Every year, you hear of trade show events. For ordinary people, such events are times to have fun or unwind. Trade shows are strategic times for businesses to market their products and services. We have often underscored that trade shows are opportunities you should highly consider. Great as all that is, it is not just about attending or exhibiting at trade shows. There are certain things you ought to do to reap the best results. Let us discuss how your business can get the best from trade shows.
Do Your Homework First
Doing your homework involves researching the available trade shows in the country. You must cascade this down to find trade shows in your city, town, or even close to your neighborhood or business premises. Sure enough, trade shows are done at the national level but also at lower levels. They may not necessarily be largely talked about, but can benefit your business immensely.
Thus, you need to dig deep and be in the know of all possible trade shows you can take advantage of. You also need to find comprehensive details on the nature of the trade shows. This will help you determine whether a trade show is for you. These are just some examples, but the idea is that you need to do your homework first before just blindly settling for a trade show.
Come Up With A Strategic Plan
Once you have done your homework, you must develop a strategic plan. Remember it is not enough to exhibit at a trade show. Merely just doing it is not what will guarantee great results. It is highly likely to exhibit at a trade show and not reap the benefits. No wonder why you need to plan. What will you seek to achieve by exhibiting at the trade show? Is it about brand awareness? Is it about generating leads? Are you seeking to introduce new products or services?
Are you seeking to court potential business partners or investors? These are some of the preliminary questions to answer. Then, you delve into coming up with strategies on how you will achieve your thrust. This will entail your theme, messaging, exhibition stand design, etc. As you can see, there is a lot to plan. All of this will come in handy in measuring whether or not your exhibition was a success. A strategic plan makes it easier to have measurable key performance indicators (KPIs).
Carefully Put Together Your Team
Part of what will make your exhibition successful is the team managing the exhibition stand. This team must be carefully picked since it will essentially represent the face of your brand. The impression visitors to your stand will get by interacting with that team is paramount. It would be helpful to have a healthy blend of introverted and extroverted individuals. It could even be better to have ambiverts, i.e., people who wield characteristics of both. More importantly, they must be individuals who are both skilled and knowledgeable in matters regarding your business. Any of them must be able to consummately handle any interaction with anyone visiting your exhibition stand. Thus, you need to choose who will constitute your team meticulously.
Be Visible And Engaging
Visibility is something you have to put maximum effort into. Visibility starts even before a trade show starts. You must publicize that you will be exhibiting at the trade show. Once you have the exhibition stand location, you must incorporate that in your invitations. It would be best to utilize all available avenues, e.g., social media, radio, newspapers, etc. This should start prior and should be ongoing during the trade show.
You must invest in ways to make your exhibition stand visible at the trade show. If you do this well, you can attract many people simply because your stand is alluring. Then, be engaging; starting with people who will respond to your publicity campaigns, e.g., on social media. Then most importantly, you need to be highly engaging when it comes to people who visit your stand. Be welcoming, cordial, informative, and entertaining.
Collect Contact Details And Follow Up Later
One of the witty ways to get the best out of trade shows is by collecting contact details of people who visit the stand. Of course, this should be purely voluntary; do not coerce. Alternatively, you can issue business cards or fliers with contact details. The thrust, though, should be to collect contact details. If you play your cards right, it will usually be easy for people to provide their contact details.
These contact details will be for you to follow up later. This will be strategic for cultivating leads generated into conversions. These details can also help you kick-start your email marketing efforts. Such details can also be used to build business partnerships where applicable. So many things can be achieved by having contact details of visitors to your exhibition stand. No wonder you must devise creative ways of collecting their contact details.
If you do everything we have discussed, you will get the best out of any trade show. It does not matter where it is and what its theme is. You will always reap great results if you approach any trade show with these insights. If you are to summarize all we discussed in single words, it will be – homework, plan, team, visibility, engagement, data collection, and follow-up. Those are the keywords to consider when approaching trade shows as a business.