A company having an exhibit stand starts working on months before the trade show event even begins. Among all the tasks and strategizing, the most important aspect of planning a trade show booth is its budgeting.
Here is everything you need to know about trade show budgeting and a detailed cost breakdown of the same.
Establishing Trade Show Budgeting Goals
As you have certain goals for exhibiting at a trade show event, the same goes for budgeting. These goals become the outline for your budget allocation and help you meet the shortcomings. Thus, the aim is to create a budget that meets these goals.
As you plan the budget for the trade show, you must be able to answer the following questions.
What is the objective of exhibiting at this trade show event?
- What size of the trade show booth do you need?
- Which one of the trade show companies will help you achieve the set goals?
- How many stand booth staff do you need?
- How are you planning on transporting the trade show goods to the venue? etc.
Creating an Estimate Budget
Before approaching any trade show companies, you must have an estimated budget on how much you feel is enough for the exhibit stand. Your trade show budget is categorized into four segments, and these are, trade show booth-related costs, service costs, marketing costs, and stand booth staff costs. This will help you formulate an estimate on where to allocate how much money.
Cost Breakdown for Each Aspect of the Stand Booth
With your estimated budget you need to calculate the actual budget of the trade show and the distribution of the resources. The budget is further divided into the following categories.
- Trade Show Booth Space – 30%
The size of your trade show booth will be the biggest factor that affects the cost of other goods and services. This is because the cost of a 10×10 booth, 10×20 trade show booth, and a customized booth all differ according to the space they occupy. Nonetheless, the stand booth is the most important aspect of the trade show so it will take up 30% of your total budget.
- Staff and Their Transportation – 20%
An exhibit stand is incomplete without its staff. This is why the staff’s paychecks and transportation will be 20% of your total budget. This is also because the number of staff members is more and the company has to pay for their traveling and stay. This can increase if it is an international trade show which might increase the traveling expenses. You can control this expense by limiting the number of members and make bookings months in advance.
- Trade Show Services – 19%
From the trade show company to the I&D company, these services as expected won’t come cheap. This is because these companies provide you a team of professionals that provide expert services from design the stand booth to building the booth.
Make sure to hold regular meetings and ask for updates to prevent any unwanted costs from adding up.
- Shipping and Drayage – 10%
The shipping and warehousing company is responsible for your trade show goods. However, given the amount and weight of these goods, the companies will charge a decent fee for them. But this does not include drayage. Drayage costs vary frequently due to unexpected costs. Thus, remember, drayage costs equal to or slightly more than the shipping cost of your stand booth to the venue.
- Trade Show Booth Design – 10%
Your exhibit stand is the center of attention at the trade show. From the booth banner to the trade show booth walls, everything is built to make it look better. This is why the trade show booth design will take up 10% of your total budget. Thus, prepare a list of all the things you want in your stand booth as this will help you allocate money for each of these items.
- Trade Show Marketing – 5%
Since the world has moved to a digital space to conduct business, your marketing cost will be the least, taking up only 5% of your total budget. However, there is still a lot of content that needs to be created, from pre-trade show posts to product demonstrations to giveaways.
- Miscellaneous Cost – 5%
While the mentioned categories make up the most important aspects of the trade show booth, there are smaller, miscellaneous costs that are just as important. This includes the exhibit stand staff’s food, trade show WiFi connections, maintenance charges, any unforeseen extra charges, software installation charges, lead retrieval system charges, and so on.
We hope this article will help you plan your trade show booth budget. Remember, the distribution of the monetary resources largely depends on your budget. Thus, mentioned percentages are an estimated value that will increase or dec
Tip of the Day: in addition to the mentioned budget, make sure to have some emergency funds in case something goes wrong while designing the booth, shipping, or even at the event.
