Marketing is an essential component of running a successful business. You might have the best product in the world, but if you don't make an effort to spread the word, it won't matter. All your efforts are for naught unless you can effectively publicise your product and your brand.

How best to market your business has been a source of endless debate. Some have recommended emphasising online strategies, like writing and promoting content. Others favour traditional methods such as advertising through print and broadcast media. The landscape has changed a lot over the years.

One strategy has stood the test of time, though, staying successful despite the many ongoing changes happening in the marketing world. That would be the trade show, which is still a staple in the marketing budget of many a thriving organisation.

Divvying up your marketing budget?

One of the toughest parts of marketing any business is making the tough decisions about how to allocate your budget. You have a finite amount of funds to work with, of course, and a lot of areas you could potentially increase your spending. You may want to hire more writing and graphics talent for producing content or spend more on advertising or social media promotion.

Over the years, the markets for these various forms of advertising spending tend to ebb and flow. There's one that's held fairly steady over time, though, and that's the trade show. According to industry data from Research and Markets, attending B2B exhibitions accounts for approximately 39.2 percent of companies' marketing budgets.

There's a reason for this. Attending shows is not cheap, but there's reason to believe it's worth it. It's hard to beat the return that trade shows can offer you in terms of marketing activation potential.

Trade show graphics deserve your focus

If and when you do decide to make attending events a key part of your marketing strategy, it's good to start with the basics, and that means developing the right booth to take on the road to trade shows.

An effective trade show booth design has a couple of things going for it. First of all, it's attractive – if designed right, your booth should grab the attention of passersby, engage them and get them to look more closely. Second, it should convey the authentic look and feel of your brand. This part is important because if your business can't deliver on the initial promise of your attention-grabbing design, people are only going to walk away disappointed.

Choose the right graphics to catch your audience's attention.

Design-wise, there are a lot of strategies to consider. One is to use entertaining graphics and bright colours with will be engaging and memorable; another is to be mindful of white space, as it has a way of catching the eye and giving viewers a sense of balance with the graphics and colours. Finding the perfect design requires balancing a lot of factors. Even experienced marketers don't always do it perfectly.

Turn to the design professionals

Designing the right trade show displays to market your business perfectly is quite the challenge. There's no shame in admitting that you need a little assistance with pulling it off. In fact, you're in luck if you do, because, at Exposure Group, we have a team of experienced professionals who are ready and willing to help you out.

Exposure Group has a complete digital print bureau that's well-versed in digital, offset, flatbed and screen printing. No matter what application you have in mind, we can deliver at a high level of quality. We have 20+ years of experience in the industry and counting, and we know what it takes to help you capitalise on the marketing opportunities in front of you.