically increase the return on your investment without adding too much upfront cost.

About the Author:

Andy Keeler is the owner of MODdisplays, a company that specializes in portable trade show displays and exhibit graphics. MODdisplays offers free graphic design and a free rendering service in an effort to simplify the process of purchasing trade show booths online. MODdisplays also offers Exhibit One displays, which are the most eco-friendly displays available on the market today.

MODdisplays, a leader in the portable trade show display industry, now offers free graphic design services with the purchase of any trade show display or banner stand. Designing trade show graphics can be a complex and challenging process, and usually ends up costing exhibitors more time and money than the display itself. The design professionals at MODdisplays can take the headache out of designing your own graphics and help to ensure that you look your best at the show.

The graphic designers at MODdisplays are experienced in the field of trade show marketing, which means they understand what works well for exhibitors. Trade shows are fast-paced environments, and experienced design professionals can help your company produce a display that is eye-catching and professional at the same time.

Most companies in the portable trade show display industry charge between $75 and $200 per hour, and an average 10 x 10 trade show booth could take as long as eight hours to design. Graphic design charges can add up very quickly, and many companies hide the total charge until after it is too late for the client to back out of the purchase. At MODdisplays, graphic design for your trade show booth is completely free, and there are no strings attached to this offer.

In addition to the obvious cost benefits for clients of MODdisplays, the addition of free graphic design simplifies the ordering process. “People who are in search of a trade show display really like what they see on our website, but they aren’t sure how the process of designing and producing custom graphics works. Now they can purchase our displays with confidence, and we send them their first graphic design rendition the next business day,” says MODdisplays President Andy Keeler. Combined with the custom exhibit rendering service offered by MODdisplays, the process of purchasing a trade show exhibit has become much easier.

When you purchase a trade show booth from MODdisplays, a member of the Graphics Department will immediately contact you to get a feel for what you are trying to accomplish at your trade show, as well as what types of graphic design appeal to your company’s unique style. From that conversation, a designer will take the time to produce an initial rendition. Through continued dialogue with our graphic design department, we will help you come to a graphic solution that works well for your company. Nothing will ever be printed without your signed approval, so there is no need to worry about paying for something that you are not entirely satisfied with.

In the portable trade show display industry, it is easy to get complacent and fall into routines with clients. MODdisplays is proud of the steps that have been taken to improve customer experience and continually improve the service that we provide to our clients.

Contact Information:

Andy Keeler

www.moddisplays.com

sales@moddisplays.com

1.877.663.3976 (Toll Free)

Added note: We have added a blog feed to our website! Check it out.

One of the most difficult parts of planning for your trade show, particularly for new exhibitors, is determining your display budget.   When you determine what show to exhibit at the costs are fixed for reserving a space, and while often expensive they are not negotiable.  The displays however range drastically in price.  Ideally everyone wants the high end display at the budget price, but the reality is balancing exhibit needs, professional look, with the best price.

If you spend too much, you might have a successful show but you may have spent thousands more then you needed to.   Spending too much is a rarity.  Most often exhibitors tighten their budget the most when it comes to buying their display.  They’ve reserved the space and they have bought plane tickets and hotel rooms for their sales staff.  They are almost out of money so they cut corners when purchasing a booth.  What happens?  Think of it like this, you are a retail store and you lease a space in an upscale mall that all your competitors seem to have success in.  But in order to balance the high cost of the lease you cut the budget on your store build out.  Result, you end up with a flea market looking space in a top dollar mall, which, in turn, kills your sales and company image regardless of your products or service.

In trade show terms, you are killing your return on your investment.  You are not getting a realistic view of the benefit of exhibiting at trade shows.  Possibly, you shouldn’t be exhibiting, or possibly you should have showed up with a display that legitimizes your company rather than making it look like halfhearted operation.  You obviously believe in your products or services, but put yourself in your potential customer’s shoes, would you use your company?

Here are some suggestions:  When buying booth space be realistic.  Don’t reserve a space that you cannot adequately fill.  A well designed 10×10 exhibit looks much better than a 10×20 exhibit that looks like it was built by a 7th grade science class.

Take a realistic view of your needs.   If you are promoting software you will probably need to have a display with a monitor mount for demoing your produce.  If you sell apparel you will probably want to display it; but don’t overdo it either.  Your trade show display is not supposed to look like a retail store.   Take a few good examples of what you offer; if you professional and your samples look good, the attendees will be confident of your professionalism and the quality of your entire product line.

Finally, GRAPHICS, GRAPHICS, GRAPHICS!  Think of the old phrase “a picture says a thousand words.”   Graphics are to exhibits as location is to real estate.  A large well designed graphic will legitimize your company immensely and quickly.  The best example is the dot com boom of the nineties.   Companies bought big displays and large graphics and were immediately thought of as big companies.  If you are a legitimate company with a great product or service, the dot com example can show you that a good trade show presence can be just what you need to really take off.