Don’t Make Freebies Your Exhibition Default

Don’t Make Freebies Your Exhibition Default

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.

Five Tips for Exhibiting at a Smaller Exhibition

Five Tips for Exhibiting at a Smaller Exhibition

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

What should you be including on your Stand Banners?

What should you be including on your Stand Banners?

The banners on your stand is what holds all the key information and this is what will attract people over to your stand, this is the customer’s first impression of you. So, what should you be including in your banners?

Logo

This may seem like an obvious thing to include on a banner but this is the main way of identification for your customer, they will recognise your brand and your services just by this symbol. You will want to position your logo near the top of your banner so it is visible at all times from your location.  Make sure it is a good quality image of your logo and that it is large enough to be seen at a distance.

It is best to position this at the top of your banners and central so it is easy to see.

Contact Details

This point is important to include, although bear in mind that you want people to get most of the details from you and your team rather than your stand. This way you can arrange to phone them at a convenient time giving you more time to sell your products and services to them.

This being said it is still important to include some contact details, usually just your website and phone number will be enough for your stand. Make sure these are in a large, bold text so visitors can easily identify these.

Brand Identity

Your brand identity can consist of colours, fronts and images that represent your company. These will be the colours that you use on all your marketing and a tool to make your company recognisable.

Using your brand colours and font throughout your banners helps create a chbetween you and your stand. Your brand identity also includes any messages or catch phrases that your company has. This could help people remember you.

Remember to put any key messages at eye level, this way people are more likely to read them.

Offers

An offer that is available to the people you meet at an exhibition can be a great way to entice people to your stand and a brilliant talking point. Putting an offer in large text on your banner means people can spot this from a distance and will hopefully be inclined to come over and enter.

Images and Graphics

We have all heard the saying “an image is worth 1,000 words” but, this is a great motto to live by for your banners. You do need some text on your banner but a great picture or graphic can do a lot of the talk for you, for example a lifestyle photo showing a family enjoying a sunny break may be great for a holiday company.

Make sure your image is high quality and not pixelated even when it is enlarged to fit your banner. Pick a great image that is related to your business, this can make your banner more eye catching and help draw the eye which in turn means that people will read the text on your banners.

A high quality banner can do all the talking for you, take a look at the design services we offer for your exhibition stand banners here.

Why is branding on your exhibition stand important?

Why is branding on your exhibition stand important?

Branding is a way to identify your business; it’s how your customers recognise your company. A strong sense of brand is communicated not only in colours and logos but in customer service, uniforms and all marketing materials.

A well-designed exhibition stand uses branding in an effective way to ensure this form of marketing is cohesive with their business. Branding on an exhibition stand can include: images, colours, fonts, a company message or value, uniforms for staff, business cards or even how you display your products. These work really well together to help brand your stand in a positive way for customers.

Make It Memorable

Branding your stand with your business in general means that people can associate your stand with a website or a business card. The will remember a positive experience at your stand so then when they see an ad for your website or happen to visit your site the memories of your stand will come flooding back as they see the same brand colours, logo and fonts. You could even put your branding onto free items such as stationery to help consumers remember and think of your brand.

Encourage Trust

In order to build a relationship with a consumer there must be an element of trust. A strong brand identity can help to build this, they can see that you have spent time and money on your branding, this tells them that you are a legitimate company but also a reputable company as you have spent your money on this branding. After the trade show they may visit your website with the same branding, this will help alleviate risk from their buying process.

Be Unique

Your branding helps set your business apart from the crowd whether that be from competitors or in a hall full of exhibition stands. Your colour combination and images is what makes your stand and your business in general stand out.

Your business’s branding is so important to take into consideration when you are designing your banners and your marketing material for your exhibition stand, keep them in line with your business and its main values. Create a cohesive flow of marketing materials all in line with your business. Don’t let the hustle and bustle of an exhibition make your brand and your values slip.

How to Reduce the Stress of Exhibition Day

How to Reduce the Stress of Exhibition Day

If you have done an exhibition before then you will know that it can be stressful and hectic. This may be the reason you love trade shows, the adrenaline of being rushed off your feet. For others however, this may be a daunting thought for you. We’ve come up with a few tips and tricks to help you reduce the stress for that all-important exhibition day.

Checklist

Travelling to an exhibition and forgetting something important is a nightmare! A checklist will help you make sure you never forget anything. Write down all the most important things that you need when you are planning your stand, this way you can add to the list whenever you remember something else you need. For example, have you got enough pens or somewhere to store business cards? It’s all the little things that can make a whole lot of difference at a trade show.

 The Employees on the stand

Bringing some employees with you means you can delegate roles and jobs to other people leaving you to focus on selling. You don’t need to do everything yourself so don’t try and do it all. Bring employees that you trust and who you can rely on to leave alone at your stand. Sometimes you need to leave your stand to network or even just for a walk to stay sane. You shouldn’t have to worry about the people in charge of your stand.

Give Yourself Time

Rushing to set up will only lead to mistakes, give yourself enough time to set up your stand before people start to arrive. If you have a new stand practise putting it up and taking it down before you go to the show. A relaxing start to the show ensures a stress free and a great start to any exhibition. Ensuring you have plenty of time to set up will means visitors will only see you in a professional light, not running around like headless chickens.

Give your Stand your Undivided Attention

Exhibitions usually last about a day, so for that day your stand and the visitors there deserve your undivided attention.  Leave the office at the office. Leave the employees that you trust at the office, so you can focus on the exhibition completely. The last thing you want is to be worrying about work at the office when you are at your trade show.

Having a stand at an exhibition is extremely worthwhile and if you are organised and sensible, it doesn’t have to be stressful at all. All the enquiries you will receive and networking you will do will outweigh any preparations that have to take place. Event Staffing or Exhibition Management is a great way to outsource some of that pressure to experts. For more information on this take a look at our dedicated pages.