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Despite increasingly popular online media and social media, personal contact between customers and local partners in particular is still of great importance. In direct conversation, you can not only impress with facts and standardized advantages, but also address the customer individually. In addition, personal influencing factors can also play a major role in such an information and sales conversation.
In normal day-to-day marketing, this exchange mainly takes place at the point of sale, but trade fairs can also be a good place to address new customers and interested parties and to draw attention to the branch and the company. However, such a trade fair presence is an unusual challenge, particularly for smaller local partners. With these 10 tips, you can get the best out of your next exhibition stand:
1. Find the right trade fair
Not every trade fair is suitable for your own company. Right from the start of preparation, each partner should carefully consider which trade fairs they would like to attend. Trade fairs that are local and are either tailored precisely to your own specialization or appeal to a wide audience and attract a large number of visitors are best. However, which of the two types of trade fairs is more suitable must be decided individually.
2. Set goals
Selecting the right trade fair goes hand in hand with setting goals. These can be decisive for which event an exhibition stand is worthwhile and at which not. It should be determined in advance whether to advertise the branch in general, create greater awareness among the population or promote and sell a specific product.
3. Budget planning
Depending on the size of the trade fair, the local exhibition stand and also the number of visitors, a budget plan must then be drawn up. Under certain circumstances, a trade fair appearance can be comparatively expensive. It is therefore better to calculate all expenses in advance in order to decide whether the trade fair fits into the general marketing budget or how large the stand space should be.
4. Define target group
By selecting the trade fair and setting the goals, the most important target group should also be defined. Depending on the goal, it can be an advantage to address a large number of different people. In other cases, however, it is more worthwhile to target the relevant people, for example to sell a specific product.
5. Invite customers and prospects
Especially with local companies and regional trade fairs, it is worthwhile not only to rely on general trade fair visitors, but also to mobilize your own contacts. In this way, customers and interested parties can be invited to the trade fair. This also makes it possible to use the trade fair presence as an additional point of contact and to seek a personal conversation.
6. Coordinate set-up and suppliers
After theoretically planning the trade fair presence, it is also important to keep an eye on logistics. The organization of a stand and the coordination of service providers, such as exhibition construction or catering, should be coordinated and planned in advance if possible in order to guarantee a smooth and successful presentation.
7. Promote your appearance
In general, a trade fair already appeals to a very large number of people, who in turn can be won over as potential customers. However, in order not only to rely on random visitors, it is good to provide targeted advertising or signposts for your own stand. As a result, a particularly large number of people can be brought to the stand.
8. The atmosphere at the stand
Once at the stand, interested parties should be welcomed with a friendly conversation. The atmosphere of the exhibition stand is strongly influenced by the people present. It should therefore be planned in advance which people will work at the stand and how they can approach the guests. In addition, a positive and open atmosphere can be created by providing drinks, snacks or cozy seating.
9. Provide promotional material
In order not only to convince guests in a personal conversation, but also to provide them with information and to be able to convince interested parties with less time, information brochures and flyers that can be taken home are suitable. Even small gifts and gifts help visitors remember them in the long term.
10. After the fair is before the fair
After a successful trade fair appearance, it is important not to stop at that, but to reflect on the exhibition stand once again and work out positive and negative aspects. By identifying weak points or errors, future appearances can be optimized. In addition to reflection, contact should be made again with all new prospects and customers after the presentation. This means that all collected contacts can be used ideally for future advertising measures.