Trade exhibitions are the cornerstone of many businesses’ marketing. They are where you can launch products and services, improve your brand awareness, build relationships and generate essential new business leads.
But they are not cheap!
Even a relatively small conference can cost thousands of pounds for the space, and that’s before you start with the materials and display stands.
We’ve helped businesses with their events and exhibitions for many years, from Higher Education open days to specialist trade shows and conferences. It never ceases to surprise me how little effort some businesses put into ‘showing up’ at these events. I have lost count of the times a sad roller banner, a few pens, and a bowl of sweets is what a business thinks is good enough for an event that probably costs them thousands (and that’s before you factor in the costs of actually manning the stand).
When should you exhibit and when should you give it a miss?
We are not afraid of asking our clients the hard questions and challenging them. It can be tempting to be part of an exhibition, especially if your competitors will be there. But as I said earlier, exhibitions aren’t cheap, and you need to ask yourself some hard questions before jumping in with both feet.
How much of your marketing budget will this swallow?
If budgets are tight and attending and exhibiting at an event will take out most of your budget, you need to make sure you will get the best bang for your buck. That depends on your objectives. It isn’t always about leads.
For example, our client Luna Software, an innovative software solution for the payroll sector, decided to exhibit at the biggest payroll event of the year, even though it was pre-launch. It was too good an opportunity to introduce the brand, make connections and bring on board some initial partners who could help them refine the product. For a start-up, that was a big investment, but waiting another year for the event to run again would have been a huge missed opportunity.
Can you stand out from the crowd?
It isn’t always about having the biggest stand, it’s about having an impact. There are so many options now on exhibition stands that the fallback roller banner doesn’t have to be the only option.
The format of your stand is only part of it; however, whatever you have, great design and messaging are key. Plonking a logo, stock image, and your web address will do little to grab attention and make people stop.
For Luna Software, they decided to use an LED digital stand, and we provided the graphics and animation for the screens. This had a huge impact and movement, with the benefit of them being able to plug in their laptop and use the large screen area for demos as needed.
For our client Harvest Wildlife Products, the Glee trade show was the time to launch not one but three new brands. We were delighted to work on both the packaging marketing assets and stand graphics for their own brand The Little Birdhouse, and also the launch of the RSPB Hungry Birds range and RHS premium range.
Can people easily work out what you do?
Also beware of having too generic or vague a message. Think about the exhibition area as a whole and think about how your stand, merchandise, props and even the people enhance the message.
It may be worth thinking about a theme for the event and tying it all together.
For our client Tips and Troncs, who provide specialist tips management services for the hospitality sector, we leaned into the hospitality angle when they recently exhibited at a professional services conference.
We had already created a visually striking brand with bold colours and graphics, but we also wanted memorable merchandise. From the work we had done with our friends at Docks Beers, we knew they could produce custom-branded beer, so we designed a can design specifically for Tips and Troncs for their low alcohol beer and named it ‘Not even tips-y’ (who doesn’t love a good pun).
The beer was a real stand-stopper, and we accompanied it with branded beer mats, leaflets and even its own branded paper carrier. This all went down well and gave Tips and Troncs the presence and memorability they needed, against so many larger businesses who were exhibiting.
Can you provide the human resources to effectively man the stand?
Effective events aren’t just about design or merch. What is often overlooked is the people element. Having the right people on the stand is vital, and that may mean taking some of your senior people out of the office for a few days.
It can be tempting to send a junior because your senior team is busy, but they need to be able to confidently speak about the product or service and possibly close deals or leads, and that takes a specific set of skills.
If someone is going on your stand who isn’t experienced, make sure you spend the time to give them a through briefing –
- Who are the people you are looking to speak to?
- What are your objectives? Is it about letting people know about a product or service, or do you specifically need sales leads?
- How will you capture the details of interested people? Many exhibitions allow you to scan delegate badges, but if this isn’t available, what will you do (not many people have business cards these days).
- What do you expect of them? I have seen too many times, people just sitting behind a table at a stand working on their laptop and barely engaging with people at the event.
What are your plans post-exhibition?
The stress and busyness surrounding an event can often mean that once it is over, people are ready to get back to their day job and catch up. This is often where opportunities are missed, so we recommend a thorough debrief soon after the event.
- Look through the leads and decide what to do with them.
- Add to your CRM or marketing database
- Decide what the next steps are – do some need personal contacts and others just ‘light-touch’ marketing contacts.
- Are there any offers you can chase up on?
- Who is responsible for what action
We work with clients to create email follow ups, proposal templates and marketing assets that allow follow up to be timely, relevant and impactful.
Talk to us before you take the leap
If you are considering events, we would be happy to discuss and add in our expertise and suggestions. If you already have events booked and want to make sure you maximise your investment, talk to us about how you can create impact and memorability.
