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Standing out at an exhibition « Back to list

Exhibitions and trade shows are one of the most competitive spaces to try and sell your product or service. While these types of shows are great for getting you in contact with customers, they also put you in contact with your competitors. This makes it even more important to ensure you stand out at an exhibition.

A good display can often be the difference between someone stopping at your stand or simply walking straight past it. Getting someone to stop at your stand or to even be aware that you are at an exhibition is just the start of it. The big challenge is what you do when you have a visitor’s attention. With exhibitions lasting anything from 1 day to even a week in some cases, ensuring visitors remember you long after the show is over can be a challenge.

To help get you started we have looked at five areas to consider to help you and your business stand out at your next trade show.

1. Your Stand:

The biggest way to make your display stand out at an exhibition show is through your stand. This doesn’t always mean that bigger is better but the key challenge is making the most of the space available to you. Whether you are working in a space of 20 square metres or 2 square metres, the key is to make an impression with your stand. For us this starts with branding your space and the best way to do this is with an eye catching pop up stand.

Your stand needs to let people know who you are and what you can provide. This is essential so that those people, who may only glance at your stand, can still have a chance of remembering who you are. Include additional material like a website or phone number that will encourage visitors to seek further information. If you are working with a small space and a low budget, roll up banner stands are a great way to stand out. If you have a bigger budget to work with then check out our Curvorama range to see how you can really stand out at your next show.

2. Engaging with Visitors:

Meeting customers and selling your product or service is perhaps the main reason for attending exhibitions and trade shows. It may be one of the only chances where you get to meet you customers and talk to them face to face so it is important to ensure you use this wisely. Ensure you have the right people in place to deal with visitor questions. Being able to demonstrate what you can do can have a big impact in how engaging you will be with visitors.

The beauty about exhibitions is as they evolve so too will you. If you are new to exhibitions it may be a bit of a shock to the system initially. Learning how to deal with large volumes of visitors in the one place will come with experience so continually attending exhibitions and trade shows that are relevant to you and your business will help improve skills of dealing with visitors in these circumstances.

3. Branded Merchandise:

Another way to try and stand out at an exhibition is by running a competition or giving away some ‘freebies’. It is always best to do this in a way that you will get something back so encouraging visitors to register and interest by filling in a contact number or email address in exchange of a gift or entry to a competition can work well. Other merchandise like branded pens and key rings can also work well as they are relatively cheap and can be a good branding tool for you with visitors at an exhibition. Also ensure you have branded business cards at the ready to give out to anyone visiting your stand.

4. Promote, Promote, Promote:

There’s no point going to a trade show without making people aware of it. Use the resources available to you on platforms like Facebook, Twitter and your own website and sales team to let people know that you will be attending various exhibitions and trade shows. When you are at the show it is also worth having a team member doing some ‘live’ promoting through these platforms to encourage visitors to swing by your stand. Twitter works really well in this type of situation but sometimes nothing beats the good old fashioned way of walking around and chatting to people. As BT once famously said…. “It’s good to talk”.

5. Easy to Digest Information:

The last thing to do is to make the information you are sharing with visitors as easy as possible for them to take in. You want visitors to leave your stand with a clear idea of what you offer, what the benefit is to them and how they can go about completing an order with you (if they haven’t done so already). Ensuring you have additional sales material that explains things in a clear manner can be a huge help here. Leaflets, flyers, presentation folders, posters and strut cards all work well in providing more information to visitors and also giving them something physical they can leave with.

Attending exhibitions can cost thousands over the course of a year but the reward can be great if you ensure your stand reaches its potential and stands out above the rest. Think about what it is you want to achieve from an exhibition and ensure your stand, promotional material and sales team will help you achieve these objectives.