10 Ways to Create an Engaging Booth Experience

by Leigh Hamer | Last Updated: Jan 11, 2023

Businesses invest a lot in their event strategy. Global consumer experiential marketing is a $75 billion industry. There’s a lot at stake for brands at each tradeshow or convention. Making sure your event management strategy gets your brand noticed is imperative. Once event attendees show up at your booth though, how do you make sure they have an experience that leaves the right impression? Here are 10 suggestions for how your brand can create an engaging booth experience.

Incorporate a QR code or NFC tag on your physical booth that ties to a digital experience.

Your team can easily update the digital experience content based on the unique needs of each tradeshow or conference. With the digital experience, you can provide booth visitors with product-specific content, videos, interactive product images, and more that can be easily changed based on the products you want to promote in your booth. It’s also a great way to interact with your audience who may not want to engage in a conversation at your booth but are interested in learning more about your company and product offerings.

Let event attendees book a meeting with a booth staff member.

Here’s hoping your booth is hopping with customers and prospective customers. Your booth staff may not get a chance to talk with everyone, or may not talk to those with a serious interest in your products or services. If event attendees can book a meeting with a knowledgeable company representative two things happen: 1) You capture a new lead when they enter their contact information; and 2) Your team gets a meeting with a serious buyer. Psst…the meeting doesn’t even have to be face-to-face. Of course, in-person event attendees should be able to book a meeting at the booth with a staff member. But use this as an opportunity to make your booth a hybrid event. Offer the option for customers to book a virtual meeting. With video conferencing, your booth staff can demonstrate products in the booth to virtual attendees.

Create a reason for event attendees to flock to your booth.

Drive booth traffic by giving event attendees something special. Host a product demonstration with a big name - or big title - presenter. Knock the excitement level up a notch by introducing a highly anticipated new product or feature. Bring in an industry expert to give a presentation on a trending topic. Use their speech as an opportunity to position your brand as a leader in the space.

Embrace omnichannel engagement.

While an omnichannel marketing strategy shouldn’t be attempted on a whim, it is an incredibly effective way to surround your target audience with your brand messaging. Use live events as a means to create more content. Take videos at your booth and of the convention hall. Record exclusive booth events, such as product demonstrations, and guest speakers. You can live stream this video content and/or post the video after the event. Write blogs and provide email updates throughout a live event.

Run a contest.

No matter your budget a contest is a great way to grab attendee attention and capture leads. Whether you give away an all-expense paid vacation or one of your products, your brand and booth are standing out and getting noticed.

Let them sit! (And recharge.)

Convention halls are notoriously large. Event attendees are on their feet a lot. Walking to and from their hotel rooms - it’s exhausting. If your booth offers event attendees a comfy place to plop down you’re pulling in a captive audience. Foot traffic is great, but get event attendees off their feet for a minute and your booth staff has more time to chat with them. Add in a charging station and attendees will stick around longer while they let their devices charge.

Swag…with a digital twist.

Event attendees snatch up every pen, coozie, tote, sticker, and notebook offered up for free. But what’s the click-through rate on a piece of swag? Add a QR code to your swag so those freebie-grabbers can’t escape your brand message. Even better, put your brand logo inside the QR code. Attendees can then easily access a digital experience with information about your brand and products.

Give them something to talk about.

Install a ball pit at your booth or carnival game, like a ring toss. Sounds silly, but it will get people talking and walking to your booth. More people waiting to participate in a little childhood fun creates long lines - ideal for booth staff to initiate conversations. It also creates an opportunity for fun social media content.

Have booth staff stand out with bright, unmistakable shirts.

Make sure attendees know who the experts are by giving booth staff coordinating shirts. This is especially important at large trade shows or when you have a large booth presence. The shirts can callout each booth staff member’s specialty and invite a conversation. Such as: Ask me about our electric engines. I designed them! Also, consider adding a large QR code to the front and/or back of each shirt. The QR code can connect booth visitors to a digital experience with a video of the booth staff member talking about their area of expertise. It’s a great way to reach more booth attendees.

Have enough booth staff members.

We’ve all been walking around a convention hall and seen booths with four or five staff members huddled up just waiting to pounce on the first person who makes eye contact. It’s intimidating and uncomfortable. First, make sure booth staff are well trained and know how to make a welcoming booth experience. Second, make sure you have the right number of staff members for the booth size. For a 10’×10’ booth space, you wouldn’t want to book more than two to three staff. For larger booths, such as 10’×20’, four staff would be sufficient and for 20’×20’+, five to six staff would be optimal. Where to Start Lumavate created a series of best-in-class digital experiences for a variety of event use cases. Each can quickly and easily be added to your Studio.

Using our Event Registration Template, you can drive event registrations that feed directly into your system of record. This Template can be a standalone digital experience or incorporated into any other digital experience. Most customers can create and launch an event registration digital experience in less than five minutes using this Template.
- Text EVENTREGISTER to 586828* to see an example of how this best-in-class Template can be used to drive registrations for your upcoming event.
Using our Trade Show: Booth Management Template, you can provide your employees with all of the information they need to be successful in promoting your products or services and generating sales opportunities. This Template can be a standalone digital experience or incorporated into any other digital experience. Most customers can create and launch a trade show booth management digital experience in less than 30 minutes using this Template.
- Text TRADESHOWBOOTH to 586828* to see an example of how you can ensure all of your team is on the same page while working your booth.
Using our Field Marketing Event Template, you can start collecting customer feedback almost immediately. Most customers can create and launch a field marketing event digital experience in less than 20 minutes using this Template.
- Text FIELDEVENT to 586828* to see an example of how you can provide a VIP experience to your attendees.
Using our Lead Registration Template, you can collect leads that feed directly into your system of record. This Template can be a standalone digital experience or incorporated into any other digital experience. Most customers can create and launch a lead registration digital experience in less than five minutes using this Template.
- Text LEADS to 586828* to see an example of how this Template can be used to capture leads for your sales team.

Learn how to boost sign-ups for your next event. *Msg & data rates may apply. May receive up to 2 msgs. Reply HELP to 586828 for help. Text STOP to 586828 to cancel. For terms and privacy, click here to learn more.

10 Ways to Create an Engaging Booth Experience

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