Tradeshows are excellent for networking, gaining new clients, and getting more people to know about your products and services. However, like every other promotional event, tradeshows can be expensive, especially when your preparation is haphazard.
But you don’t have to exhaust a year’s worth of marketing budget on a single tradeshow exhibition if you know what to do. In this article, we discuss some effective cost-saving strategies to make your tradeshow exhibitions more affordable.
Have a Solid Plan
While this point might seem obvious, you will be amazed to know how many companies and entrepreneurs run around to put their tradeshow exhibition materials together at the last minute. If your participation in a tradeshow will have any impact on your business’ bottom-line, then you need to start planning as early as possible.
Get everything you need for the show ready, arrive at the venue on time, and have a well-coordinated plan to ensure you get the best out of the event. That way, you will reduce the chances of making mistakes to the barest minimum and save yourself from penalties.
Create a Tradeshows Calendar
There will be many tradeshows throughout the year, but which of them can deliver the highest returns on investment for your business? Rather than attend every available exhibition year round, carefully select the events that will provide the best exposure for your business.
With this strategy, you can save the money that will be spent on less rewarding shows and concentrate your efforts on high ROI events.
Travel Smart
If you are attending tradeshows outside of town, be sure to plan your trip well ahead of time. Iron out things like accommodation, flight tickets, meals, local transport and other related expenses.
Doing this will help you avoid last minute bookings that will hurt your wallet and also prevent any disruptions that can disorganize your plans for the event.
Leverage Technology
Many tradeshow attendees come primarily for the live demonstrations. But moving heavy equipment or prototypes can be costly, unsafe, or even unrealistic. Rather than spend vast amounts of resources to move your products to and from the exhibition venue, you can provide your visitors with a fully immersive demonstration of your offers through Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and 360 Degrees Video content.
With VR and AR, potential customers can try out target products in an almost real-life environment that enriches your message and amplifies the main selling points of your products. As we go forward, VR and AR, as well as 360 videos, will play a large part in reducing the cost of participating in trade shows. Start taking advantage of these technologies now.
Rent Your Exhibition Materials
While it might be cost-effective in the long run to own exhibition materials, things like audio visual equipment, booths, LED displays and other high-tech devices are expensive.
Rather than spend huge amounts of money to buy, you can always rent at the tradeshow at affordable rates. In addition to being more affordable, renting eliminates the cost of storing exhibition materials year round, as well as transportation costs to and from the event venue.
With the rapid advances in technology, renting affords you the opportunity to get the latest exhibition materials without breaking the bank.
Tradeshows don’t have to be prohibitively expensive. With the simple strategies outlined above, you can optimize your tradeshow attendance while on a modest budget.
