Craft Shows, Fairs, Festivals and Trade Shows...

Is your business dressed for success?
Well if not here are a few tips that you may want to have prepared for your next show.

Just as you wake up every morning and get ready for the day ahead, the first question you should ask yourself is-What do I want to accomplish? With this question in mind Steven Powell of Co-oper8 Marketing Group, suggest you make goals, plan a budget, define the resources you need and the attention you want to attract at your next event. As when you first started your venture into the business world, you need to set clear realistic goals when preparing for a new event. Determine what you want to accomplish, whether it is just finding new leads, building awareness or increasing sales on/off line.

You need to determine a budget and stick to it. You need not to borrow or spend extra money just to look the best at a show amongst the many newcomers and veteran vendors. Factors like that make reaching your goal(s) impossible. Money should be spent on making/creating more product(s) to improve your chances of increasing sales and awareness. If your goal is to find more leads, then you need to establish how many leads it will take to make a sale? If out of 20 people you can generate 5 sales of $100 profit, then your goal is to attract 20 people to your booth.

There are many other factors to doing events/shows, such as exposure, awareness, and being in the minds of people hoping they will remember your product. But there are greater necessities that you must account for, like furniture-tables and chairs rentals-materials and displays. I have done shows where all I had was my small business sign, table, chair and products. And those few times I did pretty well considering date, time of year and weather. This is not to say that you will have the same outcome as I, but it is to say that your budget is still a factor. If you have the funds, then yes, buy the great big banner and professional graphic signs, purchase the tent, display cases and all the extra nucks and crannies, but be sure to remember that all this factors into your profit, with vendor fee and material cost. You may also want to have catalogs, brochures, business cards, coupons or promo material to build leads and increase sales. All this should be included into your projected budget.

Once all these things have been situated, now its time to go back to basics, “Knowing your target audience…” Who are you trying to get to your booth to buy your product? You will need to target your audience here the same way you would any other marketing campaign(s). Once a person comes to your booth, what are you saying/selling? You have to get your message out properly and if not, you lose potential buyers and profit.

It’s the end of the show and you have found new leads, generated sales and built awareness of your business and product. Breathe… Then follow up on your leads and wait for sales to roll in.