SocialPoint Digital Solutions for Events Blog

8 Tips For First Time Trade Show Exhibitors

Exhibiting at trade shows – how hard can it be? You just show up and talk to people, right?

Actually, exhibiting is surprisingly harder than it looks. That said, trade shows still remain very popular (and even keep growing) because they can produce great results when done right.

If you’re exhibiting for the first time, we want to help shorten your learning curve with these 8 tips you need to succeed:

1. Know what your goals are for exhibiting

Everything you do at trade shows should support your main sales and marketing goal. So if you don’t know why you’re exhibiting, there’s no way to succeed. Discover or decide if your trade show goals are (most likely) to boost brand awareness, generate sales leads, or strengthen key relationships, or something else. (This advice is good, even if you are not first time trade show exhibitors.)

Posted on 10 Aug 2018
By Samuel J. Smith
In trade show marketing

Best Trade Show Giveaways: 2018 Survey on Strategies, Features, Choices & Perceptions

Posted on 3 Aug 2018
By Samuel J. Smith
In trade show giveaways

3D Exhibits’ Booth Design With SocialPoint Trivia Game Creates Best Problem For Merck Animal Health

Merck Animal Health booth designed by 3D Exhibits with SocialPoint trivia game

When Merck Animal Health Conference & Event Manager Amy Gregory called her boss just after the start of the 2018 Veterinary Meeting and Expo, and said, “We have a problem,” it made her 3D Exhibits Account Executive George Furman surprised -- and at least a little nervous.

Posted on 27 Jul 2018
By Samuel J. Smith
In trade show marketing

5 Ways Show Owners Deliver Value to Sponsoring Exhibitors with a Trade Show Game

It’s no surprise: Many larger B2B companies have also become small trade show owners. These big companies host their own trade shows to provide their partners, vendors, distributors, and end user customers an opportunity to learn best practices, see what’s new, discover what’s available, and to network.

We have recently helped private shows, such as Cisco Live and private events hosted by Allianz, Thermo-Fischer Scientific, and Thomson-Reuters, by setting up trivia games for attendees to play on the show floor. These trade show games provide show owners 5 ways to deliver value to their sponsoring exhibitors:

Posted on 20 Jul 2018
By Samuel J. Smith
In benefits of trade show games

How To Choose An Interactive Trivia Game For Your Trade Show Booth

Choosing an interactive trade show trivia game for your trade show booth

If you are reading this blog post, you are probably considering an interactive trivia game for an upcoming trade show (or a series of trade shows). This post will outline 5 different trivia games we offer and help you select the best one for your booth. Each version is made to better help you achieve your trade show goals of booth traffic, awareness, and engagement.

Interactive Trivia Game Overview

All of our interactive trivia games include game play on iPads and Leaderboards. In addition, you should assume that the branding and game theme will be based on your branding. All games tie into our data and analytics backend to measure player performance, content understanding and measuring learning objectives.

Posted on 13 Jul 2018
By Samuel J. Smith
In interactive trivia games

8 Preventable Trade Show Lead Retrieval Mistakes

trade show lead retrieval 8 common mistakes to prevent

It’s unfortunately far too easy to make mistakes with trade show lead retrieval.

That’s because trade show lead retrieval systems and booth staffers are often different from show to show, and because it’s not something you manage every day.

But because trade shows leads are some of the most valuable sales and marketing investments your company makes, it’s so worth your time to prevent making these mistakes.

Here are 8 preventable trade show lead retrieval mistakes we’ve seen our trade show game clients make. We’ve even made some of these mistakes ourselves (fortunately not anymore)!

Posted on 6 Jul 2018
By Samuel J. Smith
In trade show lead capture

20 Reasons Why You Need A Tradeshow Game

17 Reasons Why You Need A Trade Show Game

It seems like such a little thing, adding a tradeshow game to your booth. Just an idea you are considering to make your trade shows a little better.

Yet, adding a tradeshow game to your booth can make a surprisingly huge positive impact to your company’s booth traffic, booth staffers’ success, company brand image, lead counts, lead data gathered, sales generated, R.O.I. — and much more.

So if you’ve ever asked yourself, “Why do I need a tradeshow game?”, here are 20 reasons a tradeshow game will make your trade show program vastly better:

Posted on 29 Jun 2018
By Samuel J. Smith
In benefits of trade show games, Why games, Why Games + Games Lead Capture, Why Games + VPW Boost

How To Write Effective Qualifying Questions For Your Trade Show App

More and more exhibitors are ditching paper and instead of using a trade show app to capture lead data from their in-booth conversations.

Many shows provide a lead retrieval app that allows exhibitors to scan a badge and capture data digitally. Some exhibitors are going a step further and are purchasing lead capture software that they can use across many shows.

There are advantages to using a trade show app to save time entering and exporting data. However, too many exhibitors fail to go one more crucial step and include valuable qualifying questions in their digital lead capture.

Posted on 22 Jun 2018
By Samuel J. Smith
In trade show lead capture

4 Ways To Boost Your Trade Show Giveaways Impact With Our Virtual Prize Wheel Game

SPIN TO WIN Virtual Prize Wheel built into trade show exhibit

Chances are you’ve used trade show giveaways to drive more booth traffic. It’s a time-honored tactic that gets attention and lets attendees go home with a souvenir to remember you by.

But your giveaways can do even more to help increase your trade show results. You can boost their marketing impact in 4 powerful ways, by combining your giveaways with our Virtual Prize Wheel.

Here’s how our Virtual Prize Wheel adds impact to your trade show giveaways:

1. Make your trade show giveaways more exciting to attract more visitors

When you show a colorful prize wheel on a big flat screen monitor, complete with photos of your big prize, it clearly signals to attendees that there’s a fun and beneficial reason to visit your booth. Attendees get more excited to try to win a prize – even if it’s the same giveaways you would have given them anyhow! And attendees love to smash the big button that drives the prize wheel on the screen. As people spin to win, their enthusiasm and squeals attract attention from other attendees. Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd!

Posted on 13 Jun 2018
By Samuel J. Smith
In prize wheel, trade show giveaways

How To Follow Up On Trade Show Leads Faster

Research suggests that only 18% of trade show leads are followed up after a show. Further, hot leads and warm leads turn cold the longer you take to follow up with those leads.

If you are B2B exhibitor – then you are probably doing the following:

Investing a sizable portion of your marketing budget on trade shows
Measuring your success based on leads captured and sales closed

Time is money, my friend. Speed is the name of the game. If you don’t follow up on your trade show leads fast, your chances of winning the sale plummet drastically. According to InsideSales.com, 35–50% of sales go to the vendor that responds to leads first!

Posted on 4 Jun 2018
By Samuel J. Smith
In trade show lead capture