Depending on the nature of your business, you may one day find yourself getting a booth at a fair, festival or expo. If you’ve never participated as a vendor in one of these before, then it might seem a bit daunting at first.
Manning a booth at a fair, festival or expo is not for the faint of heart, especially if you are doing it all by yourself. Here is my best advice on how to not only survive, but to also get the most marketing bang for your buck out of it.
First and foremost, you need to decide if the particular event is relevant to your business. Is this fair in your service area? Is this festival close enough to your physical shop that the people who attend will be willing to go to it? Is this expo related to your business type in any way? All of these questions are driving at one key thing—will your target market be in attendance? Because if they won’t be, or not enough of them, then all the money spent just to be there will be completely wasted.
Now, if your target market will be there, let’s discuss how to set up your booth. You’ll want it to reflect your business as much as possible so that it’s appealing to all the right people. If your business is more matter of fact and stately, then your booth should reflect that. If your business is more carefree and fun, then that’s the goal here.
You’ll want to bring:
- A folding table and chair if they aren’t going to be provided. Always double check this and never assume that they will be there. Also, unless it’s explicitly stated, you likely won’t have access to an electrical outlet.
- A table cloth. This does not need to be fancy—even a super cheap plastic one will look a thousand times better than not having one at all. This will also give you a place to “hide” whatever you used to carry everything in if you don’t want it seen.
- Something to carry everything in. A roller suitcase, a tote bag, a wooden crate, a plastic bin with handles, a wagon—the actual item doesn’t matter, just as long as it can fit everything you need it to and isn’t difficult for you to carry. For your first booth, just use whatever you’ve already got at home or can borrow. If you do this a lot, then invest in something with wheels (your back will thank you).
- Snacks!! Especially if you will be manning the booth alone. You may find yourself in a situation where you don’t want to risk leaving it unmanned to go foraging for some food.
- Wear a T-shirt with your business name, contact info and a tagline on it (the tagline is especially helpful if what your business does isn’t easily understood from the name alone). If you don’t have something like this, it may be worth investing in. At crowded events like this, you can become a walking billboard whenever you’re not behind the booth (and this includes the walking you’ll be doing for set up and tear down).
- A display of some sort. You don’t want to find yourself sitting at a plain table that has nothing on it. The whole point of this is to market your business, so you’ll want to make it clear to anyone who walks past what your business actually does! Now this is the trickiest part for me to advise because the options are pretty endless here. Do you have a display in your physical store that accomplishes this? Bring it. Do you have a sign with your logo on it that you can attach to the table? Bring that. You’ll ultimately have to decide what it is that you want to show and then get creative with how you want to show it, taking into account how you are actually capable of showing it given any limitations you might have being at a booth (such as a lack of access to electricity or wifi).
- Freebies. Bring something with you that you can physically hand to someone that stops by. Again, you’ll want this to contain your business name, contact info and tag line. You’ll want to come up with something creative that aligns with your business and will be used by the people passing through for years to come, especially for those businesses where people may not need your services right now but might in the future. Things like flyers and business cards are very likely to see the bottom of a trash can long before a potential customer will actually be in need of your contact info.
- A book. Or just anything that can keep you entertained if there are major lulls in foot traffic or if the weather is icky. Hopefully, there will be so many people stopping by your booth that you’re much too busy to crack it open. In case that doesn’t happen for the entire time though, best to be prepared.
If you can afford to put your business name or logo on everything, then absolutely do it. The tablecloth, a banner, a sign—you name it, slap your logo on it. Just don’t break the bank going crazy trying to make everything look the way you think a booth should look. Marketing is supposed to make more money for your business, not be so expensive that it puts you out of business.
Fairs, festivals and expos can be great ways to increase awareness about your business and to gain some new clients and customers. But they aren’t for every business type, and they may not be available (or very good) in the place that you live. As with everything in marketing, be sure to analyze the cost to attend versus what you made from it. If it increases your revenue enough, then keep at it!
All the best,
Ryanne Zender
Disclaimer: While marketing is based in part on statistics and psychology, it is not an exact science. Every business and market are unique. What may work for one business, will not necessarily work for another. There are no guarantees in marketing, and this post is for informational and educational purposes only and does not replace professional advice. You can check out the full list of disclaimers and disclosures here.
