Tis the season for Bridal Fairs and I have to thank Jerry Rizzo, who started a string on Facebook, asking for thoughts on what makes you effective at a Bridal Show.  The more I thought about the answer, the more it applied to virtually any show.  So, here are some ideas:

1) Booth Design:   I wrote a section about this for Bambi in her first book…her booth itself, to me was the key.   She made it totally inviting and open on all four sides, with the look and feel of a living room, a couple of Queen Anne chairs, coffee table etc.  Obviously it cost a little more as an island, but the traditional booth set up creates a line right down the middle between you and your clients.  Her booth didn’t feel like she was selling anything except warmth.    

2) Your Display:  You don’t need to show everything you ever shot.  Bambi only had 2-3 beautiful large framed images to draw people in and make them want to see more.  She hung them on inexpensive hollow wood doors, which she stained to match the booth.  It’s her Tiffany window display philosophy  in action – you don’t have to show everything you do to get the client interested.

3) Albums vs Matted Prints: You always need a few albums to show, but Bambi’s secret was using an image storage box, holding a dozen or so prints, displayed in mattes.  The advantage was simply no one client could hog an album. It gave her the ability to show her work to several different clients at the same time.

4) Presentations: I haven’t been to enough Bridal Shows to know if anyone does this, but what’s going on in your booth?  When a potential client walks by are they going to stop and listen.  My personal favorite goes back to my Hasselblad days and having a speaker in the booth to draw people in.  Most Bridal Show booths don’t have a whole lot of room, but what would happen if you did a series of short presentations e.g. the importance of an engagement session, creating a storybook album or the excitement of online hosting?  (I’m sure Pictage has some marketing material available.)  There’s an abundance of short tips you could give a client that would easily create five minute snipet presentations.

5) Pre-show Buzz: This is a big part of being a hit, not just at a bridal show, but it applies to any company who exhibits at any show.  What are you doing to create awareness for your presence a month or two before the show even starts?  Social media, direct mail and advertising all play a roll.  Are you advertising in the local paper that you’ll be at the show?  Are you sending out a postcard in advance of the show?  Have you worked to build up your social media presence on Facebook, Twitter etc?  Are you sending out a message offering a client something in return, making it impossible to not stop by your booth.

Years ago Tamrac, just before the PMA show, sent out a clip-on handle for a ballistic nylon bag to a lot of industry leaders.  The note that came with it invited us to stop by the booth for our “free gift” and see their new product line.  I don’t know how they did at the show, but everybody I knew made it a point to get over to the booth.

6) Your Blog:  You can’t build this overnight, but if you start now, you’ll be ready for next year.  Nobody does it better than Jasmine Star.  Check out her blog, but don’t look at it with your eyes, look at as if you were a future bride.  The images really do speak for themselves and tell a client a lot about who Jasmine is, how she sees the world, her values and most important of all, how her clients trust her to be their eyes on that special day.

7) And when all else fails, I love the answer Jeff Hawkins put on Facebook – popcorn! People always remember the booth with popcorn.  Now, there’s some serious psychological issues that support this – we’re all driven by food and looking at my belt line, some of us more than others – but the smell of popcorn draws everybody from every corner of a trade show.  But, the real issue is, having something to show and keeping your potential customer in the booth once you’ve fed their craving!

Last but not least, is a great line from a motivational speaker I heard years ago, Ed Foreman, from Texas.  I don’t know what happened to him, but he was definitely a driving force in my career. It really is this simple:

“If I can see the world through my client’s eyes, then I can sell my client what my client buys!”