Author: Exhibition Stands

We’ve all had that little competition with ourselves, walking round exhibitions trying to pick up as many free gifts as we can, but where are all those ‘freebies’ now and what company even gave them to you?

How many of these ‘freebies’ have you actually kept and maybe more importantly have you ever called a company because their branded pen reminded you about their services?

The answer might be yes or no – different promotional methods work for different companies, but many companies use small free gifts such as branded pens at exhibition stands without even thinking, it’s what everyone does, so why wouldn’t you?

Just as with any form of promotion, you should be testing and monitoring which methods work for you rather than just choosing and sticking to something by default. We’ve detailed some ways you can think more constructively about which freebies might work for your business, and which alternatives might work even better.

Quality for Longer Promotion

A traditional freebie such as a mug or a coaster could well be an excellent idea for your company – people use them in the office and they will stick around to remind people of your services. Ensuring good quality is therefore a priority, if they go in the bin after a few weeks they won’t do their job properly and your company will be associated with their quality. Don’t go for the cheapest option, offer something durable that will stick around and remind people of your company when they most need your services.

Track Your Freebie Success

In order to monitor success of promotional material, you can include a promo code or specific contact phone number or email on your freebies. A static trackable forwarded phone number can cost as little as £5 and mean you can track any calls resulting from your freebies, allowing you to truly judge their worth.

Remember though that some enquiries come from many different forms of contact, so your freebie might support the enquiry but not be the final thing that leads to it – it still may be helpful for following up sales after the show if someone has your mug on their desk while talking to you.

Run a Competition & Prize

Instead of small individual freebies, why not give away one of your services as a prize, this way it gives you a great opportunity to see who is interested but also gives you a foot in the door to sell your services to these visitors in the future. If your services don’t work as a prize, a weekend away or gadget such as a tablet can work well too.

You could incorporate your gift or competition into your lead generation tactic for the expo. This could be that they should put their business card in a box if they would be interested in your service and another if not. This way you will be collecting and sorting hot leads all in one go.

Spend Your Budget Elsewhere

There may be other aspects of your exhibition presence that could do with attention before you even start looking at freebies and prizes – such as your actual stand. We may be slightly biased due to being a stand company, but we know just how much different a bold and attention-grabbing stand can make! Along with a stand that really works with your branding at the show, you should invest in excellent staffing. You can do everything right, but if the staff you have greeting people and talking to them don’t put across the right impression then your whole show experience will suffer.

There are pros and cons to using free gifts at exhibition shows and it is completely dependent on your business, budget and what you want to achieve. Setting goals for the show beforehand will put you in the best position to decide whether you want to use free gifts on your stand, or whether you should be investing in another aspect of your show presence.

Ultimately, it’s important to remember that just because a lot of businesses use free gifts doesn’t mean it works for everyone.

Exhibitions come in all shapes and sizes and you’ll have to decide which suit you best – the temptation can be to want to head only for shows with a huge visitor turnout. However, don’t rule the small shows out! Exhibiting at smaller shows can offer some really valuable and focused visitors, but they can be very different to the bigger shows so we have come up with a few tips for you.

1 – Use Your Given Space

Usually what comes with a smaller exhibition is less space for your stand and a smaller distance between you and other stands. This is not always a bad thing, you just need to know how to get the most out of your space. Modular stands are great for this because you can adjust it completely to fit the space that you are in. Remember that also if you lack floorspace you don’t lack airspace, so you can build your stand upwards! Many modular stands include columns that can be build up to hold large graphics, and in a small show this will really catch the eye.

Focus more on the branding of your stand rather than the size, make sure everything is presentable and very focused towards grabbing people’s attention and getting them to engage in some way. Having a cohesive stand can really make a difference especially when that is what will attract someone over to you. Use a table to go out as far as you can, this way you are more within the crowd and can seem easier to approach and talk to – don’t overstep your boundary however.

2 – Advertise and Promote

Let people know that you will be at this exhibition, give them the details they need and help raise awareness of this exhibition. People can’t come along if they don’t know about it, give the organisers a helping hand and let your social audience know about this show, you could even send out a email to your contacts.

If you are running a competition or offer at this show then let your audience know about it because people who have been undecided may just come for your competition or offer.

3 – Your Team

Your team is so important at exhibitions, you need to take the right people with you to produce energy on your stand. It’s best not to take a lot of team members with you, especially to a smaller show – this can intimidate people much more than one or two people will.

The people who are manning your stand are representing your business and need to present the best image that they can. Ensure also that team members area ready to make eye-contact and connect with visitors, which can work especially well at a small show.

4 – Spark a Conversation

Starting a conversation with someone is the best way to get them to engage with you, don’t tell them about you and your business the whole time, find out about them and what they do. Once you know a bit more about them you can work out how you could possibly help them and how your business could benefit them. On the other hand, it is just a great way to network with people and build connections.

Engaging with people is especially important at smaller shows because you are likely to get a smaller footfall at the show and to your stand so engage with the people you do meet and get them talking. Other people like to see a stand that’s busy or at least engaging with people.

5 – Know Your Audience

Having a smaller audience is the perfect chance to ensure you really target your stand marketing – take the opportunity to research the kind of visitors that will be attending. This might involve researching the business sector the show is catered for, or the local region it covers.

Cater your stand towards this audience for more change to really engage with people, this may be in the competition you offer or what you use to entice people over to your stand. Think outside the box and try and work out what these visitors will like and