The world of exhibitions is an exciting and stimulating one, but how do you stand out from the crowd?

Making your exhibit as profitable as possible starts with the planning process. In this guide, we’ll share five tactics to help you create a healthy traffic flow of quality leads and generate a buzz around your booth.

Pro Technique #1: Have an Aesthetically Pleasing Exhibit Booth

Designing an exhibition booth that helps you stand out and creates a positive association is an intricate process. Your stand will act as your shop window, representing your brand and product and driving traffic to your stall.

Some key concepts to follow are:

• Avoid having signage that is text heavy, as this can be overstimulating for a viewer, and use an appropriate color scheme
• Make full use of the space you have booked, double checking the restrictions (including height) on what size your booth can be
• Keep an open display area, ensuring the flow of your display area is unobstructed with no barriers to entry.

Pro Technique #2: Promote Your Attendance Prior to the Event

Once you’ve had a stunning exhibit designed, don’t be scared to brag about it!

Create banners for your website and email signature inviting customers to visit your booth. Make use of the event organizers’ marketing (such as using their hashtags on Twitter) to benefit from the publicity they are generating and align yourself with the event. You could even mention your attendance as part of your email campaigns running up to the big day.

Pro Technique #3: Plan How You Will Approach Passers-By 

Use your team’s strengths as your strengths. Bring staff who are outgoing and comfortable approaching strangers, as well as initiating conversations about your product. Train them to build relationships without pushing a hard sell – it will pay off on the day!

A few tips…

• Ask attendees questions that encourage conversation. For example “have you heard about our product?” or “has something caught your eye?”
• You may want to pick one member of staff to act as the “hook,” with their main job to bring people into the booth and the rest of your staff attending to those who visit.
• It’s better to bring too many staff members than not enough – no one should be waiting to be attended to. Every person ignored is a lead lost.

Pro Technique #4: Be Informative in Your Promotion

Don’t fall into the trap of giving out freebies for the sake of it. Run a contest, raffle or quiz to encourage attendees to engage with your sales team and gather email addresses rather than just picking up a free pen and going on their way. Consider gift vouchers or a free sample – they provide value to visitors, without breaking the bank. 

Finally, to show your confidence in your product, offer demonstrations to show what you have to offer and how it could benefit your audience.

Pro Technique #5: Incentivize Your Staff 

Your staff is a huge factor in your success in generating leads at an exhibition, so it’s logical to reward them for their hard work! Why not run a competition between staff members (friendly, of course...) with a prize for the person who registers the most interest? This will help keep them dynamic and focused throughout what could be a long day. 

With proper planning, exhibiting at a trade show can be a hugely profitable venture, which can provide you with surges in sales. Covering all your bases from staff training to booth design will allow you to have a solid strategy and make full use of the investment in your exhibit.

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