How to Prepare for a Business Trade Show

Article written by James Bledsoe, Director of the eCommerce Solutions Center

Set Trade Show Goals
 

Trade shows help you not only to showcase your products or services, but also help you to grow your brand awareness and capture a wider network through increased visibility that a trade show provides. 

The US Commercial Service provides business resources at trade shows are also a value add to stakeholders like exhibitors, attendees, and local businesses. 

The USCS provides trade show resources such as:

• business-to-business matchmaking appointments;
• foreign buyer trade delegation recruitment;
• government-to-business meetings;
• country market overviews;
• and educational seminar breakout sessions.

Make sure trade shows are worth it, by first figuring out a draft budget for attending the trade show (air, hotel, food, tickets, booth, giveaways, transport, venue fees), establish return-on-investment benchmarks, followed by the sales needed to cover all expenses and ROI goals.
 

Research Trade Shows

You can begin your trade show research with this recorded webinar “Make the Most of Your Trade Shows” hosted by Strategic Partner IBT Online.

Find a trade show calendar to see what trade events are coming up, and what business support resources are available to you as a US business at the show.

 If you are hosting a trade show and would like the USCS to provide our business resources at your show, visit our Trade Event Partnership Program (TEPP) page.
 

Your Pre-Event Strategy

It is recommended that you create an event landing page on your business website, not only to advertise your presence at the show to your visitors, but to also boost your website search score by using trade show keywords for search engine optimization. 

Social media is a great way to help you promote any video content that you create and will promote through hand-outs and business cards at the trade show that direct attendees to a specific URL or social media account.