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I recently was a vendor at our local county fair. Fair week is one of my favorite weeks of the year, and I was so excited to get to spend the ENTIRE week there this year. Granted, I was sitting at my booth for 90% of it, but it was still fun to be there. The kettle corn guy was right outside the building, and it was just a short walk to the malt stand.
Anyway, while I was there, I did a quick video about the three things that I think you want your vendor booth to be. For those that don’t care to watch the video, I thought I’d offer the same information in written format here.
Three Things you Want your Vendor Booth to Be
1. Professional
The first thing you want your booth to be is professional. Your booth is many times the first look a prospective customer has about your business. Since this was my first vendor booth as Digital Darcy, the first thing I needed to do was buy a table. Many vendor events you will attend will provide a table for you, but at some events you will need to provide your own table. It’s not a bad idea to have one on hand, in the event you need it you be ready to go! Trade show booths are many times 10′ x 10′, and I opted to purchase a Lifetime Folding 8-Foot Table. It has a handle and is easy to carry, and light enough for me to manage on my own. It is also easy to set up and takedown!
I also purchased a Gray Polyester Tablecloth that is large enough to go to the floor on all sides of the table. This is an important feature so you can disguise all of your “stuff” under the table – keeping the professional look in your booth that you want it to have. Tablecloths come in a variety of colors, I chose gray for my booth but you can get whatever color will look best with your company’s logo and overall branding look and feel. When I was shopping for my tablecloth, I was also considering this Stretch Spandex Fitted Tablecloth (primarily due to it not needing to be ironed.) In the end, I selected the polyester tablecloth, and am happy with my decision.
Get Those Wrinkles Out!
On that note, another important thing is to make sure your tablecloth (and your banner, if applicable) are free from wrinkles. Since we are talking professional – having a tablecloth without wrinkles is so important. It took me nearly an hour and a half of steaming with my Steamfast Compact Fabric Steamer, but I got all of the wrinkles out of that tablecloth. (Note: if you can, wait and do this AT the show during your booth setup. If you try to do it ahead of time, it may get wrinkled during transport anyway.)
It’s also important to have a banner with your company logo and/or name, and tagline or something that tells what your business does. Think about the people that may come to your booth while you are on that quick walk to the malt stand, or on a quick break from the booth to make an important phone call. When you aren’t at the booth, that banner may be the only impression they get of your business. Give them the information they need by that quick look, so they know who you are and what you do. I designed my banner in Canva and had it printed via VistaPrint. I used a bright pink industry-themed photo for my background image, and a large copy of my logo (which also has my company name in it), and a tagline about the services offered by Digital Darcy.
Also make sure that when you hang up your banner that it is straight, and centered above your table. Due to an uneven wall behind my booth, it took me a bit of patience to get all four sides of my white rope even. But, I kept at it until it was straight.
2. Simple
The second thing you want your booth to be is simple. I set the table up in my dining room the week before the show and set all of my items on it. As I prepared for the show, things were added, removed and moved. Eventually, everything looked just the way I wanted it to. The flatscreen monitor ended up in the middle of the table. All of the cords went in a tidy fashion directly behind the table and under the tablecloth on the floor.
This monitor was hooked up to my laptop (which went under the table out of sight) and played my prepared PowerPoint slides on continuous play. My slideshow included a variety of digital marketing statistics and inspirational business quotes, with varying industry-specific photos in the background. The thought was that whether someone stopped at my booth for 30 seconds or 5 minutes, hopefully, they would learn a thing or two and/or ask me more about it.
On the left side of the table, I had a vintage aqua blue wooden drawer I snagged from the basement of an antique store that just perfectly fit all 16 colors of the glittery, shiny fishing lures made by my husband. We also had a cute and colorful mason jar with some business cards of his on top, and a framed postcard talking about his lures. These lures were an attention grabber and also a conversation starter – they pulled people into the booth, where I could then talk to them about not only the lures but also about Digital Darcy.
3. Inviting
The third thing you want your booth to be is inviting. The first thing I did was push my table to the back of the booth space. The chair was placed out beside the front of the table. This makes you more approachable, and it’s easier to talk to people as they walk by. It puts you more on their level and is less intimidating. If the environment is right, you can stand in the booth instead, but that depends on the setting.
You also want to make sure and put a smile on your face, and PUT YOUR PHONE DOWN. I know you have emails, projects, and deadlines – but today you are at the booth to meet new clients. Give them your full attention. If you are so engrossed in your phone and that you can’t pay attention to them, why would they think you will pay attention to them when they become your client? Seriously, put it down.
I also had a fun “Need a Charge?” sign that I put in a colorful frame. Beside it, I had both iPhone and Samsung chargers plugged in and ready to go.
You also may opt to have a candy bowl. Chocolates, mints, butterscotch candies … whatever you like. People stopping to grab a piece gives you an opportunity to say hello and tell them about your products or services. At the fair, it was mostly the kids that were taking the candy – but they were with their parents. While their kids were taking candy, the parents were looking at my banner and my slideshow. I counted it as a win.
Everyone Likes a Prize!
Having a door prize is also a great way to get people to come into your vendor booth space. For my door prize, I gave away an Anker Portable Power Bank and a set of nice Pentel EnerGel Pens. The door prize doesn’t have to be industry-specific to your business, though it can be. A gift certificate to the local grocery store or meat market may have garnered more interest. When selecting your door prize, think about the crowd and what prize they will be most excited to win.
For my door prize sign-up sheets, I created them to be a double-use as a lead sheet. I included check boxes for people to tell me a) to contact them about my services and b) they want to join my email list. Combining the lead sheet with the door prize sign-up is a great way to gather prospective client data from your vendor show. Here is a print-ready version of my lead sheet if you’d like to use it!
Here is a picture of my vendor booth. I’m not saying it’s perfect but I did want to share how I did it. Hopefully, this has given you a few tips you might like to incorporate into your next vendor booth.
