Trade Shows Are Still One of Your Best Investments

Trade shows remain one of the most effective ways for product manufacturers and suppliers to reach qualified buyers, specifiers, partners, and press. Whether you're exhibiting at AIA, GlassBuild America, World of Concrete, or a niche vertical event for architects, contractors, or facility management leaders—success comes down to strategy.

And not just at the show. The most productive exhibitors plan several months in advance to ensure their presence delivers measurable returns.

Long-Range Planning: Start Early to Secure Strategic Advantage

If you're exhibiting at a major industry event, start planning at least 90 days—and up to a year if you intend to:

Upgrade your exhibit display or create a new one
Host a hospitality event or business meeting
Secure premium booth placement or offsite venues

Prime exhibit locations and hospitality spaces sell out quickly. Early planning ensures you don’t miss your opportunity to make a lasting impression. No one wants to be on the back wall, next to the restrooms or freight elevator!

Pre-Show Preparation: Build Momentum Before You Arrive

Here’s how to make your presence known before the show floor even opens:

Set clear goals. Are you focused on lead volume, partner meetings, brand awareness, or customer retention? Define what success looks like and align your team.
Promote early and often. Use email campaigns, social media, and your website to announce your participation. Share booth highlights, product debuts, demos, and an invitation to your company’s hospitality event if applicable.
Ask your team members who will be staffing the booth to be an advocate for the event by sharing, liking, and commenting on event-related social media posts to help spread the word.
Include calls to action. Offer free guest registration codes, links to your meeting scheduler, or previews of what visitors can expect to experience in your space.
Publish a press release. Announce product launches, strategic partnerships, or what you’ll be demonstrating at the booth.
Get your entire team involved. Don’t just rely on reps attending the show. Ensure that all sales and customer service teams are promoting the event to their contacts—regardless of whether they’re attending. Don’t assume who is or isn’t going. Share widely.
Book meetings in advance. Reach out to customers, vendors, and media contacts well in advance of the show. Fill your schedule with strategic touchpoints.

Driving Booth Traffic: Make Your Exhibit a Destination

In a crowded expo hall, proactive engagement strategies can dramatically improve foot traffic.

Be an event sponsor. Gain exposure through signage, show app placements, or sponsored sessions.
Offer to speak or facilitate an AIA continuing education course. This will position your company as an industry expert.
Promote live demos. Publicize specific times when you'll be showcasing a product or feature.
Host a cocktail party, coffee service, or luncheon. Either in your booth or at a nearby venue. Invite customers, prospective buyers, media representatives, and other business partners for an extended networking.
Use your platforms. Share teaser videos, product spotlights, and booth sneak peeks via LinkedIn and email campaigns.
Send reminders. Don’t just promote once. Build anticipation with a content series and email reminders leading up to the event.

Booth Etiquette & Presentation: Your Brand Is on Display

Once the show begins, your booth becomes a live-action representation of your brand. Every interaction counts.

Wear branded apparel to maintain professionalism and brand consistency. Especially if you have a large booth, otherwise, how will prospective buyers distinguish between exhibit staff and other visitors?
Stand and engage—do not sit, eat, or scroll your phone while in the booth. If you must respond to a text, call, or email, step out of the space and into the aisle to do this.
Keep the booth clean throughout the day. No coffee cups, water bottles, or clutter.
Display materials prominently. Ensure product brochures, giveaways, and samples are easily accessible and clearly presented.
Encourage interaction. Let visitors pick up, touch, or demo products where possible. Hands-on engagement is memorable.
Train your exhibit team. Everyone should be aware of the key messages, differentiators, and next steps for visitors.
Host live demos or micro-presentations. These draw crowds and spark conversation.

Lead Capture & Tracking: Every Contact Counts

Don’t leave leads to chance. Create a structured approach for collecting, qualifying, and organizing contacts.

Scan every badge—even current customers. This helps track engagement and informs year-over-year metrics.
Tag and qualify leads immediately. Note what products they showed interest in and what follow-up is required.
Integrate with your CRM to reduce manual entry and shorten your sales cycle.

Post-Show Follow-Up: MovE Quickly and Learn From It

The show might be over—but the real work starts here.

Send personalized follow-ups immediately following the event, or at least within 2–3 days. Thank visitors, share next steps, and offer helpful resources.
Segment and prioritize leads. Sort contacts by urgency or buying stage. Create tailored follow-up cadences for hot prospects vs. long-term nurtures.
Host a team debrief. Meet with your internal team and agency to discuss what worked and what didn’t—from booth design to staffing, to messaging.
Document improvements. Note what should be refined for the next show—layout, visuals, lead retrieval tools, messaging, or engagement strategies.
Ask for feedback. Include a short survey link in your follow-up emails to capture customer perspectives. What stood out? What was missing?

Final Thoughts: Successful Events Are Designed, Not Hoped For

Trade shows are too important—and too expensive—to leave to chance. With thoughtful planning, strong execution, and intentional follow-up, B2B exhibitors can turn events into long-term growth engines.

Whether you're exhibiting at a national, regional, or local event, your outcomes will reflect the quality of your preparation and execution.

Planning a trade show? Our free checklist covers everything you need to execute with confidence and impact. Download now.

Need help developing your next trade show strategy?

Let Division 08 Marketing support your team with strategic planning, promotional content, lead conversion tools, and more. Please feel free to contact us at info@division08marketing.com or submit a request for a free consultation.

LEARN HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF TRADE SHOW MARKETING

Are you questioning whether you should participate in an upcoming trade show event? Is it worth the investment of your time and money? Absolutely. However, it’s a process and one that must be managed properly to achieve a successful outcome.

The ROI of a trade show can be exponential if you play your cards right. But, before you invest thousands of dollars to be an exhibitor, do your research—and be selective. Make sure to participate in events that are exclusive to your target audience and key influencers. Define your objectives and think about how you will measure ROI.

According to Entrepreneur, here are 6 benefits of trade show marketing:

Get a glimpse at the competition. While this shouldn’t be your main priority, being near other companies in the same industry will let you see what’s new and interesting in the marketplace. And, how your target audience is responding to all that is being offered.

Great PR opportunities. Distribute an effective press release prior to the event to create some buzz around your product offering and drive traffic to your booth. Reporters that write specifically about your industry will be sharing highlights of the upcoming event and they will be attending, so if you can gain an interview or mention in their writing--video, then you have just earned yourself some great PR. Take advantage of every opportunity before, during and after the event.

Potential partnerships. Not every other exhibitor at a trade show is your competition. Some may offer products or services that complement your business and creating new partnerships may prove beneficial. Trade shows and conferences provide excellent opportunities to network within your industry, conduct research and to share best practices.

Increase your exposure. The promotion of the event includes promotion of the exhibitors and sponsors of the trade show as well, as for months in advance. The press coverage, social media and blogs can increase your searchability. As people search for information surrounding the trade show, your own content is more likely to found. For example, make sure to include @GlassBuild or @AIA18CON in your social media posts, and relevant # hashtags.

Awards and recognition. Many trade shows give out awards and participating is worth the entry fee if you have a product or service that is innovative and effective. Volunteer to be a speaker or invest in a sponsorship. Awards and other recognition during the event will add credibility in the eyes of your customers.

Create and build momentum. Participating in a trade show is a lot of work and your products, services and marketing must be on point. Preparing for a trade show event should also be an exciting time. Your sales team should leave feeling energized and inspired following a successful outcome.

The benefits are great, but how do you maximize ROI and brand awareness? As mentioned earlier, choosing the right trade show is important, but that alone will not make it successful. Maximizing your ROI at a trade show takes strategy.

According to statistics by Exponents Insta USA Inc., the average company allocates 31.6% of their total marketing budget to еvеntѕ and exhibiting. With more than $24 billion dollars spent by US Exhibitors for trade show displays, 70% of those exhibitors have no specific objectives for the trade show. On top of that, 81% of trаdе ѕhоw attendees have buуіng authority. If you are going to invest a large portion of your marketing budget to exhibiting, then it is essential that you set objectives and take advantage of the exposure you will have to all those attendees with buying authority. By doing so, you will both maximize your ROI and brand awareness.

To provide a little more insight into how you can maximize your ROI at a trade show, here are the 5 most important trade show investments according to Inc.:

Location. Location. Location. It doesn’t matter if you have the best booth and a solid plan—if you are tucked away in the back corner where there is little to no foot traffic. A prime location is key. If possible, grab a spot near the entrance, next to the refreshments or a corner booth.

Have a great giveaway. If you want attendees to share their business card with you, or scan their badge, then you are going to have to entice them. Offer one or two grand prize giveaways via a drawing that will set you apart from other exhibitors, and offer small, useful promo items to everyone.

Staff your booth with the right people. For a trade show you are going to want your most extroverted marketing and sales staff that will represent your company well. Choose those you can count on to be heads up, alert and engaging with those who may otherwise just keep walking past your booth.

Invest in pre-show marketing and training. Promote the event, and your participation as an exhibitor. Put it on your website, send it in a newsletter and post it across your social media channels. Offer customers a free guest pass. Also, if some of your top customers will be attending, send them a personal invitation to stop by your booth to visit. Have a pre-show meeting with your exhibit team to make sure everyone understands to reason for being at the events, trade show etiquette and expectations.

Have a strong follow up system. Assign one person to oversee the process on how to capture leads during the event [hopefully with the ease of one or more lead retrieval devices], and the distribution of the leads following the event. Make sure leads are properly qualified, existing customers are acknowledged and make sure no one falls through the cracks. Follow-up and the timing of the follow-up is critical. Lack of follow-up will cause you to lose credibility and result in low ROI.

With the right strategy, your business will reap the benefits of effective trade show marketing and you will maximize the return on your investment. Trade shows are ideal for building brand awareness. Make the most of it!

If you are not sure how to properly research, plan and execute on trade shows and other event marketing opportunities, we can help guide you through the process—or completely manage your event calendar. Contact us today to schedule your free 30-minute consultation, and let us help you reap the benefits!

Exhibit with purpose: Strategies for trade show success