Trade Show Hacks: 4 Clever Ways to Attract People to Your Space

Published in

Marketing And Growth Hacking

4 min readSep 2, 2017

Introduction

If you’ve ever been to a large trade show or exhibition, you’ve surely noticed that many stalls remain chock-full of people, while others have nearly no one visiting them for the entire duration of the event. Some of the filled-up booths aren’t just pulling in customers because their product is awesome — they may even have a mediocre product on display. There are many crafty ways to get more people to your stall, that will cost you little to no money. Some of these are:

1. Phone charging station

You will be shocked at the sheer number of people who roam around at trade shows with 2% battery life remaining on their sleek new smartphones. Buy a 6-Port USB hub, get a bunch of Android and iPhone cables and you’re set for the day. Make sure it’s from a reputed brand, as some of these multi-point chargers are poorly built. Also, the cheap ones are not efficient at charging multiple devices. Keep it on the table with a “Free charging!” label and soon, power-hungry people will swarm to your stall like flies.

2. Games at your stall

A simple game like darts will do for this. Engage potential clients and offer them chocolates in return for their efforts — whether they win or not. It’ll make them happy and trigger a conversation about your product/service. You can also consider some merchandise that has your logo, but not in an obvious way. (No coasters with your brand name — no one wants ads in their house!) Check out this link if you want to have a contest at your next trade show.

3. Wi-Fi hotspot

Have a Wi-Fi hotspot at your stall and give free access to people — but write the password on your business card. They’ll have to keep your card now. Pitch them your product or services while they’re using the internet. Do keep in mind the maximum number of connections that your router can support, otherwise new users won’t be able to latch on.

4. Live demo

While this does sound like something you’d already know, many exhibitors don’t bother doing a live demo of their product. Some companies will bring their product along, but stop demo-ing if they feel that no one is looking. The product has to be demonstrated continuously, because this is bound to increase attention among attendees. It also serves as visible proof of your product’s quality.

Final Words

While these trade show hacks will definitely draw swarms of interested people to your stall, don’t forget the basics! Be courteous, treat everyone equally whether they’re interested in your product or not — they might just refer your brand to everyone in their network. Listen to what people have to say to you, and don’t be too pushy about your product. Most importantly, be sure to follow up after the event!

This article was first published on ohaiapp.com for the Cutting Chai blog. Ohai is a professional networking mobile app. Click here to download it!