How to Set Up a Successful Booth
It’s been a while since I’ve posted – things have been hectic lately (but in the best of ways!). It’s hard to find the time to write but I was hit with some inspiration for this post when my daughter-in-love and I were having a chat. She can’t find anything helpful to explain how to stage a successful booth. So… how do you set up a successful, aesthetically-pleasing booth?
Now, you’re probably asking, how am I even qualified to answer this question? Well, if you’re new here, my name is Beth and I have been in the business of staging booths for over a decade. I first started painting furniture in my barn and soon opened a successful vintage storefront. As you can imagine, staging an antique store takes time and passion. Lucky for you, I’ve learned quite a bit about how to do it and I’m ready to share all my secrets!
The first step to success: find your focal point
Let’s tackle the first step: designing and setting up your booth, space, or farm stand. I have always taken the perspective that setting up a booth is like painting a picture. You have to find your focal point!
What is that major item (or WOW factor) that you want to base your booth around? It needs to be something that catches the eye and draws customers in – something big, bold, or colorful. It just needs to draw attention! Grouping like items together really helps with this.
As you can see in this picture, there is no focal point. It’s just paint cans stacked on top of paint cans.
While that may attract the customers that know what they are looking for, it won’t bring in new clients that had no intentions of painting today, tomorrow, or in the future.
My daughter-in-love (DIL for short), bless her heart, expressed that she isn’t too sure on how to pick a focal point. I explained that to do this she needs to be objective and have patience. Picking a focal point may come naturally or it may take time. If it takes time, it is perfectly okay to set everything up and then analyze and re-design.
When I say objective, I mean you need to walk past your booth as if you are shopping from your customer’s perspective. Would you actually stop and shop your stand if it looked like that! Now is the time to seriously think about your target customer and build your booth around them.
That being said, don’t be scared to fluff it up and make it look good! Feel free to add a few eye catching props that help the customer’s eye move across your booth.
We elevated the space by adding a piece of painted furniture with our signature color, added varying height, and included a sign with a few props and other items for sale.
Now that you have a booth that looks great, your next step is to promote!
The second step to a successful booth: Social media
Listen, this step is absolutely key. You can’t set up a booth and just expect that customers will know where you are and what you sell if you don’t promote it. These days, social media rules everything. If you aren’t promoting your products, you just aren’t going to see good profit.
These days, social media’s algorithm changes constantly and it is hard to keep up. BUT, I can point you in the right direction for at least what to do this week. Ha!
Remember how I mentioned that you need to know your target audience? That goes in line with social media, as well. What platforms do your customers use? For me, mine use Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram. So let’s talk about it.
Pinterest is just too amazing. I have to admit, I catch myself scrolling in the middle of the night when I just can’t sleep. Due to this, since I sell to customers in my age range, I just know my audience has to be the same way. To keep up with Pinterest’s algorithm, you need to post at LEAST one pin per day. And this is going to sound crazy, but it doesn’t have to be a brand new thing every time.
Pump the breaks! What does that even mean? It means that you can take the same product or blog post, create a brand new pin design on Canva and repost the same content! Less work, less time, and you’re still meeting the algorithm’s needs! Just make sure you are pining fresh designs that meet your customer’s standards and I guarantee you’ll see an improvement in your booth’s (and product’s) success.
I obviously love Facebook, because I wrote an entire book about how to use Facebook for your business’ success. Since I speak about it in length already, I won’t delve too much into it. If you’d like to know more, feel free to click this link to purchase it and make your business more profitable off of Facebook alone!
I have a love-hate relationship with Instagram. I used to think I had to be an amazing photographer, that was always photo ready, to be able to use it. The truth is, you don’t have to be either of those!
To use Instagram to the best of your ability, like Pinterest, requires some daily dedication. You need to post at LEAST once per day. Right now, reels and stories are at the top of the algorithm so make sure you can put something together that showcases your product or booth.
The great thing though: All of these platforms allow you to schedule a post, so you don’t have to worry about putting a pin or reel together on your day off. Just create your content on whatever day you want and schedule it out throughout the week. Easy-peasy!
I hope this blog post about setting up a successful booth helps you out. I am wishing you the best success!
And, hey, thank you for sticking around this far into it! If you’d like, feel free to read some of my other blog posts and I’ll see you next time!
