If you are a business owner and you service an industry, trade fairs and exhibitions are an integral marketing avenue; regardless of the industry, there are many events where you can demonstrate your products in a B2B environment. If you are planning next year’s live event schedule and are booking booth space, here are a few important aspects to take into account.
- Set a budget – When you confirm an event, you need to crunch the numbers and come up with a budget; your manager has to do the best they can with the budget they have. The earlier you book your booth, the better, as rates are usually lower when you are one of the first to make a booking. Take Thailand exhibition centres as an example, Muang Thong Thani is the largest venue and when you book your space, bear in mind your budget from the event.
- Stand/booth location – The best positions are near entry/exit points, to be close to a restroom means that many people will pass your stand; generally speaking, the better locations are priced accordingly. It is probably best to pay the higher rates and get the foot traffic and your staff can interact and hand out presentation packs.
- Staff – Perhaps the most important component of all is the staff who man the booth; it takes a special kind of person to connect with others and leave a lasting impression after a short conversation. Exhibition staff should be knowledgeable, well-presented and easy to talk to; handing our small presentation packs to those who show an interest. There are specialist providers of sales development courses and they can deliver their services via Zoom.
- Digital presentations – Ideally, you should have at least one large digital screen that shows your presentation slideshow on a loop setting; this will attract a lot of passers-by; they might not be in need of your product/service now, but when they are, they are likely to make contact.
- Retail opportunities – Many exhibitions attract the general public and there are always big discounts when you buy products such as electrical appliances, furniture and home improvement products/services at an exhibition. Retailers usually offer old stock that needs to be cleared to make warehouse space, so there are some amazing deals, especially with cars.
- Printed literature – Despite the emergence of digital promotion, your printed literature needs to be top-notch; a local print shop would have state of the art laser coloured printers that can create top quality brochures. Your promotional literature is a reflection of the company and first impressions do matter.
- Onsite demos – If it is practical, you should demo your products at your stand to give potential customers a chance to see the product at work. Staff should be able to demonstrate the products effortlessly, which can be achieved with some practice.
- Feedback – As you attend many events in a year, gathering accurate feedback will help you improve conversions; if your goals are not met, you need to find out why, what went wrong? Maybe your stand was not up to scratch, or attendance was lower than normal, or it might be that your stand was tucked out of the way in a corner, which is never ideal.
- Presentation – The way your stand is designed correlates with the number of people who visit your venue; wise managers hire the best fitout contractor to design and build their stand; you only get one shot at this, so it needs to be right. Graphics are important and if your stand raises eyebrows, you should receive a lot of interest.
Many industries organise trade fairs and exhibitions and we hope that the above information helps you to enjoy success at your next live event.
