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Has anyone had a booth at a Home and Garden Expo or something similar to it? If so, was it worth while and do you have any advice??? 😕
I have tried 2 separate expos, neither was what I would say successful. I did a give away for some cleaning and got a lot of people to sign up, and had a bunch of names and addresses to send literature, which they got at the expo. Only booked a handful of jobs for each expo with a cost of $250 for each one. I won’t do it again.
Jeremy, EXPO KING! Where are you? He does an excellent job with far about average returns. He knows what to do, and how to do it.
We have done many street fairs and a few home/garden/improvement shows. The home shows are more expensive and require more time to prep and run the booth. We have negotioated a partial trade (carpet cleaning) for the last two shows and saved $350 for one show and $450 for another. The initial cost for the booths was $800 (generated $4k+) & $1100 (generated 5K+). We still have repeats/referrals from our first few shows 7+years ago.
We set up the booth like a showroom with a nice area rug, chair, lamp, plants, etc. We give away promotional items (pens, candy, magnets, balloons). We also display spotter bottles. We don’t sell too many spotters, however, it does bring people to our booth. We have drawings for one free room cleaning. We have many people sign up for this and of coarse everyone is a “winner.”
Dan, this type of networking/marketing is time consuming, however as a new operator, I would highly recommend. If you decide to book, give me dates. I will be more than happy to send you more info/samples.
Thanks for the feedback.
Laura, it is not until early March of next year. They will be taking applications within the next few months. It is the only EXPO of the year in this area. The cost will be around the $800-1,000 range.
Thanks
Dan
Jeremy and I (but more so Jeremy) have done quite a few home and garden, Pet and companion, Kids fest, and propety management shows with great success! I would say everyone should try at least one. They are a lot of work but they pay off. If anyone has more questions contact Jeremy @ 503-522-0411
I’ve done quite a few shows at expo and convention centers. To echo Laura, they are alot of work, but they can be very profitable if you do it right.
We set up our booth to have the feeling of a living room with a chair, lamp, fake tree, end table, etc with nice white or light carpet. A clean, proffessional looking display is key also.
Then, have a piece of literature to hand folks as they walk by and explain to them that you’d like to introduce your company to them. As they eyeball the literature, go into your pitch. At the end of your pitch, ask them a question to get some dialogue going.
Often at shows, we are there to get people familiar with our name and get their name on our mailing list for later mailings. If you don’t do mailings to these potential clients, you’ll have a far less profitable experience. Booking jobs at the shows are fine as well, but if it’s busy, you should have someone else there to help with the pitch while you’re booking a job.
Dan,
I’m not sure I would spend $800.00-$1,000.00 being a new franchise, I asked all my people to join local chamber of commerce and be active. Appx. cost $50.00 up to $250.00 per year. At some point in the year they sponsor a large home show in local malls, I have helped 2 or 3 of my people do these shows. They were all very well received with them booking jobs, but more important, being new getting the Heaven’s Best name out in the area. One show we even had a dirty chair with the upholstery unit on site. As Laura said, we had many “give aways” which led to a lot of names and phone numbers. Hope this helps!
Ron Smith
State Owner FloridaWe do the Washington Home and Garden Show each year. We budget about $2,500 for total expenses annually.
In 2005, we booked nearly $9,000 from the show.
In 2006, the show dates were moved from mid-March to mid-February. We knew that this wouldn’t be good (people aren’t ready yet for spring cleaning), and it did really hurt us – we barely did $3,000 this year! It didn’t help that there was a big snowstorm that nearly shut down the Saturday of the show.
What we do is as follows:
1. We print special literature for this show – with two levels of discount – one if you book during the show, and lower level of discount if you book within 1 month of the show.
2. We stand in the aisle in front of our very professional looking booth, and give out brochures.
3. We confirm appointments on the show floor.
The show in 2007 is back in the March timeframe, so we’re going to do it again – but we woudn’t if it was in February. You can only sell when the buyer is ready to buy!
Hope this helps.
Barry
Ditto Barry’s comments.
Last year we spent approx. 2k on two large home and garden shows in Portland. One in the Spring, and one in the fall and we grossed almost $8500 in sales last year. The thing about shows is that you won’t always see that revenue immidiately. We still get calls from folks who met us at a show last year and have been receiving our mailings 4 times a year.
Contrast that to this year. We decided to experiment with a few smaller, specific shows. We did one for pet owners, one was a Kid Fest and one commercial show so far this year. We’re losing money on those shows so far. Now the hope is that eventually the contacts made will turn into customers, but that tells me loud and clear that not all shows are created equal.
We will continue to participate in the big home and garden or remodeling shows because people are typically there to research new ideas and purchase products or services for their home. These shows have proven their worth to me.
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