Booth Evaluation Guide – Top Questions to Ask Yourself

Whether your trade show booth is brand new or you’ve had the same booth for years, it’s important to regularly evaluate your booth and its elements. Use our Trade Show Booth Evaluation Guide to keep your booth in top-top shape and ensure it provides you the best return on your investment.

Pre-Show Questions

Goals change and trends come and go. Asking yourself a few questions can save you time and money in the long run and keep your booth up to date. Here are a few questions you can ask about your trade show booth to help you evaluate how your booth is performing.

Does your booth-type align with your business goals?

As an owner of an exhibit, you’re likely aware of the different exhibit-types. Custom, Modular and Portable, Hybrid, Branded, and Digital Environments are a few of the most common exhibits. The type of booth you own should closely align with your business goals. If your objective is to promote your products, then a Custom exhibit might be best so you can design it to show off your hero products. Or if it’s brand exposure you are looking for, then a Branded Environment with Augmented Reality can work wonders at immersing attendees into your world.

Who does your exhibit speak to?

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. When they see your booth from a distance or when they walk into your exhibit, what does your booth say? The use of color, design elements and branding impacts your exhibit’s message.

Is your booth equipped for presentations and interviews?

Today, product demonstrations, presentations and interviews have become commonplace at trade shows. While attracting attendees to your booth is a primary goal, keeping them engaged and interested in your products and services is just as important. Evaluate whether your exhibit has the capability and the space to host presentations, and a quiet corner where you can interview attendees or CEOs for marketing videos.

Does your booth tell a story?

Storytelling has been around for centuries. From carvings on cave walls to cheap movie night, people want good stories. In fact, 92 percent of consumers today want brands to tell them a story when advertising or promoting a product. Your booth is a great opportunity to tell your brand’s story. Creating a story in your booth begins with understanding your customer’s pain points, then taking them along a path that leads them to your product or service as their solution. Your booth’s design elements are your best opportunity at telling your brand’s story.

Is there somewhere you can meet with qualified prospects?

Meeting with clients and prospects face-to-face is one of the cornerstone goals of trade show marketing. A comfortable lounge or quiet place in your exhibit can make or break landing a client.

Is your exhibit traffic-friendly?

Cluttered booths are often passed by prospects looking to make the most of their time on the show floor. Consider redesigning your exhibit if it lacks open spaces or large pockets where attendees can stand.

Evaluating Your Design Elements

As mentioned, the design of your trade show booth has a considerable impact on how many attendees you attract to your space. To make sure your trade show booth design is optimized for success on the trade show floor, evaluate how these design elements can fit into your booth.

Color

Attendees notice color before any other design element. The right color can increase brand recognition by 80 percent. When you think of Coca-Cola, what color comes to mind? Close your eyes and think of Apple. Do you see white? Your brand’s colors, and how you use them, are an essential component of your overall brand strategy. It’s important to ensure the color of your exhibit elements are on brand and don’t blend in with everything else on the show floor. If your competitors exhibits are blue and white, then consider using one of your brand accent colors as the main background color. This will help you stand out.

Lighting

Display lighting is a great way to add impact to your trade show displays and banner stands, especially with the traditionally low ambient lighting provided at trade shows. Display lighting can be a very cost-effective method of increasing the impact of your display and attracting more customers.

Backlighting can shine a light on your brand, literally. Consider backlighting key elements of your message or logo and use regular down lights or no lighting for the rest. This will create contrast and the light directs the eyes of attendees to your hero products and displays.

Logos

Does your logo lay flat? Trade shows are your chance to showcase your logo from a different perspective. Whether it is creating a 3D sign and lighting it from different angles, mirroring the logo image in a hanging sign, or even using it to create a unique, yet subtle, background pattern, your logo can be a surprising element for attendees.

Technology

What technology do you have working for you in your booth? Virtual and Augmented Reality are easier to set up and manage than perceived, and are incredibly valuable design elements that are proven to drive booth traffic. Video Walls, Interactive Displays, Mobile Charging Stations, Monitors, Speakers, or other technology connected to your booth go a long way in attracting attendees and keeping them engaged in your products.