The Ultimate Guide To Exhibition Marketing

Part 2 – During The Show

To drive the best return on investment and event success we will look at the top tips for marketing pre-show, during the event, and post-show.

DURING THE EXHIBITION

Driving Traffic To Your Exhibition Stand

Having invested in your participation and spent countless hours preparing, you and your team must attract as many of the right visitors to your stand as possible. To do this, you’ll need to ensure that it’s immediately obvious to potential customers who you are and what you can do to help them. This is where a professionally designed exhibition stand is worth its weight in gold.

Stand Out From The Competition

Ensure your exhibition stand represents your brand messages and is visually striking. Consider what you are trying to achieve and how this affects the stand design. Promoting a new product range? - ensure your stand has sufficient shelving or showcases. Wanting 1:1 meetings? - ensure there is comfortable seating suitable for detailed conversations. Do you need screens or storage?

See more on designing exhibition stand graphics.

Enhancing Our Approachability

There’s nothing worse than stepping onto someone’s exhibition stand and being made to feel unwelcome. There are lots of little things your team can do to seem more approachable. Here are five golden rules for stand teams:

• Silence mobile phones (and keep them out of sight).

• Fight the urge to chat amongst yourselves.

• Keep the stand tidy.

• Smile and make eye contact without being too pushy.

• Avoid eating or drinking on the stand.

You can also incentivise your stand team for good performance. Perhaps a prize for the most leads generated would help keep them motivated during quiet times. Do make it clear, though, that being ‘overly salesy’ will result in points being docked!

Get Social

Be sure to find out what the exhibition or trade show social media handles and hashtags are and start using them. Keep an eye on potential customers who mention attending and engage with them to introduce yourself and invite them to come and see you during the event. You can live tweet, produce Facebook live videos, Instagram stories, or even live stream during the event to give potential customers a taste of what it is like to be there live.

Live Posting On Social Media

You can live post on social media from the event about a range of topics, such as what sort of questions you are asked and what you’ve learned from other exhibitors. Some posting ideas include:

• How excited you are to meet people (including a photo of your stand so visitors can spot you more easily).

• What you have learned from the exhibition seminars or conference programme.

• What you’re talking about (if you’re giving a scheduled talk).

• Your competitions and freebies. Invite potential customers to swing by your stand to grab some swag as well as draw

people in to spend time on your exhibition stand.

If you’re very busy or short-staffed, you can always ask someone back at the office to post photos and text on your behalf.

Using Giveaways, Competitions & Live Displays

Any giveaways should be strategically placed so you can greet anyone slowing down to pick one up (don’t forget to give away collateral alongside the freebies).

Sustainability is key these days so consider this when planning any giveaways - ensure any gifts are relevant to your brand message and have a useful purpose.

Be wary of allocating all your resources to running your competition and/or live display. Ensure there’s always a member or two of the team free to help anyone who would prefer to talk about their needs or your product or service.

Unorthodox Ways To Drive Traffic

Some of the best connections at events are made during set-up or in the lunch queue. Encourage your team to be friendly to everyone they meet and invite them to visit your stand.

Have an appearance on your stand - what about a local celebrity, author, or sports star? Creating a photo opportunity or chance to meet can encourage a potential customer to visit your exhibition stand.

Summary

Attending the right exhibition can be a key point in your annual marketing calendar, but like all campaigns, it needs to be well planned, with measurable goals in mind. Contact one of our dedicated account managers for further information on how Tecna UK can help, or just send us a scribble.

This is just the start to ensure you stand out from the crowd during the exhibition itself and get customers to come to you.  Find out more in our next blog from the series, which focuses specifically the most important part of the puzzle, follow up post show to convert to leads to orders.