Exhibitions are a costly marketing activity. If you get it wrong its a costly mistake! Here is a checklist to help you make the most of your exhibition spend.
- Ask why are you exhibiting? Too many exhibitors fail to define their aims when attending exhibitions and events. Why are you there? What do you need to get out of attending to consider it a successful show? (sales, brand exposure, share of voice etc)
- Don’t just book the space because your competitors will be there. If you are not sure why you are attending perhaps you shouldn’t be there at all.
- What style of stand should you book? The stand that you book and the way you use it should be defined by your aims for the show.
- Establish a budget for the entire event and keep to it. If you are in doubt about the cost of anything, contact the organisers or the suppliers directly. Rough estimates I work to are approximately one third of your budget on hiring the stand area itself. Shell Scheme is cheaper than designing a bespoke stand and there is plenty you can do to make the space suit your personal needs and to attract customers.
- Be proactive. Make appointments with your customers beforehand, invite your prospects to come meet with you – they will be busy once they get to the show - make sure you're on their list of peopel to meet. Make sure that your company does not miss out because you have not made the effort to contact them before the show.
- How long do you want people spending on your stand? Should staff gather contact details and move on or should they be giving full demonstrations and sales pitches to each visitor? What is the best use of their time?
- Keep your stand tidy! Sounds silly but coffee cups, water bottles, sweet wrappers look messy and unprofessional.
- First impressions count. Stand staff should be easily identifiable and approachable - staff checking their emails when the stand is quiet or on their phones WILL put off visitors.
- Consider some ‘training’ for the staff that will be on the stand or at least have a prep meeting before the show. Do they know how to use any equipment (badge scanners etc), do they know the objectives of the exhibition (generate xxx leads, give xxx demonstrations etc).
- Make sure you have enough collatoral for the visitors. Marketing collatoral is vital in aiding the visitor to remember your company. They visit over 100 stands at most exhibitions – you need to make sure it is you and your offering that is remembered and ordered.
- Use the press. Most exhibitions will have a press area. Make sure you leave your information or press packs in this area. Trade journalists are usually sent along to cover any major exhibitions, and I apologise to my journalist friends here, but they are lazy. Creating the press releases in advance on your activity at the exhibition and leaving contact details in the press pack will make it more likely that it is your stand that is mentioned in the post event news articles.
- Ensure that your hard work doesn't get wasted by failing to follow up the leads. People have visited your stand – this means they are interested in your products or services, make sure your team follows them up. Take notes on each customer who visits your stand – there is nothing worse than calling them up after the show and not being able to remember what it was you discussed on the day. I am amazed by the number of companies who pay extortionate amounts of money to attend an exhibition and then the sales team only follow up a handful of leads from the show.
And finally, measure your success. 3 months after an exhibtion the marketing team should be able to answer the following questions;
- What was the total cost of participation in this event?
- How many leads did you get?
- What was the cost per lead for this exhibition?
- What was the cost per subsequent meeting / product demonstration / invitation to tender etc? Use whatever your primary objective of exhibiting was.
- What was the cost per sale generated?
- What was the exhibition ROI?
After a year of multiple events and exhibitions the marketing team should be able to tell the business where the money was spent, what it achieved and how much sales revenue was generated.
