Can You Turn A Profit On a Business Fair Booth?

Here’s the short answer: yes. Yes, you can make a business fair booth a profitable endeavor and, therefore, justify the money you put into building it, outfitting it, etc. Here are a few tips to help you do exactly that.

If You Build It They Will Come

Most who buy booth space at a small business fair or a convention aren’t actually buying a booth. They are renting a folding table and a couple of chairs. If they’re willing to kick in extra, they might even get access to the venue’s power supply. And most who buy booth space let their “booths” be exactly that–a table covered in pamphlets and business cards with a couple of people (likely playing on their phones) sitting behind it and smiling warily whenever someone stops by.

Don’t be part of this crowd. Instead, spend the money to actually build a visually appealing space. Set up floor displays and build visuals on top of the table to add height to your “booth.” If there’s room, build the booth outward so that people can walk into your small business’s display. Use custom table covers, professionally made signage, etc. Do not use automatically playing sound. If you’re going to incorporate sound, allow that sound to be experienced voluntarily through headphones.

Bribery Gets The Job Done

Obviously, we’re not talking about literal bribery. We’re talking about softer bribery–the kind that looks like a free swag in exchange for signing up for an email list, or branded magnet that people can take for free. Offering freebies at your booth will attract more visitors and each person who stops by to ask “is this free?” Or “how do I get this?” is a potential convert to your brand. It seems silly but you will be amazed at the number of people who will happily sign up for your list in order to get a “free” t-shirt or water bottle.

The best kind of bribery, however, is the kind that pulls double duty. These are items that not just encourage people to visit your booth but to patronize your business. For example, you can offer a discount to people who bring the water bottle or wear the shirt when visiting your company. You can add a one-time use promo code to the design on the magnet, encouraging takers to visit your company’s website. And, of course, the first email you send will have a special offer included.

Let Them Try Before They Buy

This is easier to do with some types of businesses than others. A bakery can hand out samples. An independent publisher can give out zines. A musician can load their songs onto an mp3 player and let people listen through headphones. Whenever possible, try to find a way to give the people who stop by your booth a sample of what your company has to offer its clients and customers.

Mobile Payments For The Win

Bring some of your actual merchandise (full sized, not sample sized) to your booth so you can sell it to the impulse buyers! More and more fair and convention venues are beefing up their WiFi and most mobile payment processors (think Square, PayPal, etc) allow you to store payments offline when the signal is weak and then send them through later when you have a reliable connection. Just make sure the buyer knows it might take a while for the payment to show up in their account.

One particularly fantastic way to get people to stop at your booth and to buy whatever merch you’re selling is to create a fair-specific special edition of your merch. People will buy it simply because it’s exclusive.

By selling things and providing incentives to return and opportunities for remarketing you will more than break even on the money you spend to make your booth approachable and visually appealing. Especially since you only have to buy your booth materials once but you can use them at as many fairs and conventions as you want!