When you are looking at exhibiting at an event, I would suggest that you think about buying a communications package that gives you the opportunity to engage the full organiser’s database (i.e. your prospects) from the moment you sign up to exhibit. Don’t just book the stand and rely on attracting the visitors on the day.
As someone involved in delivering exhibition experiences for some of my clients, the effects of the pandemic on the events industry, particularly B2B trade exhibitions has encouraged me to think again about why companies exhibit, and how they can get more value from the exhibition element of the marketing communications mix.
From my experience, I would say that many companies choose to exhibit because of the opportunity to attract a reasonable number of relevant prospects to their stand from the visitors supplied on the day by the organiser. And as a result, nearly all the effort goes into the stand experience that will help attract and engage those passing prospects at the live show.
I would still say that significant effort should go into the stand experience. However, it is very likely that the number of prospects a company engages at the live show will be a fraction of their potential prospects in the organiser’s database.
So when a company is looking at attending an exhibition as part of their marketing communications mix, I believe they should be considering it as an opportunity to engage and acquire as many prospects as possible from the organiser’s database, both on and off-stand. And that opportunity starts the moment you sign up to be an exhibitor.
My advice would be - DON’T just book the stand! Negotiate a communications package to reach the maximum number of prospects through the lifespan of the organiser’s promotional programme for that exhibition.
When considering an exhibition, get the organiser to run through all the opportunities they offer for you to communicate with the prospects they have on their database. And importantly, how much they cost. These will likely include:
• The stand space
• Email campaigns
• Newsletters
• Direct mail
• Seminar participation
• On-line event participation
• Sponsorships
• Social media
• Exhibition handbook
• Exhibitor website listings
Then work out which communications elements you would ideally like to use in addition to the stand space, and negotiate a communications package that gets you opportunities to engage and acquire all prospects from the moment you sign up to exhibit.
I believe that taking this approach should lead to far greater success in drawing more prospects into your customer experience funnel, which is ultimately the goal of most exhibitors.
If you have any questions about how to make your exhibiting campaign more successful then please email Simon Baxter.