Exhibiting at a trade show can deliver far more than a few days of sales activity, but simply booking a stand and turning up is not enough.
Success starts well before the doors open and continues long after the stand has been packed away. From setting meaningful KPIs and making better use of the event organiser’s resources, to putting the right people on the stand and having a clear post-show follow-up strategy, the exhibitors that get the greatest return are invariably those that approach their participation with a plan.
Paul Mathers shares eight practical tips to help exhibitors maximise their investment, measure success more effectively and turn trade show participation into longer-term business.
1. Have a plan and set KPIs.
2. Share your KPIs and/or expectations with your account manager and use their intimate knowledge of the show to best leverage your participation.
3. Have a post-festival strategy – what happens after you have packed up and you are back in the office? How do you plan to follow up? How do you turn the exposure into revenue?
4. Know how you plan to measure your success – a trade show’s success is not measured on at-show sales alone. In fact, this is the lowest value opportunity a trade show offers you. Be sure to set success KPIs for:
- Post Festival Sales
- Data Capture
- Brand building and awareness
- Customer feedback
- Sampling
- Education
- Retained Customers
5. Promote your participation to your own customer networks – the great, unspoken opportunity a trade show offers is the chance to do business with the customers of other exhibitors. If all exhibitors communicate their expo participation to their own customers, then the reach of your participation increases exponentially.
6. Employ your best staff to work the stand – if your sales staff on the stand don’t want to engage, then customers can see it a mile off. Use your best people, set targets, provide incentives, and ensure they are completely engaged while working on your stand.
7. Incentivise your customers – with other competitive brands at the show, why should the customer buy from you? What makes you different? Are you offering a discount? A loyalty program? Post-event incentives? Use incentives to bring customers to you and use them post show to retain them long after the show.
8. Take advantage of the tools provided by the Event Organiser – most trade and consumer shows have newsletters, websites, show apps, low-level branding opportunities, data capture mechanics, side events, hospitality… always ask your account manager “What other opportunities do I have access to?”
Paul Mathers
Paul is a highly experienced commercial event executive with more than 30 years’ experience building, launching and growing successful consumer event brands across Australia, the United States, United Kingdom and Southeast Asia. His career spans business leadership, P&L accountability, strategic partnerships, sponsorship, revenue growth, brand development and team leadership. Paul has led multidisciplinary teams across sales, marketing, operations and event delivery, while developing commercially successful events in the automotive, lifestyle and pet sectors.
His achievements include leading some of Australia’s foremost consumer events, delivering multiple EEAA Award-winning exhibitions and building internationally recognised brands in highly competitive and diverse markets globally. Connect with Paul through LinkedIn HERE
