When you’re at a networking event or exhibition, do you feel like all the stands seem to blur together? Once you’ve seen a couple of stands, they can all start to feel eerily similar. What makes an exhibition stand, stand out? We’ve got some advice on how to draw people over to you at your industry event.
Identify Your USP
What will your USP be on the day to attract people to your stand? Offering promotional deals like 25% off goods and services if you sign up on the day might peg you above your competitors. Or encouraging people to sign up for initial free consultations ahead of the event will help get an initial influx of visitors to the stand. Why not set up a competition and announce the winner on the day of the conference? Make use of the attendee’s list from the conference organizer and send some tailored advertising ahead of time to create some buzz for your unique USP ahead of the conference day.
Get Your Marketing Strategy Right
Start preparing your social media posts, marketing, and campaign strategy at least six months ahead of the conference. Set up blogs on your own site and in collaboration with other sites to draw in some potential attendees from different channels. Tailor your strategy to what you’ll have on the day, whether you’ll be offering some high-end freebies or have food and refreshments. Keep on top of your social media feeds in the run-up to, during and even after the event.
Offer Decent Giveaways
Within minutes all conferences or trade events are packed with people with a free tote bag filled with pens, keyrings, and paperwork that will never see the light of day. Why not make your stand memorable by offering decent goods tailored to your brand? If you’re attending a cosmetics or beauty conference create a goodie bag of items relevant to your brand. If you’re in the tech industry bring some decent headphones or portable phone chargers as giveaways. Make memorable gifts that match your branding and go beyond the traditional branded pen.
Customize Your Stand
Making the stand itself identifiable is a great way to create a memorable impression. Looking at customized stand developers can help save you set up time as they design, install and take down stands as part of the service. Whether you need to create a mocked up boutique stand for showcasing your dress designs, or an intimate meeting set up to talk to your potential new clients, tailored conference stands are the perfect way to impress your target audience. If you don’t have a very high budget, remember professional is perfect. You don’t have to have a huge booth, instead just keep it modern, clean and corporate if you’re looking to source high-end clients.
Remember Your Staff Are The Real Advert
Be really specific in who you choose to run your conference stand. You might find someone who is really knowledgeable about your products but might lack the enthusiasm to entice attendees to come and talk to you. Make sure to prepare your staff, and train them ahead of the trade show or conference. If you’re looking for some dynamic new talent to be the face of your business, why not choose someone new and give them a chance? They’ll be given the opportunity to prove themselves, and if you give them enough time to prepare, you reduce the risk of something going wrong on the day of the main event. Try different candidates for each event to give people a break from the additional time at work and find out who really excels in the role.
Incentivize The Stand Team
So you’ve chosen your team to run the stand, and you’re wondering why they’re not jumping for joy at the opportunity. Remember that they are giving up their time outside of work to travel, set up, run and clean up the whole event. Potentially if you’ve had to fly for the event they might be losing their weekend too. Really incentivize your team – they are your best asset, and if they’re benefitting from the event, they’re more likely to want to do well. Why not offer time off in lieu, extra time, or arrange for a luxury dinner, or fun activity after the event.
Have Eye-Catching Advertisements
You’ve got your stand, your team, your freebies, and your attendees. Now it’s time for some eye-catching advertising. Check out these guys for some pull-up banners, printed in full color for maximum impact. Pull up banners are also easier to travel and set up, making the workload easier for your team if you haven’t hired a customized stand and they’re doing the heavy lifting on the day itself. Using high-quality impact graphics are bound to make your stand memorable, especially if they tie into your existing branding and marketing materials.
Location Location Location
If you sign up late to the event, or don’t talk to the conference organizer, you’re largely at their mercy as to where your stand will be on the day. Why not be proactive and give the conference person a call, so you can get ahead of the negotiations for your stand location and find a spot in a prime area that will give you the best leverage for attendee access. Making sure you’re in a relevant part of the event will also mean your foot traffic might be more relevant to your client base.
Consistency Is Key
You might have strong branding on social media, the stand itself, and on your giveaway materials, but if your branding is inconsistent, you risk being forgettable. Consistently reinforcing your materials with strong branding will help with everything you do, as people will consistently be seeing the same marketing materials from the run-up to the big day itself, having the added bonus of people recognizing you on the conference day. Make sure your logo and tailored branding is on all materials you give away and present on the day.
Update Your Paperwork
It’s inevitable that on the day of the conference, or event, you’ll have at least some minimal printed material on display just in case people want to take something away without signing up via email. Make sure whatever you have is relevant to within the last three months, and isn’t outdated. Avoid reusing last year’s materials wherever possible, and create some new printed information for the conference specifically so that people are given the most relevant information possible.
Less Is More On the Stand
Regardless of how big your stand is, displaying only what you need is essential to avoiding a cluttered stand and making your company seem like a great big disorganized mess. Make sure you have enough advertisements, giveaways and brand displays, but if you’re worried about running out try to hide additional stock behind tables or conveniently placed stands so you can replenish your items if you run out. It’s a fine line between looking cluttered and having a bare stand that looks like you couldn’t be bothered.
Getting people to come to your exhibition stand is always fierce competition when you might be placed immediately next to your competitors. But with the perfect stand, advertisements, location, marketing strategy, and team, you’re sure to draw a crowd. Making your stand, stand out might be your enthusiastic team drawing people in, or the attendees making the most of your eye-catching branding and advertising. Try these tips out and enjoy a successful exhibition for your company this 2020.
