By Jeff Poole

A few weeks after last year’s ATA Show in St. Louis, I had an exhibitor tell me they had the best ATA Show they’d ever had - and they’d been coming to the Show for 20 years. What made it even more impressive, he said the year prior they had their worst Show ever. Instead of simply blaming the Show for their worst performance to date, he said they took a close look at what they were doing, or more importantly, what they were not doing and realized they had gradually moved away from pre-Show marketing efforts and on-site promotions.

They first looked at the promotions offered by ATA. They purchased a Big Buck Tag for $250 and offered attendees a free product accessory worth $40, just for stopping by their booth. Next, they purchased an insert in the Show’s Goody Bag for $500, consisting of an entry into a contest for a Show-special offer with multiple daily winners. Lastly, they used the Super Deal Gift Card to perfection. Since ATA was reimbursing them $150 per Super Deal Gift Card collected, they decided to offer a product with a $400 retail value that cost them approximately $150. So, their Super Deal didn’t cost them anything.

Now that they had three great booth traffic drivers in place for less than a $1,000 investment, they contacted all their retail accounts so they would be aware of their great Show-only offers before they even arrived at the Show. Then, they developed a plan for how their sales team could convert the increased booth traffic into orders. Their sales team executed the plan perfectly and drove Show orders to a record level, even before the ARRO and NABA Hot Show orders were added.

Moral of the story: have a plan to reach the 700 retailers walking past your booth! Put together some promotions to stand out from the other 500 exhibitors and let your retail accounts know what you are offering before the Show.

Don’t be the one sitting behind a table in your booth, arms crossed or scrolling through your phone getting frustrated because no one is interrupting you to ask a question. Get proactive now and take a look at the simple, but effective, promotional vehicles ATA is offering to drive customers to your booth and help you have your best ATA Show ever.

To register your very own Super Deal Gift Card offering and view additional exhibitor promotions, visit ATAShow.com or contact Eric Dobberfuhl at ericdobberfuhl@archerytrade.org and drive more customers to your booth.