Know-how

How to ideally manage your trade fair or exhibition event?
How to be effective and get more potential customers and qualified leads?
How to achieve a higher return on your investment (ROI) in an event?

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Luck favors the prepared

A trade fair or exhibition is an opportunity to generate new future customers. You just need to have a great product or service and be strategically prepared. Because in the world of trade fairs, luck favors the prepared.

You can evaluate your planned participation in the trade fair, for example, using a Business Model Canvas visualization form and determine the follow-up steps to the goal using an OKR method. Or you can use a SWOT analysis and then a SMART method.

In the event of an ambiguous result, you have the option to participate in the selected trade fair – based on, for example, the professional nature of the trade fair, international reach, etc. – initially with a smaller exhibition stand.
The specific trade fair you have chosen can support your growth and the visibility of your company.

Be the perfect and interactive harbour lighthouse for your ideal customers

Step by step

A key step to mastering a trade fair can be to divide the necessary steps into three to four phases. For preparation before the trade fair, during the event and follow-up after it. The fourth stage, analysis and optimization, can take place during all three phases.

All four phases have an impact on your return on investment (ROI) in the trade fair.

1. Pre-trade fair strategy
  • Communicate your trade fair to your target groups and potential customers, generate interest in your presented solutions and tailor your messages to them. Similar to how you communicate your other follow-up marketing activities, such as email campaigns.
  • Share your trade fair on social media and increase your reach.
  • Plan incentives for trade show visitors, such as exclusive content, so that you have a theme before, during, and after the event.
  • Plan dates for meetings at your exhibition stand with potential customers and, for example, local business partners.
  • Prepare materials and equipment for presenting your products and services, such as a presentation speech in front of the display.
  • Prepare an interactive presentation – in advance – perhaps even in 3D, for the greater active engagement of visitors by sharing their data with you.
  • Have an exhibition stand designed and built – in advance – that will make trade show visitors stop by and ask you questions. Which will be organized in a way that encourages the active engagement of participants in obtaining interesting information. Which will offer activity/interactivity along with providing information that participants will want to try. Which will have a nice space to sit down in for coffee, to learn more about your products and services, and for your story, which your stand will be imbued with in every available space. Because your exhibition stand is the first important chapter of your future stories with every new potential customer. That’s why you need a stand from us. We’re a trusted business partner, thanks to which you can focus mainly on your strategy for generating leads.
  • Contact the exhibition center or event organizer for information on the demographics and interests of registered trade show attendees to better understand your target audience.
  • Participate in the exhibition center, for example, by promoting your company in the form of an Online Directory or Digital Gift Bag.
  • Obtain a practical electronic system for grabbing leads from the exhibition venue or event organizer.
  • Get other strategic data for even better decision-making. Data from us.
  • Assemble a team of employees for your exhibition stand who are motivated, likeable, and have the necessary knowledge. Before the event, train them on perfecting an engaging greeting with a smile, working with the lead generation system, qualifying questions for visitors, and making the operation of your stand smooth and seamless – assign roles and responsibilities and ensure effective lead capture. Always use your “A-team” for trade fairs and exhibitions.
2. Strategy during the event
  • Welcome every visitor with a warm smile and pleasant voice. Be friendly professionals who listen to your visitors and then offer them interesting practical solutions.
  • Present your products and services in a way that connects and supports the things that visitors are looking for solutions for.
  • During your positive conversations, scan the visitor’s tags, look for practical reasons for collaboration, and use qualifying questions about the visitor’s current problems, provide a timeline for resolving them, budget considerations, and use a simple scoring system to prioritize your next steps.
  • Create unusual positive surprises through geofencing in the form of an SMS with an engaging invitation, for example, for coffee with your product or service, or for an interesting live performance of it, etc. The message will arrive on every smartphone in a virtually defined area around your exhibition stand. Gain additional potential customers – thanks to IoT technology from us.
3. Post-trade fair strategy
  • Contact qualified leads as soon as possible, within the next business day after the event. Show your continued interest and maintain communication.
  • Use your notes from each conversation and mention the details discussed to better follow up on your conversation with the participant at your stand.
  • Take into account that each potential customer, each generated lead, has its own pace of passage through the so-called sales funnel. Not every trade fair participant is ready to close the deal immediately.
  • Segment your newly acquired potential customers in the way that you usually use in your business – for example, according to their interest in a product or service, their level of interest, purchase schedule, etc. You can build on the models you use, such as AIDAL, See-Think-Do-Care, etc.
  • Integrate the data obtained into your CRM/ERP, into automated personalized email campaigns, etc.
  • Offer your potential customers interesting content, for example, in the form of case studies, online seminars, or development/industry reports. This way, you will establish yourself as an expert and a source of useful information; you won’t be just another supplier.
  • Try asking for feedback from visitors to your exhibition stand, your stand from us. Or for feedback from your potential customers regarding their opinion of your products and services. You can gain additional important information for subsequent improvement.
  • Analyze and optimize, because what can be measured, you can improve on. Analyze data from your electronic lead capture system, data from us – regarding the monitored movement of potential customers in and around your exhibition stand – and your own insights. Post-event analysis is key to your strategy for the next event. With analysis, you can find out what worked well and what still needs improvement. Was the specified measurable target of the trade fair achieved? Discuss the results of the analysis with the team that prepared the event and who attended the event, and together discuss what went well and what still needs to be improved – using specific steps.

Do you want to create more business opportunities?

The correct procedure for working with the leads generated from a trade fair or exhibition, with your potential customers, of course also has an impact on the final result of your return on investment (ROI) in the event.
We have been sharing our know-how with you since 1997.

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