Vendor events make the perfect place to promote your business; from fairs and festivals to a large expo or trade show, setting up a branded booth is one of the best ways to get thousands of potential customers passing by and interacting with your business. To make the most out of the advertising potential of a vendor event, you’ll need a booth that stands out among the rest and attracts customers throughout the day.
Luckily, our tents are the perfect option for vendor booths, and our manufacturers have ample experience creating the perfect custom printed event tents for any vendor event! In this guide, we’ll break down our top ten expert tips on how to prepare for a vendor event and effortlessly attract customers to your booth!
#1. Keep Your Brand In Mind
As with anything you do regarding your business, it is essential to keep your specific brand and style in mind when thinking of vendor booth ideas. Your brand is what makes you unique and stand out to your potential customers, and you’ll risk blending in with all the other vendor booths around if you don’t properly brand your tent and your booth.
Are you a serious, informative brand that works with a high-end customers base? Then you’ll likely want a sophisticated, minimal printed canopy that shows your brand without being busy or over-the top. Whereas, a brand that’s fun, relaxed, and all about engaging customers in fun ways will likely want to go with a brighter, more fun canopy tent and event booth. By matching your tent and booth to your brand, you won’t just attract any customers, you’ll attract the right customers who are drawn to your business style.
#2. Choose a High-Quality Branded Canopy for Your Vendor Booth
When thinking about what you need for a vendor booth, remember that just showing up with any old table and chairs won’t make the strong impression you’re going for. You want to wow potential customers enough to engage with your booth, and show that your brand produces high quality products and services. Though you’re not at a vendor event to show off your canopy tent quality, customers will notice if you take the cheap route and go with a low-cost tent that doesn’t look good, especially if your custom printing isn’t sized or colored correctly.
Luckily, finding and choosing a high-quality branded canopy for your vendor booth doesn’t have to be difficult. At American Tent, we pride ourselves on manufacturing the highest quality custom printed tents possible, right here in the USA. From our 100% waterproof vinyl, to anodized steel frames that will stay put and looking great even in harsh weather conditions, our tents are the quality standard to look for when it comes to finding a tent for your vendor booth.
#3. Include Your Logo
Of course you’ll want to include your brand logo in your canopy stall design as a way to stand out, attract customers who may already know your brand, and build brand awareness that will last far beyond the vendor event. Again, you’ll want to make sure to work with a high quality manufacturer to make your logo look wonderful on your custom printed event tent, as sizing and coloration is extremely important for such a large print.
Have multiple logos and can’t decide what to include on your branded tent? Take a moment to take stock of your images, logos, and entire brand and decide what is most important to show to potential customers. If you’re still having a challenge determining what to include and how to design the look of your tent, contact our team of experts to develop the perfect tent for your vendor booth!
#4. Make Your Contact Info Easy to Find
There’s nothing worse than having to wait in a long line, and you want to ensure that every potential customer who walks by your booth has the opportunity to get your business’ contact information, whether they speak to you at the booth or not. In the event that your booth is busy during an event and a line begins to form, passerbys likely aren’t going to stop because it just doesn’t make sense to wait for basic business and contact information.
Printing your contact information on your branded canopy tent will ensure that anyone can take a picture or copy down your business name and information even if they are just passing by your vendor booth and don’t have the time to fully stop and see everything you have to offer. Make sure to include a phone number, website, and any other helpful info.
#5. Don’t Clutter Your Branded Tent
If you’re looking for ways to make your booth stand out, don’t fall into the trap of thinking more is better in your branding and advertising. The truth is, too much information on any kind of advertising simply looks cluttered and overwhelming, and making your canopy tent too busy with multiple colors, too much wording, or too many logos or photos will likely not get the response you’re looking for.
In fact, while it might seem like this would make your booth stand out, customers will likely walk by a tent that’s too busy and give up on trying to read any one part of it, making your tent and booth fade into the sea of other vendors. If you’re not quite sure exactly what to include in your branded canopy design, our team of specialists is happy to help you determine the best layout for your tent!
#6. Prepare Handouts or Takeaways
You might be wondering what you need for a vendor booth apart from your actual tent and booth setup, and with good reason. Your tent alone won’t be enough to bring in potential customers, or keep your brand in their head long enough to actually follow up and utilize your products and services after the event. Preparing branded handouts, flyers, brochures, or anything else that attendees can take home with them is an essential way to ensure your brand stands out in their minds and that your information makes it all the way home with them.
Tip: Keep it simple and offer an incentive. Don’t overwhelm attendees with too many handouts-- you really only need one, quality physical handout. People don’t want 10 sheets of paper to carry around with them. Plus, including a coupon or discount code in the handout will make your potential customers much more likely to actually keep and utilize the handout.
#7. Include Engaging Visuals
When you’re trying to think of vendor booth display ideas, remember that your canopy tent is doing the advertising work for you; instead of loading visuals up with your brand and logo, create engaging graphics, pictures, and other visuals that will captivate anyone walking by your tent. A helpful infographic printed on a large poster and displayed at your booth is far more engaging and interesting than a sign with your company name and logo on it.
Can’t think of engaging visuals to include in your vendor booth? Some of the best visuals are made up of: answers to the most frequently asked questions in your business, photos of your employees and or customers, inspirational or funny quotes, or even a sign that poses a question to people walking by, which can get them interested enough to walk up and answer.
#8. Engage Attendees with Activities
Incorporating activities and challenges at your booth are sure ways to make your booth stand out in a crowd of other vendors promoting their businesses. Everyone walking by knows you’re there to sell them something or promote your business- that’s the baseline; providing a game, challenge, trivia challenge, or any other kind of engaging activity will stand out immediately and give potential customers a reason to stop at your booth.
Tip: If you can, try to bring branded prizes to your vendor booth to give away to attendees who participate in the activities or challenges at your booth. Water bottles, bottle openers, chip bag clips, and pens all make wonderful giveaway items that people actually want, and including your logo on the prizes will make sure your business and brand isn’t forgotten!
#9. Create a Beautiful Product Display
If you’re selling actual products in your vendor booth, make your products stand out as well as your booth by creating a beautiful product display that fits your brand style and your branded canopy tent. Your displays don’t have to be over-the-top; some of our favorite ideas for product displays are incredibly simple, such as utilizing simple wooden crates for stacking and displaying products instead of plastic or cardboard boxes. It doesn’t take much to make a pretty product display, but it will certainly make your vendor booth stand out!
#10. Don’t Forget to Decorate
Once you’ve gotten all your basics in order like your branded tent, tables, chairs, handouts and activities for your both, you’ll want to go the extra mile and decorate your vendor booth! A plain table with some signage isn’t going to stand out, so here are some of our favorite vendor booth decorating ideas:
- String lights - you can find string lights in almost any style and size, and they’re a simple addition that will make your tent and booth stand out and shine… literally!
- Classy furniture - ditch the plastic chairs and table and incorporate actual heavy-duty furniture into your vendor booth, from stools or benches to full couches or loveseats, for a more sophisticated look that will invite attendees to stop and stay awhile.
- Banners - A great alternative to string lights if your vendor booth doesn’t have access to electricity, banners are super easy to diy and add a pop of style to your canopy tent.
- Decor from your physical shop - last but not least, the easiest way to add your personal brand style to your vendor booth is to include decor from your brick and mortar shop! Whether you’ve got a particular piece of wall art, hanging decor, product display, furniture or more, it can make the perfect addition to your vendor booth.
Vendor events are some of the best opportunities to not only get your brand in front of a large crowd of potential customers, but actively engage with them, get feedback, and make sales in real time-- something that’s impossible with most conventional marketing. Make your vendor booth stand out and ensure a safe atmosphere for employees and customers by utilizing the highest quality event tent possible.
If you’re ready to get started creating a branded canopy tent for your vendor booth, our passionate team at American Tent is eager to help! No matter what you’re looking for, our custom tents can be created to your exact preferences and specifications. Our team is looking forward to working with you - contact us today to get started!
