Trade shows and exhibitions represent a fantastic opportunity to promote your business. However, in order to maximise this opportunity and get the most from your cash outlay, there are a few things you should bear in mind.
Goals
First of all, think about what you want to get out of the show. What would make it a success? Are you looking to generate leads for your sales team? Increase brand awareness? Or simply get orders for a particular product? It is only once you have decided exactly what you want from the show that you can then start to plan accordingly.
For example, if you are looking to generate leads, be sure to create a pad with tick boxes or have a form on a tablet available to quickly collect information.
Location
As with so many things in business, location is everything. Getting the right location could literally make or break your exhibition. In my experience, the best locations are usually corner stands, ideally pretty central (see diagram below). If you are too far away from the centre a lot of people will give your stand a miss – or not even see it – and if people don't see your stand it makes no difference how good it looks or how great your offers are.
I would also recommend avoiding the main corridor of booths in the centre, as people walking through here get so bombarded with information, goodie bags and other promotional items that they tend to 'tune out' completely.
Presentation
Once you have picked the ideal location, the next most important thing is to make sure your stand looks good. I have been to many shows in my time and have seen plenty of great-looking stands (and a fair few awful ones). A stand that looks bad – a scruffy salesman standing in front of a few A3 posters stuck with Blu Tack to a boring backdrop – is a terrible wasted opportunity. Potential customers will walk away long before you get a chance to tell them about your fantastic products and services.
Get the look right, though, and potential customers will flock to you.
The good news is you don't need to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds to create an eye-catching, professional-looking stand. There are many products out there that can make your stand look good. Fabric banners are modern and easy to put up; podiums are a good, tidy way to display leaflets and brochures; printed floor graphics take up no room and will help with your branding, as will printed boards, which can be easily Velcroed to the walls. I would advise staying away from encapsulated posters randomly placed on the walls, as they look a little old-fashioned.
Another good tip is to build your stand at work first. That way you know exactly how it will look and how much space it will take up. You don't want it to look cramped, but you don't want it to look bare either.
It is important to remember, though, that it is not just your stand that needs to look good, you do too! The way you are presented personally is very important, and potential customers will already have started making judgements about you before you have even started speaking to them. For example, a smart suit can work well at some events, but it can also make you look a bit too much like a salesman, while branded polo shirts can work well for some industries but look amateur for others. Think about the products and services you are offering and try to come up with a look that is appropriate for your target audience. And whatever clothes you end up wearing, make sure they are clean and ironed.
It's also a good idea to take a spare shirt and a bottle of aftershave and deodorant – exhibitions can get very hot, and sweaty-looking team members could put off potential clients.
You should also be friendly and approachable at all times. This means no eating on the stand (unless you are promoting something to do with cooking) and no looking at phones. In fact, if you have invested in an event, it's best not to let your team near their phones at all!
Finally, make sure you have a stool to sit or lean on. Standing for hours can take its toll, especially if you are wearing heels.
Promotional items, giveaways and competitions
You'll find most exhibition stands will be giving things away or holding some kind of competition to create interest in their businesses, but, once again, there are good ways to do it and there are bad ways. A goldfish bowl sitting on the stand, promising a cheap bottle of wine to whichever 'lucky' person happens to have their business card pulled out at random, is not particularly inspiring or imaginative, and is unlikely to entice many people in.
Be creative. Printed scratch cards are fun and a great way to break the ice with potential customers. Having a decent prize on offer may well bring people to your stand but be careful. Giving away an iPad will create lots of buzz around your stand, but you may find that when your sales team go to follow up the leads after the show, the people who entered were only interested in the prize, rather than your product. A better bet is to offer your services to the winner. So, if you are selling web design, offer free web design hours to the winner. You may get fewer business cards in your bowl, but you will know that everyone who has entered is looking for web design services.
Of course, this approach will not suit all companies. You may be selling a product that you simply cannot give away. In this case, think carefully about the psychology of your client and try to pick a prize that will be useful to them.
As well as prizes for competition winners, it is also essential you have something to give away to each and every visitor to your stand – that way they will remember you, and the products and services you offer, long after the show has finished.
Corporate printed brochures are excellent (you can read my separate article on corporate printed brochures here), as are business cards (I know that may sound obvious, but you'd be amazed how many exhibitors turn up to shows without them!). A nice printed folder, with a business card slot, is a good way of giving away brochures and data sheets, or you could go for something like a branded drawstring bag (I have more info on promotional items on my blog).
These are just a few ideas from my experience either promoting our own trade exhibitions or helping many companies promote their events and trade shows around the world. I have been fortunate enough to work with many Marketing VPs and Communication Directors as well as event co-ordinators in my 20 years with The Printroom and hopefully some of these ideas can help you when planning your exhibition. If you want to tap me up for any ideas or have anything to add please feel free to either email me directly (slewington@printroom.co.uk) or leave comments below.