Written by Andrea Stout, ReachForce Customer and Event Marketer at NetQoS

Pam recently blogged about how to use after hours events to drive booth traffic and buzz at your trade shows. Today, I want to share my tricks for getting the most traffic to your booth.

1. Know your audience - Study their likes and dislikes. This will help you select giveaways and presentation topics.
2. Offer good content - Attendees love getting tips and best practices so focus on creating interesting and educational theater presentations.
3. Market your presentations - Do you have a speaking slot at the show? Are you giving presentations in your booth? Design a business card that contains your presentation topic and timeslot and place it into the badge holder of the attendee you scan.
4. Build brand awareness - Have your logo printed on stickers and place them on the badge of the attendee. Everyone will see it. I have also seen exhibitors place temporary tattoos on booth visitors.
5. Don’t hand out junk - The best giveaways are those that can be kept on an office desk or given to children. Anything that has an LED light and flashes is popular right now.
6. Show them the way - I’ve found that buying advertising space in conference guide rarely works. About 5% of our traffic is driven from bag inserts. Don’t waste your money – place good signage throughout your booth instead.
7. Play music - Before you begin a theater presentation, play music. The sound will attract people from nearby booths.
8. Shoot video - Take a Flip camera to your booth. Add the video you capture in your booth to YouTube – this will help you in search engine rankings.
9. Location, Location, Location - Real estate is prime on the exhibit floor. Try to get a space close to the entrance as the attendees must walk by you to enter and exit the show floor. Stay away from your competitors and try to get a booth near your partners so you can get referrals. If you’re in a small 10×10 space, make sure to get a corner spot. Your booth will get lost if you are boxed in between other exhibitors.
10. Feed them - It sounds so simple, but it works. Any time you can place a bowl of candy, a bucket of bottled water, or any other snacks in your booth – do it!