Conventions are a valuable opportunity to showcase new products of any form. Popular products ranging from jewelry to firearms have dedicated exhibitions at regular intervals and enjoy tremendous success. Generally, though, one aspect of these products that makes them so successful is their tangibility: you can walk in empty handed and leave holding your newest acquisitions. Computer software, then, can present a unique challenge, especially in this age of downloadable programs. How do you sell an intangible item at a convention? The answer is simple: make it tangible!

The Value Of Trade Show Exhibits As Point Of Sale

Before high-speed internet and wireless broadband, software was sold in a box; today, software is often sold electronically, and no physical good is ever produced. Publishers choose to go box-less because it lowers their cost, and this is certainly a valid concern. For showing off a new product at a convention, though, it is more important to create a successful event than to keep costs to a minimum. Tangible items, by definition, require a manufacturing and shipping process, thereby introducing additional overhead. Companies commonly pass this cost onto consumers, charging more for the boxed copy than the electronic download. There's no better place to sell a product that costs slightly more than its sibling than at trade show exhibits, where people are enthusiastic, ready to buy, and least likely to compare prices. Although you may need to add a few dollars to a product's price tag when selling a physical copy inside portable displays, consumers have shown that they will happily pay the premium.

Be Sure Your Portable Displays Showcase Your Software

Trade show exhibits, by their very nature, offer prime marketing opportunities. Individual portable exhibits succeed or fail on the merits of their appeal to buyers. Software works in a very similar way. While your computer program may be fantastic, like banner stands, it needs to present well at first glance or nobody will ever learn of its true value. Great programs marketed badly fade into obscurity; even mediocre programs, marketed brilliantly, are smashingly successful. Conventions, then, are the perfect partner to new software. You have a perfect forum in which to present your product, because you have every possible opportunity to promote, and because people will actually listen. They're visiting portable displays because they want to be sold on new products!

Let Customers Try Before They Buy

As mentioned earlier, one of the biggest weaknesses of software from a marketing perspective is that it's impossible to know whether it's fantastic or horrific without trying it, and that's often more easily said than done. This is where portable displays shine. If you set up a number of terminals inside your trade show exhibits with your software preinstalled, visitors can try your software before they buy it. You'll rarely find a better opening to reach consumers shopping for software, and once people test drive your product, especially if you and your colleagues give them a virtual guided tour, it will practically sell itself. What's more, if there's one thing the average consumer can't resist, it's an open computer with a new program running. Just put up some banner stands letting visitors know that they can try what you're offering, and you'll see people flock to your stall.