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Tips for Making Your Exhibitions Successful
Posted on: Thursday, 09 May 2019)
The success of your exhibition attendance depends on a number of factors, but there are so many things you could be doing to give your business the best chance at this.
From your planning to your follow up, here are some essentials that if you forget, could really have an impact on the results you see coming away from the event…
Planning and Preparation
If the right planning goes into your exhibition, you’re unlikely to go wrong. If you make sure all of your travel arrangements, stand arrangements, equipment and promotion are all sorted way in advance, it will save you any last-minute stresses and will help everything go smoothly.
There’s no such thing as too much planning either – the more organised you are, the less you’ll have to think about on the day, and you’ll be able to dedicate your efforts solely to prospecting.
Make an Impact
Do something unique and show exhibition attendees you’re worth their time. Making an impact at an exhibition relies entirely upon your willingness to succeed and the time you’re willing to dedicate to thinking outside of the box.
Doing something to truly make an impact and wow any passers-by at an exhibition is a sure-fire way to start conversations, but what will keep people around is the value and use your company can convey to them.
How can you make an impact? It could be anything:
• Utilising the latest technology to wow passers-by
• Use fancy dress or dress in something eye catching
• Create an engaging demonstration people can’t say no to
Whatever you decide is best for your business, any way you can make yourself memorable to attendees is a great way to generate success through association!
Advertise and Promote
This is one of the most basic, but still unmissable ways to make sure your exhibition experience is successful. Without letting people know you’re going to be attending, it’s unlikely they’ll search for you when you’re there!
Advertising and promoting in advance is a fantastic way to build a hype around your attendance and get people interested in what you’ll be doing at the exhibition itself.
You could (and should) have a social media strategy announcing your attendance and building a hype around your exhibit, as this is free and a great way to start a conversation or jump in on any exhibition related hashtags.
You could also make use of your current marketing techniques to promote your attendance – be this email campaigns, newsletters or blogging, dedicate a post or a newsletter section to the exhibition, especially if this is ordinarily well received by your customers!
Set Measurable Goals
If you try and do too much with an exhibition, there is a chance you could be stretching resources too far. Setting yourself measurable and achievable goals ensures you’re likely to come away hitting at least one, if not all of them.
This is a great way to walk away feeling like you’ve been successful – whether it’s to gather details of 50 new prospects, or sell 5 of your new products, setting these goals and pushing yourself to achieve them can do wonders for morale and success.
Follow Up
THE most crucial element of exhibition marketing is the follow up. Without partaking in this vital practice, all of the efforts you have made so far will be rendered useless if you can’t remind prospects who you are.
Following up is the best way to secure further meetings with those you were in contact with, and find success in further sales from these exhibition leads!
Send prospects a follow up email immediately after the exhibition and when you’ve added them to your database – this will ensure you’re staying relevant and making yourself heard before people forget about you.
If the prospect seems interested, it’s wise to follow up with another email or phone call a few days later to try and arrange a meeting which will hopefully lead to sales success.
