Exhibitions are a great way of marketing your company and meeting potential customers.
If your business is planning on participating in an exhibition, your goals will most likely be to obtain a number of qualified leads to take back to office and convert into paying customers.
In preparation for the event, there are a number of steps you should take to maximise your results.
Identify your objectives – Work out what you want to accomplish by attending the event and make sure you have a way of measuring your success.
Design – Ensure that your exhibition stand conveys your brand values, marketing message, and is aimed at your target audience.
- Text – Text is an important aspect of the design. Less is more in this case. Potential customers do not want to read paragraphs upon paragraphs of text on your display stand.
- Graphics – Choose graphics that fit with your brand and also your target audience. You need to entice them to your stand so make the graphics attractive.
- Lighting – Lighting is one of the most overlooked aspects of an exhibition stand. It can make or break your display. Make sure there is enough light so potential customers can read your displays and collateral at your stand. You can also using lighting to highlight specific parts of your stand to emphasise certain messages.
Brief your staff – Ensure your staff are briefed on how to interact with potential customers, the aims of the event, who to target and the types of questions that may arise.
Let your contacts know – Now is the time to impress the people you have already spoken to, it can be great PR. Current customers, leads that haven’t quite converted – let them know you will be there and give them a reason to attend. Use social networks, e-shots and phone conversations to spread the word.
And on the day… Reinforce your goals, ensure body language and behaviour are correct, and create short and to the point conversations with potential customers to manage your time efficiently.
Read and comment on the original Smarta article.