Events
Fact Sheet
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Exhibitions provide an ideal environment to meet new customers
and maintain contact with existing clients. Exhibiting at
a show has many benefits:
• The buyer comes to you
• Captive audience
• Visitors are very targeted and interested in the products
at the show
• Contact is face-to-face
• Decision makers attend
• Good environment to do business
• Easy to capture visitor’s contact details
These are just some of the more significant advantages of
exhibitions over other marketing communication methods.
You have done your research and have
chosen the most suitable exhibition for your industry, what
do you do next?
Setting objectives
This is an important stage of your planning and will affect
all of the other elements of the process. Exhibition space
is expensive so setting targets and measuring results is vital
to achieve maximum return on investment. Just “flying
the flag” is no longer a credible reason for attending
a show, the stand has to attract new customers and your staff
need to be motivated to achieve targets. Lead generation should
be measured and visitors to the stand dealt with according
to their level of importance. General enquiries should be
dealt with quickly to allow more time to be spent with serious
customers.
Planning and budget
It is vital to have a detailed timing plan with costs starting
6 – 12 months before the event. This should include
every element of the build-up to the show listed with critical
dates to make sure nothing gets missed. Costs should be allocated
against each item and monitored to ensure the overall budget
is not exceeded. It is important at this stage to get buy-in
from all of the internal departments and external suppliers
to ensure they can meet the schedule and stay within budget.
Site selection
The position of your site will affect your visitor numbers.
Study the exhibition plan carefully and select an area with
a high level of visitor traffic, if possible. Consider where
the entrances, catering facilities and toilets are located,
as these will affect visitor flow. Stands by the entrance
are usually the most popular and are the first to get booked,
so the earlier you book the better, providing the show is
well known and established. If it is a new show, do some research
and find out who else is attending before you book.
Stand design
An eye-catching display will help to attract visitors to your
stand. Graphics need to tell the visitor in 3 seconds, who
you are and what you do. Moving elements are good if you can
incorporate them into your display as they attract visitor’s
attention. The stand should be welcoming and approachable.
Make access to the stand as easy as possible and keep barriers
at the edge of the stand to a minimum. Use a slope if you
have to use a raised platform, or better still, keep the floor
level with the aisles.
Your planning for the show is running
to schedule and you have a prominent stand location and great
design, how do you get the most from your participation?
Another important area to consider when taking a stand at
an exhibition is your sales and marketing strategy before,
during and after the event. Advertising, press communications,
promotions and the performance of your staff during the event,
will all determine how successful your attendance has been.
Stand staff should be selected from your best sales people,
who have the knowledge to answer questions from visitors and
the ability to make decisions. Set up a rota for staff breaks
to keep them fresh and alert. Staff sitting down, chatting
to each other or yawning on the stand does not send the right
message to potential customers. Make data capture as fast
and easy as possible, most exhibition organizers use a swipe
card system which saves time on the stand and also provides
visitor details in a usable format for follow up after the
event.
Some of the activities you may want
to consider are listed below:
Pre-show
• Direct mail invitation
• Telemarketing activity
• Set up meetings in advance of the show
• Media advertising
• PR
• Staff briefings
During show
• Stand promotion
• Press pack
• Literature strategy
• Audio visual use
• Computer terminals
• Use of giveaways
• Meeting room / hospitality / reception area strategy
• Data capture
• Daily staff briefings and targets
Post show
• Promotion
• Visitor lead follow up
• Post mortem
This is the first in a series of Fact sheets providing information
on a range of Marketing Services topics.
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