The key to marketing after an exhibition is to create an effective follow up plan. This is essentially the only way to get the leads you’ve captured interested in your business (if they aren’t already) and encourage people to engage with your products or services.
If you missed our previous blog post about nailing your exhibition marketing before the event takes place, make sure to read it before you read this post in order to get the full picture.
Once you’re already at the exhibition a lot of your marketing should have already taken place and you should have a strong plan in place for your marketing on the day.
Your exhibition marketing is key throughout every single stage of the exhibition process – without it, you could see your stand flop, or your follow up methods fail.
In this mini blog series, we are going to take you through the musts of exhibition marketing before, during and after your event or exhibition to make sure you get the most out of the event as possible.
Knowing how to use your brand to appeal to an exhibition audience could make the difference between coming back with many leads and coming back with none. Here we look at how best to use your brand in the right way to appeal to the exhibition attendees.
You’re only
as strong as your marketing plan – it’s the difference between where you are
now and where you want to be in a year’s time.
Everything
you want to achieve can be outlined in
your marketing plan – the exhibitions you want to attend, and the marketing
lead up to this, themes for your social media planning and the amount of
business you want to see increase.
So how do
you go about building a marketing plan, and why is it so crucial?
Assess your Situation
The
first step and key benefit of a marketing plan is
that it allows you to take a step back and assess the way your marketing is
currently performing.
In
doing so, you’re able to pinpoint marketing areas that need improvement, and identify strategies that seem
to be working for you as they are.
The
overall view of your marketing will really
help you see how you’re performing as a whole too,
and will help you with the next stage of the plan…
Determine your Goals and Measurement
Without
knowing what’s currently an issue within your business, you won’t know what
needs changing, or how to measure that you’re achieving these.
Once you’ve
assessed the areas in your marketing strategy that need to improve, you can
outline the main things you want to achieve from this.
For example,
if you know your exhibition posts don’t get a lot of engagement on social
media, your goal could be ‘double the engagement on exhibition posts on
Twitter and Facebook by December 2019’.
You
would then aim to measure this by noting how much increased engagement you gain
per week or month and set your strategy (to be discussed shortly) to meet these
goals.
Focus
on no more than 3-5 goals to avoid overwhelming yourself and diffusing your
energy away from the main aim of revenue growth, and make sure you have
research to back up the validity and possibility of your goals.
Set your Strategy
If
we use the goal outlined above as an example, some strategies you could use
would be
Running
a competition on Facebook monthly and announcing this and the results on
Facebook.
Conduct
A/B testing on your exhibition ads to see which perform better for which
audiences.
Encourage
people at exhibitions to engage with you on social media or generate a hashtag
to share photos and discussions related to this.
When you
have a comprehensive marketing plan, everyone’s next steps are clear. This could be in the form of announcing your
presence at a more suitable exhibition for your brand.
Don’t Feel too Contained
It
is incredibly important to remember this plan is an outline and isn’t set in stone. It’s a roadmap guiding you,
but there’s still always the possibility that you’ve taken a wrong turn or will
reach and obstacle.
As
long as you keep researching and measuring your goals and results, you will be
able to evolve your marketing plan when necessary, be this mid-year, quarterly,
or just in time for the next exhibition if you decide a different strategy
would produce better results.
You
want to make sure your marketing plan is driving results. If you don’t see this
being the case, it’s time for a refresh.
Why is it so important?
Whether your
business is big or small, your purpose should be revenue growth, and without customers you will never see this. Your
marketing and in turn your marketing plan are the key components to attracting
and retaining these customers.
The
strategic and time constrained nature of
a marketing plan really will help you notice whether you’re seeing results with
the strategies you use in the time you require.
OUR EXHIBITION STANDS
Easy to build and extremely lightweight. The most portable exhibition stand system.
"4 Cancer Group is a cancer respite charity with a sporting focus. Consequently, we have a wide range of exhibition and event needs across a large number of different sports. 200m2 has helped us to obtain value in an area where we were being overcharged in the past. With an an adaptable stand and replaceable graphics, our events are now easy to manage."
Andrew Hayward, Trustee, 4 Cancer Group
"We have worked with 200m² Exhibitions on a number of occasions and always found them to be very helpful, professional and great value for money. At our Volunteer conference in Oxford the guys loaned us some fantastic banner display stands that really set off the conference. As well as providing the stands and banners they also gave up their free time to assist with the build and breakdown. Great work, thank you!"
Communications Co-ordinator, Make-A-Wish
"FIS is the world’s largest global provider of banking and payments technologies. Consequently, global exhibitions and conferences are a major part of our marketing strategy. We contacted 200m2 to assist us with an exhibition in the Middle East. It was clear to us that these guys knew what we were looking for. Since the show in the Middle East, 200m2 has taken responsibility for our other exhibitions around the world. As exhibition stand contractors, we have found 200m2′s service, products, customer care and value for money to be of the highest order"
Richard Cooper, VP International Marketing Strategy, FIS
"From project scope to final design outcome, the process could not have been more professional. At many events we are a ‘platinum sponsor’ where the level of expectation from the event organiser is exceptionally high. On each occasion the stand has been in use, we have received very positive feedback and requests to re-exhibit at future events. From our perspective, we have nothing but praise for 200m2 and look forward to many more successful exhibitions."
Richard Mose, Managing Director, Interact Medical
"As part of a conference at Canary Wharf in London, 200m2 delivered a full blown stage and seven separate exhibition stands where various OEM’s could display their products. 200m² Exhibitions played a critical role working with us to develop a solution and handled the ever changing dynamics with true professionalism. I would estimate that we had over 30 different layouts which were all drawn up and laid out in CAD for approval. Great job 200m² – we will be using you again!"
Peter Jackson, Commercial Director, Red e2
"Portrait Photography is highly competitive. It is vital for us to show our products in the best possible light. The CROSSwire system definitely meets our requirements and together we managed to develop a bespoke hanging system for our portfolio. This was a challenging objective which could not be met by a straightforward off the shelf product. All in all I am very satisfied with the product but also the professional approach of 200m² Exhibitions."
Lionel Cherruault, Director, Nousha Photography
“when searching for a highly versatile solution that would lift our brand at shows and events we came across the X10 CROSSWIRE from 200m2. The versatility of the units, their weight, ease of set up and multiple arrangements was just what we needed. Having bought a 6 panel configuration we have given ourselves the opportunity to have a large single display or even break it down to 3 x 2 panels displays. Having costed other options the X10 CROSSWIRE with its flight case is very competitive. Highly recommended”
Conor Swift - RYA Membership Development Manager
“At Upgrade Bikes Ltd we attend two or three major exhibitions a year where we use the X10 CROSSwire system as the framework for our self-built stand designs.
We love the fact that its easy to store and transport, fast to build and breakdown and looks professional every time. Combined with high quality printed banners, X10 CROSSwire allows us new designs each time and affords enormous savings over contracted stand builds. We regularly recommend 200m2 Exhibition Ltd to others and are very happy to do so here too.”
Rory Hitchens - Senior Marketing Manager.
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