MODdisplays is proud to announce our biggest savings event ever: 15% off every product on our online store. We understand that marketing budgets get pinched near the end of the year, but that doesn’t mean that your company should have to sacrifice its presence at your next trade show.

Whether you’re looking for top of the line Exhibit One displays, popup displays, or Xpressions displays, you’ll find unbeatable prices on our online store.

The recent financial turmoil on Wall Street has left American business owners in a state of confusion. Many small business owners are already feeling the effects of the current financial crisis, and many more are uncertain about what the next few years might hold for their company. According to recent reports from the Trade Show Bureau, the trade show industry is still going strong, but will that trend continue as banks and businesses tighten their belts in preparation for the storm ahead?

Trade shows will always be an important component of business to business marketing efforts, but small businesses will spend less money on trade shows in the coming years than they have in the past. As businesses spend fewer and fewer marketing dollars, the need to maximize those dollars will drive demand for experienced trade show marketing specialists. Trade shows are a great place to inform your target audience about what kind of company you are, what products you offer, and what differentiates you from your competitors, and an experienced trade show marketing specialist can help you increase the return on your investment and reduce the costs associated with exhibiting.

Every exhibitor wants to maximize the return on their investment, and many exhibitors cut costs by carefully analyzing their trade show budget and removing unneeded expenses. You should never make a budget cut that will be detract from the overall quality of your marketing program, but there are many ways to reduce your expenses in ways that are largely invisible to visitors and attendees to your trade show booth. No matter how you choose to cut your budget, it’s important to keep the return on your investment in mind as the overall goal of your campaign. That being said, here are a few discrete ways you can reduce your costs:

• Take time to figure our exactly how much space you actually need before you register your space. It’s always better to exhibit in a small space that you can properly outfit and staff than to exhibit in a large space that you are unable to properly outfit and staff. Booth registration fees often represent over half of exhibiting expenses, so choosing your space wisely can save your company a lot of money.
• Keep your eyes open for discounts on show services. Electricity, water, and internet services are not free when you exhibit at a trade show, and you can often save over 50% by signing up for these services early (usually up to 30 days in advance).
• Order promotional products and trade show giveaways in bulk. Most companies use promotional items in a number of different contexts (not just trade shows), and ordering in bulk can earn deep discounts for your company.
• Avoid companies that charge rush charges for printing and exhibit services, as this can drastically cut into your trade show budget if you’re crunched for time. At MODdisplays, our model is simple: If we can possibly get it done for you, we will. We never charge rush charges no matter how tight your deadline.
• Review your invoices after the show is finished. It would not be unusual for event planners to confuse your service orders with those of a neighboring booth and charge you an exorbitant amount. By simply reviewing your invoices, you may catch a number of errors and save your company hundreds of dollars.

When you are able to keep your exhibiting expenses low, you gain an advantage over your competitors that will help you to make a bigger impact at your show. MODdisplays understands the needs of exhibitors, and we work diligently to stay within the tight budgets they have. If you have any questions, please give us a call at 877.663.3976 or email sales@moddisplays.com.

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”).

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 7^th 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.

Before making the decision to attend a trade show, be sure to examine all the costs of trade show services, not simply the cost of registering your trade show booth space. Many shows offer relatively inexpensive booth space, but charge thousands of dollars for simple things like an internet connection or labor.

Before you register for any show, you should think carefully about what services you will need from the exhibit hall and ensure that the show coordinator will provide those services at a reasonable price. Some commonly requested show services include labor, internet connection, rigging, pre-show storage, and I&D (which stands for “installation and dismantle”). You may be billed for electricity for your trade show exhibit space as well.

The cost of exhibiting at a trade show can quickly add up to be much more than you expected, so make sure you are aware of every hidden fee before you attend the show. You don’t want to get caught off guard and ruin your ROI.