Busy, bustling places, exhibitions can be a great place to make contacts and generate leads. Colour Graphics show how to leverage even more from your next exhibition with these top tips.
From boosting brand awareness to generating more business, an exhibition can be a hotbed of opportunities for your business. But how can you make the most of this valuable time?
- Start by choosing the right exhibition
It is easy to get sucked in by the event organiser’s marketing blurb – that is exactly what it is meant to do – but you need to ask some testing questions. Are the people attending the show your customers? Do they fit the demographic? Who else is exhibiting?
- Start the marketing process earlier than you think you should
Event organisers will exhibit their event simply because they need people through the doors to make it a success. They may offer marketing opportunities but you need to do your own too. A top tip is to start this marketing campaign earlier than you normally would and give people an incentive to pay you a visit at the event too.
- Have goals for the event
So, you’ve signed up for the exhibition but why? What it is that you are hoping to get from the event? is it growing your customer base or maybe you think this is the right place to launch a new product. You need goals, you need aims because that way, everyone who staffs your exhibition stand will know what common goals they are striving for.
- Have a strategy
Exhibitions are busy places but that doesn’t mean people will automatically flock to your stand. You need to have a strategy behind your appearance at the exhibition and how you will meet the lofty goals you have set for yourself. For example, you may decide that the opportunity is so good, that the benefits of hiring professional promotional staff should be part of that strategy. You may also have a pricing strategy and a marketing strategy specifically for the event.
- Keep a tight hold on the purse strings
It is easy to get carried away when it comes to creating an exhibition stand, paying from promo staff, ordering printed branded products such as roller banners, pens and other freebies. You want and need the return on investment of any monies you spend financing your appearance at the exhibition to be recouped in new or more customers for your business. Set a budget and stick to it.
- Give free stuff (within reason)
Freebies are fantastic. People love something for nothing BUT at any exhibition or trade show, there are literally whole groups of people doing nothing more than looking for swag to fill their bags. Branded pens cost mere pence and so there is no harm in these being swiped throughout the conference. For more expensive ‘freebies’, why not keep them for people who are genuine leads and potential customers.
- Work on your ‘buzz factor’
On one hand, the bustling vibe of an exhibition is an opportunity for your business but it can also make it difficult to stand out. So you need to work on your buzz factor. This could mean anything from offering a chance to win a tablet or a competition with smaller prizes, something that helps you muscle in on a busy exhibition audience.
- Put faces to names
When you’ve finished talking to someone, you may decide to swap business cards. But a few days later, you may look at the array of business cards before you and not be able to recall what the person looked like, never mind what you talked about. Make a note on the back of their business card with something that will jog your memory.
- Be awesome
This takes practice but sometimes on the exhibition floor, everyone is doing the same thing. So be different, be awesome, stand out for all the right reasons. From a flash mob announcing your latest product to a costumed performer hired for the afternoon to get people to enter your competition, there are many, many ways you can be awesome and different.
- Clear your diary for the week following the exhibition…
… because you need to send an email, make the phone calls and so on to the people you met and spoke to so that you strike whilst the iron is hot. This isn’t about pushing people to buy but the after-exhibition strategy is just as important as your strategy for the exhibition itself.
Colour Graphics has an established reputation for being the go-to print and design agency when planning and organising exhibitions. Connect with them on twitter @ColourGraphics
