Resources For Planning Your ATA Show
Trade Show Benefits to Keep in Mind
New Products
Get a sneak peek before hitting the floor in the Featured Products Showcase, an area designed as a passive “preview” for retailers and buyers. Then, find the latest gear and equipment and let the experts field your equipment questions. Be sure to take advantage of the show’s demonstration lanes to shoot newly designed bows and other products hitting the market.
Funding Industry Growth
The ATA Trade Show is the only industry show that funds archery and bowhunting growth. The ATA invests in state agencies that coordinate introductory archery programs such as National Archery in the Schools and the After School Archery Program. To date, the ATA has invested and pledged nearly $1,000,000 to bring archery shooting facilities and introductory programs to U.S. cities, while the group also fights for bowhunting rights in courtrooms across the country.
Write Orders / Gain Customers
The ATA Show allows exhibitors instant access to key industry buyers. No matter what your distribution method; direct to dealers, through distribution, chain and box store sales and even international. The ATA show attracts all types of buyers.
Quality vs. Quantity
All trade shows will sell you on the number of attendees at their show, but the key to a good investment as an exhibitor is the number of “qualified” buyers a show can provide for you. The ATA feels strongly about providing its exhibitors and industry members “quality” buyers. ATA verifies all buyer category badges to ensure that you are not wasting your time and money as an exhibitor. No individual badges are sold.
Shooting Lanes
If your product requires demonstration you can also purchase a shooting lane, where customers can test your product at a 30ft shooting lane. Shooting lanes rent for $1,500 each.
Meet Customers Face-to-Face
Actually knowing your customer is invaluable. The value of face-to-face meeting can quickly be lost in today’s world of email, fax, and telephone communication. But nothing can replace the first time you finally shake a customer’s hand that you have spoken to or corresponded with on many occasions. It also gives you the chance to change a “customer” into a “friend”.
Networking
Connections, connections, connections. Everyone knows that if you want to get things done in this industry or secure future deals you have to develop contacts. Again, there is no other show in the industry that draws this many insiders to one place.
Set aside some time to visit the Member Services Area
If you could invest a few minutes of your time in exchange for growing your business, boosting efficiency and increasing profit, would you do it? Thanks to the Archery Trade Association, you have that opportunity at the upcoming ATA Trade Show.
The Member Services Area on the Trade Show floor highlights the many ATA-member programs that work to grow your business. Many of these programs are part of the ATA’s Retail Growth Initiative, which helps archery and bowhunting retailers improve their bottom line.
Stop by the Member Services Area between 7:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Jan. 10 and 11, and from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Jan. 12, to learn how these programs can help your business grow! The Member Services Area is centrally located on the Trade Show floor. This readily accessible area helps you maximize the many benefits and services you earn as an ATA member:
1) Retail Growth Initiative: This program features several profit-building initiatives, and helps retailers …
- Learn about the new ATA ePRO software package, an archery-specific business solution for retail operations.
- Use their shooting range to generate significant revenues.
- Add value to their shooting programs with instructor certification.
- Create experiences that reward customers.
- Build websites that attract new customers.
2) NEW! ATA ePRO: This part of the Retail Growth Initiative is the first and only software package designed specifically for archery retailers. And it’s big news for ATA members! ATA ePRO stands for (electronic) Proshop Retail Organizer, which is exactly what this software does for you. For instance, it …
- Turns your archery range into a profit center.
- Offers electronic sign-in and sign-out, which lets customers reserve a lane from home.
- Automates online booking for leagues and classes.
- Ditches paper clutter by making your work orders electronic, thus improving customer service and perceived value.
- Decreases call volume, which increases employee productivity.
- Works with your existing Point of Sale system, or it uses our POS system that integrates range and bow work into one area.
Visit the ATA ePRO booth in the Member Service Area to learn more!
3) Programs that Create Customers
- Instructor Certification with USA Archery: Become certified as a USA Archery Level 1 or Level 2 instructor. These certifications boost your marketing value and provide your staff with the skills to run programs that increase profits. Register for these classes today by calling (866) 266-2776 or emailing registration@archerytrade.org.
- Explore Bowhunting: This program teaches basic bowhunting skills to students 11 to 17, sparking interest and passion for bowhunting. Its focus is hands-on experiences that help students understand nature and strengthen their appreciation for the woods and wildlife.
- NEW! Explore Bowfishing: This is the ATA’s latest educational program, which teaches basic bowfishing skills. Students also learn about bowfishing gear, the many fish species they can pursue, and the various habitats where fish live.
- Explore Archery: USA Archery’s Explore Archery helps intermediate archers build their skills and confidence before moving on to more advanced archery options. Visit the USA Archery booth for more information.
4) ATA Websites that Drive Traffic to Your Store
- Archery 360: This fun, interactive website provides lifestyle, technical, entertainment and how-to content for millions of archery fans worldwide. Most importantly, our integrated store locator directs visitors from our content to your front door.
- Bowhunting 360: This ATA website recently launched on Facebook and as a content site for recruiting and re-engaging new and existing bowhunters. Like Archery 360, its goal is to strengthen your sales by driving customers to your shop.
5) Equipment that Makes Customers Happy
- NEW! Archery Equipment Development Program: We’ll test new gear in the field, on the range and in the classroom—and then we’ll provide manufacturers and retailers unbiased feedback about what works best for youths, women and beginners.
6) Advocacy: Working on Behalf of ATA Members
- Deer Protection Program: This ATA program assures hunters the scents they buy met this program’s rigorous guidelines. Scent manufacturers in this program can display the ATA’s “Seal of Participation” checkmark on scent products from participating facilities. This means the supplier and manufacturer are doing all they can to prevent chronic wasting disease from harming the nation’s deer and elk herds.
- Ongoing Legislative Efforts: The ATA spent much of 2016 working with lawmakers on Capitol Hill to persuade Congress to enact the Pittman-Robertson Modernization Act, which would provide more money and greater flexibility for spending these federal funds on shooting ranges and hunter-recruitment efforts. The focus is promoting hunter education, recruitment, and the shooting sports, and broadening states’ abilities to help build and maintain shooting ranges.
To learn more visit the Member Services Area from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Jan. 10 and 11, and from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Jan. 12!
