How to use an Exhibition to Market Your Business

Exhibitions are an excellent way of meeting new customers and marketing your business, your products and services to ultimately get more sales and increase profits.

Exhibiting does not need to be costly, so how do you keep costs down and maximise your return on investment?

It's all in the preparation

In order to maximise your results on your stand you will need to:

• Identify your goals and objectives -Work out what you want to achieve from the exhibition and beyond, who you want to target and how you will measure your success (e.g. number of leads, number of converted leads).
• Exhibition stand design - When designing your exhibition stand, ensure that it conveys your marketing aim, brand values and product or service capabilities and is geared towards your target audience. Think of ways that you can entice people to engage with you. Create a special show offer on your product or services pricing or perhaps deliver a pertinent give away – a white paper or some new research.

Text

Remembering the basics of design will help your stand make an impact. The text you use is an important element of this and less is definitely more. Try to convey your key sales/marketing message as succinctly as possible - a single word is great, as long as it still gets your message across. Also, place your text at the top of the stand so that your message isn’t obstructed by other stands and ensure the font is large enough to be seen from a distance.

Graphics

Choose graphics and images that will appeal to your target audience, keep them big so that they can be seen from afar, and once again, place them in the top two thirds of the space.

Lighting

Finally, the lighting you use can make or break your exhibition stand. At the very least, you need to ensure that there is enough lighting so that delegates can read your text and displays.

Your stand staff

• Carefully brief your exhibition stand staff, ensure that your staff are trained and briefed on the overall aims, who to target, the kind of questions that may arise and how to interact with prospects and customers.
• Contact your contacts - Make sure that as many prospects and customers as possible know that you will be attending the exhibition. Send e-shots, use social media, add a signature block toy our emails and add it toy our web site if possible.

On the day of the exhibition

• Remember why you're there - make sure you and your staff remain focused on their goals. Reinforce your aims to the team just before the doors open and the day begins 
• Make the most of the exhibitions and remember that networking can happen anywhere at the show – when you’re at the coffee bar, attending a workshop or listening to speakers. Walk around the exhibition and talk with other exhibitors – increasing your engagement with delegates and exhibitors will hugely increase your positive leads from the day. 

Big No-Nos

• Body language and behaviour - Your staff are your brand, that means no crossed arms, mobile phones, or eating on the stand. Welcoming smiles, making eye contact and open questions will make a big difference to your success
• Keep it short - Keep your conversations with prospects short and concise. You have a limited amount of time, so ensure that you spend enough time to get all the details you need and then move on

Post-exhibition

• Evaluate the day - After the event, it's important to assess how well the day went and discuss any feedback you received from customers so that you can improve for next time.
• Follow up on leads - Immediately after the event, you should either call or mail every contact that you spoke to on the exhibition stand, even if it's just a simple thank you for visiting you at the stand
• Measure your successes - Ensure that you follow up on all leads and track whether or not these convert into sales. This the only way you will know whether or not the exhibition was a success enabling you to accurately calculate your return on investment. 

If you require any further information or we can help in any way, please give us a ring on 01732 758530. We run free training sessions on exhibiting and making the most of social media so why not book onto one now? Click here to find out more.

Networking in a digital age

As the digital world continues to develop and it seems that more and more of our communication takes place online, over email or via social media is the art of networking face-to-face becoming obsolete? The growth of social media and other networking applications such as crowdfunding sites has undoubtedly led to employees spending longer in front of their screen and less time out meeting contacts, peers and clients face-to-face. Unarguably, online has opened up many businesses to otherwise unreachable international markets and information that would have previously taken weeks to research is now available at your fingertips. The growth in this technology has opened up many alternative commercial channels for businesses, large and small; however, it has also meant that employees now spend time sifting through vast swathes of information – making decisions as to what is useful and what is not.

Networking is an important skill

As the tide of social media has continued to grow there has also been a growth in the number of people discussing the need for face-to-face meetings and nurturing those so-called softer skills of networking and developing relationships. Interestingly, Julia Hobsbawm has long heralded the need for businesses to maintain more face-to-face contact and the need for employees to “come out from behind their screens “ and actually meet people. She has such weight within the business community that the Cass Business School based in the City, London have recently made her their inaugural, honorary Professor of Networking. Julia has long argued that the process of building networking skills is integral to the development of a solid, productive team, that networking is less of a soft, additional skill and that is should be brought to the forefront of business skills that firms should be demanding from their employees. Proving that an ability to network matters and can make a difference to the bottom line of a firm takes the skill swiftly away from its lightweight roots or comical images of standing alone in a conference room with a handful of business cards and takes it into the realms of relevant, contemporary business thinking. 

Larger firms recognise the need to network

Hobsbawm argues that, in fact, it is a disservice to think that employees don’t want to or aren’t capable of networking in this way. Large businesses such as BT and Regus have proven business techniques that show that in order for employees to work at their best, face-to-face contact is required. They ensure that new managers go out and meet all their teams – even though their corporate policies rail against “unnecessary travel”. To run a successful business is obviously a far more intricate operation than employing people to sit behind desks connecting through their PC’s. Employees should, and need to be encouraged to take the opportunity to network as and when they can. Hobsbawm comments that these opportunities may also come from the most unusual of places, but are necessary in order to push those employees onto the next stage of their career (and prevent them from becoming disillusioned). Businesses themselves need to aspire to be dynamic and forward thinking – they must remember to look beyond their own walls and engage with the wider world. 

Networking whether it is in your social circle, with peers at a curated external networking event (such as those run by the CIPD), or at a focussed business to business conference or exhibition should be a firm and regular fixture of any business. Starting a relationship online is great, but the cement that will hold and build that business relationship into a longstanding, mutually profitable one will be done face-to-face.

5 reasons to consider event sponsorship as part of your marketing plans

As marketing budgets begin to increase once more many organisations will begin reviewing their spend in terms of both finance and the channels that they use. Whilst the march of social media and online marketing continues apace many marketers are starting to look at some alternative means in order to get their brand out there and recognised. With the growing noise across many channels, an alternative strategy may be the way to be seen and heard by more of your audience. So, along with a return to the more traditional areas of print marketing, the arena of event sponsorship should also be considered as a great way to build your audience and grow exposure. 

Choosing the right event and what you sponsor is absolutely key to your sponsorship success. Consider should the event align itself with your business? Is it attracting the right audience for you? Could it open a new market for you? These are all questions that you need to be pretty sure of the answers before going ahead. One thing is for sure though many business directors agree that exhibitions offer a great way to meet new clients,  so surely extending that to sponsoring makes sense? And do you know what? Sponsorship needn’t cost the earth - it’s not always about sponsoring the whole event, or the event guide - there are generally lots of other smaller opportunities for business to get involved with. Take a look at five reasons why your company should look at event sponsorship.

1. Build credibility with a targeted  audience

Events like B2B exhibitions and conferences are a great way to get to meet your clients, develop relationships with new ones and build authority within your sector. Alongside taking a stand having your company branding elsewhere at the event will help to build recognition of your product or service. Sponsorship will enable you to stand out from the crowd to an audience that has been created for you. What does this mean? Well, a carefully managed exhibition or conference will have heaps of delegates that are ideally placed to be receptive to your product or service - thats’ the job of the event organiser. For them to make the event successful they need to have the right delegates meeting the right exhibitors … and sponsors! Be sure to do your homework and find out exactly who the target market is.

2. Remember the people that aren’t actually there

Now this may sound bizarre but when you are speaking with delegates, contacts or other exhibitors always remember that they most probably have a book full of other people with similar interests or who are in a similar sector, so, remember the people that aren’t at the exhibition and make an excellent impression on those that are. This still holds true for sponsorship - sponsor the event bag or some promotional items and the chances are they will be seen by far more than just the person who attend - gaining you and your business further exposure. 

3. Increase your media exposure

As part of the organisers role the event will undoubtably be well advertised both on and offline - as a sponsor you gain access to this. For businesses that look at becoming a headline or major sponsor the opportunities to spread your reach can be huge. Advertising tends to come as standard on all the events marketing including web sites, email marketing, advertising, but be clever and you can get more involved - creating social media campaigns or other content that align you to the event and build your exposure.  

4. Big or small 

Whatever the size of your business, there is likely to be a sponsorship  opportunity for you. Larger firms may be interested in becoming a headline sponsor - like Caxtons for the Kent B2B’s this year. Not only does it give them great coverage across the county - which is their main target market - it also goes to show that they are genuinely interested in the local area and businesses within it. 

David Gurton, Director at Caxtons comments. "As a professional firm, Caxtons looks for ways to magnify and enhance our corporate message, and we found a particularly valuable one in our partnership with Kent Invicta Chamber.

As headline sponsor for the Chamber’s B2B events, we have achieved face-to-face countywide exposure that has helped us to capitalise on our existing marketing and PR activities.  It has meant we can meet clients in an informal business environment, and can introduce them to knowledgeable members of our team. 

The wide ranging promotion of the exhibitions including emails, advertisements, press releases, blogs, workshops and speaker slots prior to, and at events has increased our brand exposure to both the business community and customers across the county, which has extended our business reach."

However, if you don’t have the resources for headline sponsorship what can you do? One of the best ideas is to pick up the phone and call the event to see what the other options are - there are usually opportunities to sponsor event bags, perhaps the coffee cups (what a great way to get your brand noticed as people stand, chat and network!) or, even get involved with a workshop or sponsor a networking session. 

5. Make more contacts

For some events, becoming a significant sponsor can also open up the events contacts lists for your business. If you have chosen well this list could be one of the premium benefits to your firm - offering you access to a list of delegates that potentially are interested in you.

Making sponsorship opportunities work is a two fold deal - firstly, you need to ensure that the event you are looking at is in the right sector and that the organisers are targeting your potential clients. Then it’s down to you - negotiate well and you could come out with a package that’s worth far more than the money you pay for it. 

Interested in finding out more about sponsorship of our events? Call Carole on 01732 758530.