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When you have registered for a trade show and your booth selection is confirmed, you have a fantastic opportunity to generate leads before the trade show opens.

One such opportunity is to place advertising about your company and attendance at the trade show with a "visit us at booth #___" or send out a press release with all the details. Press releases are free just make sure you let them know it is time sensitive. Advertising in trade publications and local business sections of newspapers will let people know how they can learn more about your business.

Most trade shows are at or near a hotel. Keep this in mind because as an attendee you may have a discounted hotel room rate for hosting a hospitality suite during the trade show period. You will want to book a suite with a sitting area and have the hotel cater drinks and hors d'oeuvres so that you can network and mingle in a relaxed setting with possible clients or others from whom your business would benefit. To pull this off you must have your assigned booth number so that you can send out invitations to people and companies to let them know how to find you and the date and time of your Hospitality Suite. You'll also need a sign at your booth and possibly in the lobby of the hotel indicating your suite number and time for the event.

Hold a couple of mini-seminars before the trade show gathering business cards and information on potential clients or customers. Drum up the trade show and the fun things you'll have at your booth like your give-aways and prizes.

Colorful, fun postcards can advertise your trade show attendance in advance to many and they are less expensive to mail than a letter, catch attention quickly and if you search online you can order hundreds of postcards for very little money. Don't forget to add your booth number if it has been confirmed.

Postcards can also be printed in different sizes, with perforated areas that may have a coupon or allow them to enter a drawing even if not attending. These inexpensive marketing tools can also be used to send out surveys allowing you to gather information on potential customers that may not make it to the trade show and even those who are planning to attend.

Letters announcing your trade show attendance with a brochure are also great ideas, and let's not forget an actual invitation to attend with an R.S.V.P. If you exhibited at the same show in the past invite the people that were there the last two years (you should have this information from the business cards you collected and saved) ask them to attend and stop by your booth. All these tactics put your company name, logo and your name in front of a potential client or customer over and over. That's what you want. It also allows you an opportunity to advertise your goods and services at the trade show, on the postcard or invitation or in a letter.

Learn more about this author, Karen Eckles.
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