Viewpoint September 11, 2009, 9:40AM EST

Getting the Most Out of a Trade Show Booth: 22 Tips

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E-mail those people after the event, and thank them for joining the raffle. Let them know they didn't win the XBOX 360, but that you are inviting them to a seminar about "how to save money with CRM." In other words, your follow-up pitch should offer something else of value. Content is a great way to go, and the content shouldn't be "all about Salesforce," but rather about what Salesforce (CRM) customers care about.

Try to go from the raffle to a conversation about a mutually interesting topic (i.e. a webinar). Going right from raffle to client is too jarring and will feel like spam.

Another idea is to send a lesser piece of swag in the mail with some content—something like: "Thank you for joining our raffle at TechCrunch50. I want to send you a complimentary copy of Silicon Valley Bank's Guide to Doing Your Next Valuation as a thank you. If you have any follow-up questions, do let me know, and I look forward to seeing you at next year's event or sooner."

12. Have a fascinating business card. File this under "purple cows," but having an interesting business card can go a long way. I'll never forget Charles Forman's business card as long as I live. It's so innovative and cool that it got a story on Gawker.

TechCrunch50 DemoPit company Expensify featured their innovative business card in their piece on the event.

When I launched Mahalo.com at the D Conference two years ago, I put the names of each speaker on the back of my card in a Mahalo URL. That let people see examples of our topic pages/search results for themselves. Not as innovative as the two things above, but not too shabby.

Frankly, I'm thinking about knocking off Forman's card one of these days.

Here's some more memorable business card examples.

What can you accomplish with your business card?

13. Wear a professional made name tag. A custom name tag looks better than the ones the conference gives out. Check out this one for Apple employees.

14. Have appropriate signage. This is fairly obvious, but if you don't have your name around and above the crowd height, your booth may get passed by. Big photos of good looking people are also good since those will catch the eye. People stop to look at photos of other people.

15. Don't hire booth babes or strippers. Unless you work in the modeling, strip club, or porn business, don't hire models, strippers, or porn stars to work your booth—it's insulting to women. Now, that doesn't mean the folks in your booth can't be attractive and well manicured. It just means, have some taste. At last year's conference, someone had a bunch of stripper types in hot pants and absurdly tight T-shirts. It was totally cheap, cheesey, and lame. It's 2009, people, really.

Some assorted smaller tips that don't need much explanation:

16. Ask the conference producers for a discounted "introductory rate."

17. Have a big dish of candy next to your computers.

18. Have three times the number of staff for your booth as you need at one time.

19. Have your staff circulate through the show giving out swag, candy, or party invites (if allowed).

20. Dress your staff in the company color scheme and with the company's logo on their front and back.

21. Consider having a game of chance (spin the wheel, blackjack, etc.) at your booth.

21. Hold a post-conference recap with your team to evaluate how you did.

22. Hold a post-conference recap with the conference producers and tell them your pros and cons.

Questions:

1. What's the most unique and effective thing you've seen at a trade show?

2. What tips did I leave off above?