Speaker 1: What's going on guys John Santos and in this video we're going to talk about trade shows and more importantly what it's going to take to launch your brand at a trade show so you can successfully sell it to wholesale, retail buyers, gain media exposure, market your brand, develop new relationships and much more. Huge shout outs to Bella Canvas for giving us a behind-the-scenes look and sharing their insight with all of us. It's going to be a great video for you guys so make sure you grab yourself a drink and get ready to tune in, take down some notes. This is going to save you guys a lot of time and money if you're considering on spending a couple thousands at a trade show. Alright, so let's jump right into it. So I remember the first time attending trade shows and I was a teenager walking the halls and seeing all these elaborate displays and setups from all these big brands and I just always remember saying, man, I want to attend this. I want my brand to be here. And fast forward a few years later and it was possible. We were actually attending at a trade show with our own products. We learned a lot of things. of the things I wish I learned from a video like this because it's all the things I would have wished I knew before attending that trade show. We went in super blind there wasn't any information in terms of how do you actually maximize your exposure or how do you actually like get buyers into your booth or follow up all of these kind of different questions that run through entrepreneurs minds and you know you have to invest a couple thousand to attend it's not like these are cheap or free. Once you get into these big trade shows you're competing with the major brands the major products and there's a lot of things going on and if you're not ready and prepared to go into it those thousands of dollars will definitely be a hidden and sunk cost. So I wanted to create this video and I threw the idea out to Bella Canvas and they were open to actually sharing their insight with you guys so I want to definitely go into some of the things that I learned there so you guys are well prepared and ready to take on the trade show ahead of you. So if you're watching this video and and you're not ready to actually invest into a trade show booth, this is still gonna be great education for you, but if you're actually in the process of maybe attending one as a viewer or as a customer, I actually created a video right up here that's on Bella Canvas's channel, and this video walks you through some tips that I give so you can maximize your entire trip while you attend your first trade show. All right, it's an amazing video, so go check it out, it's over at their channel, and also hit the subscribe button over there if you're not already a subscriber to them. They got some great information, some details, and some really cool projects that are launching in the next few months. All right, so once again, thank you all for watching. Hit the subscribe button here, leave any comments down below, and let's get into this one. So the first thing you wanna take into account is where your booth is actually being placed. See if you can work out a deal with the people organizing the event to place you in a better position. Depending on the booth placement will depend on what kind of traffic you may get and who may be around your area. So getting a premier placement will definitely help increase traffic. So once you figure out where your booth is gonna be placed, you're gonna wanna come up with a design for it. Now this design will help visually depict your brand to complete strangers at the trade show. It'll help reemphasize what your product or your company is all about. And it will also accent the products that you are selling. So little details, such as visuals on the outside of the wall, pictures of the products and the models on the inside of the wall, the clothing hangers that you use to actually hang your shirts, and the way that the product is categorized is gonna be the little details that take your presentation to another level. The way Bella Canvas had their setup for this trade show, it was meant to feel like a retail store. They were placed in a great position where it allowed for through traffic and traffic flowing around it. And obviously the way that their visuals were placed throughout the entire booth layout, allowed everybody to see their booth from any angle they were walking. They had mannequins on the outside, which allowed people to feel and touch the items that were on the inside of the booth, making it more approachable. But LaCanvas also laid out their product in a way where it was organized by fabrication and color. Categorizing their products by fabrication helped bring buyers to that area if they requested it and then the color selection Expanded from there. As you can see they had everything Organized and color coordinated in a way that felt very inviting and welcoming and it wasn't too overwhelming As you can also see visual imagery that's moving. It also captivates attention So consider bringing a TV screen or a display or a monitor to help depict your brand's lifestyle. This definitely helps your brand stand apart from the thousands that attend these types of trade shows. Now the staff that you bring with you is going to be crucially important to be able to sell your product and your brand. It's going to be very important that whoever is at your booth and helping you run this trade show know exactly what it is you are selling and offering. You may be overwhelmed with the amount of questions that come directly to you as the owner. So you want to make sure that you train your staff properly so they know how to answer most of the common questions. So a good tip may be to create some flashcards and have them memorize it before attending the trade show. This way they're able to free up some of your time and you're able to maximize the amount of traffic coming to you. In order to help your staff better sell your products, you could also add hang tags with vital information to each product category which will help your staff and not have to memorize every single little detail about it. When Bella Canvas set up we were talking and they actually said that their entire staff had to memorize every single fabrication of every single piece on the floor. They were quizzing each other on this information and if you were to talk to anybody at their booth during this event you would see the level of knowledge that they have on each product. Now that's what you call taking it to another level. So now that you have your placement in your team, marketing materials are the things that that potential customers are gonna be able to take home with them to follow up with you and place an order. One of the things to consider is having a catalog. The catalog should definitely be visually appealing and depict the lifestyle you are trying to get across. This means using the right models and quality images to enhance the appeal. If your product may require people taking it home to be able to make a buying decision, but you're not able to actually give out all these products, a color card may be something that you give out to those buyers that are interested in closing a deal soon. That way they can see the fabric and color available in your product. Business cards are gonna be just as important. A business card is gonna be something that you're giving out to everyone you talk to, and you encourage them to follow up with you. Now, whenever you give a business card out, you always wanna take one in. And if there's a person on your team that's gonna be following up with everyone, make sure that they get it, and they write a little note about what they need to follow up with. Now at this trade show, Bella Canvas also had a YouTube bar, and this YouTube bar was essentially their physical representation of the work they were putting in online. So at this bar, they actually had a tablet, and in this tablet, it had different videos and tutorials and information about their brand. They used this bar as a way to bring potential buyers in to better understand the products and the vision of their company. Having this type of setup available at your first time vending at a trade show may not be possible, but this is something you should definitely try to implement if you have the space. To further enhance the reach of their brand during this trade show, Bella Canvas invested in advertising in multiple areas throughout the venue, some of which included a full page ad on the back of the main map that you get when you register. Other places included placement in different media publications around the trade show's website. This hall helped complete strangers know about their brand before they got into the show, and then when they arrived on the showroom floor, they were more willing to go check things out, and they were open to grabbing information and becoming a customer. Every trade show has an offering to make an advertisement in a magazine, or make an advertising on their website or social media. It's all something that you wanna consider to help buyers get to know what you're about and open up that conversation. Alright guys, so I hope this video helped you guys in your journey and it's going to prepare you guys to attend your first trade show and not invest thousands of dollars for no return. Alright, this video was meant to prepare you guys, kind of give you some outlooks into things that you should have ready so by the time you attend, you're able to maximize your impression and truly make a statement and stand out when you're competing with all these major brands. Another tip that I may not have mentioned was the fact that you always want to line up some meetings and some leads before attending this show or any show. That means reaching out to buyers or distributors that are in your industry so by the time you actually attend this trade show they're gonna be there so you want to make sure that you're on their schedule so they're able to make an appointment with you. They come in and you guys sell them as to the reason why they need to be buying your brand or products. Don't go in there blindsided and just hoping that if you attend things are gonna work. You gotta put in to work beforehand and this video is meant to just kind of illustrate some of those high-level but very important touch points that Bella Canvas has which is a multi-million dollar brand and the way that they set up their trade show from the little details from the hangers to the shirts the way it's color coordinated to how disciplined and like prepared their sales staff is and their employees everyone that's coming to your booth should have that same level of professionalism because those little details believe it or not is what's gonna stand out apart from everybody else that's just kind of hanging out drinking smoking and is maybe closing a few deals because they knew somebody before they attended the trade show. So if you're able to prepare everything beforehand, you attend, you show up right, you know what you're talking about and you sell things through, you guys will be good. Alright don't make the mistake we did thinking that somebody else was gonna do it all for us and we lost a lot of money that way. Alright so that's why I'm making sure you guys are prepared and you guys are ready to go and I appreciate every single one of you guys that's watching and interacting with us whether it's on the YouTube or on Instagram or through the email make sure you guys sign up everywhere to get the latest and the best information out delivered to wherever it is that you're at. Alright so I hope you guys enjoyed this one and I'll see you guys on the next one. Bye.