Final Check for Exhibitor to review before going to a Tradeshow

Preparation Just Before Going On-Site

You have done your check list and double checked that everything has been ordered and re-confirmed this with your suppliers. You have gone through the timeline and made sure that you are up to date and have everything ready to go. Now use this list to remind yourself of other things you need to have achieved:

• Check all monies and invoices have been paid.
• Check you have ordered any necessary:
  • Power
  • Telecommunications facilities
  • Equipment
  • Stand cleaning
  • Insurance
  • Furniture
  • Floral displays
  • Catering
• Check and inform the appropriate people of any travel arrangements, hotel accommodation and meeting rooms that you have booked.
• If you are having any speakers represent your company at any of the sessions make sure that they have travel and hotel bookings and that these have been confirmed. Check that they have been sent their seminar session information including session times, plans of the conference rooms and exhibition layout.
• Make sure that any staff who are due to attend and help have been sent details of the exhibition, including your stand number and hall. They will need to know what days and times they are attending and when to meet, and they will need a show plan.
• Have a conference call or meeting with everyone attending to run through the schedule of the show and what is expected from their participation.
• Make sure all staff to understand the objectives and goals you want to achieve at this exhibition.
• Prepare staff – make sure they have a complete knowledge of your company and its products and services, both current and new, and also that they know the relevant market trends and competition so that they are able to talk effectively with prospective customers.
• Run though pre-training required by staff and make sure they are familiar with any equipment, demonstrations or presentations that they will need to use or refer to.
• Run through the process of lead collection and allocate staff in the home office to follow up these appropriately as soon as possible after they have been generated.
• Make an inventory and pack items to be taken to the show, such as literature, give-aways and lead forms as well as equipment, software and stock. These can often be delivered to the show by the stand builders or by using the services of a transportation freighting company. Make sure that if you are exhibiting in a non-EU country that you have filled out the correct customs forms for clearance and re-entry back to your home country.
• Confirm that freight has arrived and all contractors are on schedule.
• Check that you have sent out badges or passes as required.
• Prepare an exhibition handbook with all information about the exhibition and your company’s participation, as well as supplier contact and names.
• Plan to travel out during the build-up of the stand to make sure all is running to schedule and that you are there to supervise the stand build. Take photo of stand before show opening.
• Final check all travel/accommodation arrangements and information to arrive exhibition in time for the build up.

Tips on Marketing and Publicity for Exhibitors – Marketing your Trade Show Attendance

For every exhibition there will be a variety of marketing strategies that you can use to
promote your stand, brand, business, services, products and expertise. The key to successful promotion is to use the right combination of strategies.

First you will need to know what your objectives are for exhibiting at the trade show in order to determine which forms of marketing suit your promotion. To get any attendee to your stand they need to perceive value, have an experience, or learn in some way. You will need to make sure you have a targeted and up‐to‐date database of contacts.

Traditional Marketing Media

Traditional marketing can include:

 Press releases and invitations of journalists to a press conference or briefing at the
show.

 Personal invitations to hospitality events or face‐to‐face meetings offered in
advance. You will need to offer them something of value like access to decision
makers and your top management.Invitations including hardcopies of the trade show registration giving an indication
of why they should visit your stand.

 Database mailshots with phone follow‐up.

 Promotion of a contest or prize draw they can enter or giveaways they can collect
on the stand.

 Newsletter to current clients and prospects telling them what you will be doing at
the show and what you will be demonstrating. This can promote any speaking
opportunities you have as well as use competitions and giveaways, and it can
describe the hospitality you’ll offer on the stand.

 Business introducers, using face‐to‐face communication to promote your attendance
at a trade show. Make sure all employees are promoting the exhibition at every
opportunity when talking to clients, prospects and third parties.

 General correspondence – make sure your exhibition at the trade show is mentioned
in some shape or form on all correspondence that leaves the office, such as fax
headers, note pads, and compliment slips. Create leaflets to include in any
correspondence you send out. You can also use giveaways to promote the event.

 SMS messaging. Short texts are great way of reminding attendees of the event, and
sending updates to them about what is happening.
On‐line and Social Media
Many of the above‐mentioned traditional forms of marketing can be done using email
marketing.

 Email campaign. This is an excellent way to market your event if you already have
permission to contact the customer or prospect. Often the collection of contact
details through the website for newsletters can be excellent for sending electronic
invitations. The exhibition can be promoted on every email sent from the office with
an additional line on the signature, specifying the stand location and number.

 The company website. This can be used to promote all your events on your
corporate website under a specific tab heading of events.

 LinkedIn, Facebook, Blogs and YouTube. All of the social media platforms your
company use should promote your exhibition details in advance, especially if you can
engage with potential prospects before the event.

Twitter used in combination with links to your website can be powerful in making
information about your show available to real and potential attendees in an easy‐to read
steady stream. This method is a great vehicle for generating buzz about your
conference.You will need to choose a great hashtag. A hashtag can be included in the
body of each tweet and is a short phrase preceded by a hash (#) symbol. By making a hashtag that is short and easy, other tweets can reference your conference using the tag.

• Mention your hashtag far in advance of the conference and include in all
  your related publicity – don’t wait until the day the event starts!
• Tweet white papers, videos, and presentations, as attachments. These can
  be teasers for your trade show appearance or even a reminder of your
  offerings.
• A great time to send tweets promoting your appearance is a few weeks
  before the trade show. You can offer teaser photos of a new product
  appearing at the trade show or announce the details of an executive who
  will be a keynote speaker.
• Include hashtag in all print and digital material.
• Make sure your Twitter profile has the full name, date, location of your
  conference and a pitch about the conference.
• Encourage your sponsors, exhibitors and speakers to include your hashtag in
  all their conference‐related postings.

 Mobile Apps ‐The need for mobile trade show apps is greater than ever. Trade shows
are all about showcasing products or services in a short amount of time. You need to
let attendees know about a special discount, or send out a push notification within
seconds. There are a variety of developers of mobile apps such as CrowdCompass.

• A mobile trade show app means faster and more efficient marketing. It
  means measurable results for your exhibitors and sponsors.
• Mobile trade show apps also give exhibitors and sponsors more
  opportunities to make stronger connections with existing customers and
  reach out to new ones. It is one way to drive interaction and engagement
  between the company and attendees.
• A mobile trade show app helps you think outside the booth to improve the
  overall event experience and stay ahead of the competition. These apps can
  be created for most smart devices such as Android, iPhone, and iPad.

As mentioned before you need to use the best method of promoting your trade show
attendance to your market and potential customers. The main point is to make your
attendance known so that those coming to the show know of your presence and want to visit your stand. It does not matter how good your stand and products are if you don’t get footfall and generate leads to your products.

Tips on Marketing and Publicity for Exhibitors – Promoting your Exhibition

Your marketing and publicity should be part of your whole marketing plan for exhibiting. Trade shows are a powerful element of the marketing mix in that they enable you to have face to face conversations with your customers and prospects, and to gather sales leads.

Your business and brand needs to be known to potential customers who are attending the trade show. The attendees will gravitate towards the brands that are familiar, visible and readily available to them. You want as many of the right kind of attendees to come to your stand.

You need to ensure that you meet the right people, set up productive meetings and drive traffic to your stand. To do this you need to make sure that your marketing is targeted to the right attendees: those who will be interested in your products and who could potentially lead to a sale.

Depending on your budget there are different types of marketing and ways of promoting your exhibit at a trade show. Some are free and others are chargeable. There are also different ways of marketing and promoting your presence at a trade show.

We will look at the various ways of promoting your event in this tip blog  and then in the next blog tip we will look at the different types of traditional and on-line marketing that you should consider using.

When you start the planning process you need to finalise the theme of the exhibition. All the marketing and communications of the company exhibition and promotion should have the same branding and look-and-feel. All communication about the exhibition should make consistent use of the appearance and branding. If you are highlighting new products then the communications and graphics should reflect the same graphical design.

The Promotion of the Event

• The marketing of your exhibition is not just about the promotion of the stand and brand but it is also integral to promoting your business, services, and expertise.
• Whatever marketing methods you adopt make sure you measure the results. This is so that you can determine the most effective method of getting people to your stand and so that you can analyse your Return on Investment (ROI).
• Make sure that all your promotion is highly focused and correctly targeted.
• Consider all possible methods of communication because different people like to receive communication in different ways. Use the full range of traditional offline promotion as well as online promotion and social media.

We will outline the marketing and promotion of exhibitions in three sections:

• Promotion through the Trade Show organisation. (This blog)
• Traditional Marketing Media promotion. (next blog tip)
• On-line, Social Media. (next blog tip)

Promotion through a Trade Show Organisation

If you are exhibiting at a trade show then you should not just rely on the organising company to promote the event because you want to stand out from the other competitors and companies who will be promoted at the same time. Do, however, take advantage of their promotional publication to advertise your company stand and products because they will use their large database of previous and new attendees who are already targeted into your market. Promotional opportunities provided by the organisers will vary from trade show to trade show but usually consist of:

• Promotion of your company in their catalogue of exhibitors. This usually requires a short abstract about your company, what it is that you are promoting, a list of products, photos of the products, and stand location and contact details.
• An entry onto their website again listing your company products and contact information. Remember products can be searched and products cross-linked.
• PR article for their newsletter promotion.
• Advertising on website or pre-event magazine.
• Sponsorship opportunities. These will be chargeable, but your brand or company name will be promoted on banners, on part of the website, on promotion media and at the exhibition.
• Taking advantage of speaker opportunities that may arise if the trade show is running an educational seminar or is associated with a specific conference connected to the market segment into which you are marketing.
• Use the trade show logo on your in-house marketing material and emails to advertise that your company will be exhibiting.

In summary you need to use the best method of promoting your trade show attendance to your market and potential customers. The main point is to make your attendance at the show known so that those coming are aware of your presence and want to visit your stand. It does not matter how good your stand and products are if you don’t get footfall and generate leads to your products.

Tips on how your marketing plan can help you succeed in exhibiting

To be successful exhibiting at a trade show one of the most important actions after deciding to exhibit is to prepare a Trade Show Marketing Plan. You need to know what you want to accomplish and how to achieve it. A marketing plan helps you establish the strategy and decide what actions are required for you to exhibit and how to communicate this to others. It helps you to target decisions and it keeps you on track.

What is a Trade Show Marketing Plan?

A Trade Show Marketing Plan is the end result of a process. It gives you a format to follow and allow you to be consistent. The Plan should include:

• An analysis of the market environment
• The development of the exhibition plan
• Writing an executive summary

 Market Analysis

Marketing analysis forms the basis for creating the goals, strategies and tactics used to develop the plan. This consists of your understanding of:

• The market environment
• The customers
• The competition
• The company

Information for a market analysis can be found on the internet, in trade journals and company reports, through direct customer research, by speaking to internal managers and sales people within your company, and by compiling a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis report.

 Market Environment

• Look at the market as a whole and seek to understand the dynamics that can impact the company and its products
• Examine the company’s market share and get a statistical evaluation of the market

 Understand your Customers

You need to understand why customers buy your products or services so that you can create an environment that encourages the behaviour outcome you would like from the exhibition.

This can include:

• Demographics – the statistical characteristics of your customers
• Psychographics – understanding the lifestyle and personalities of your customers
• Buying patterns and preferences
• Environmental influences

 Competitive Analysis

Consideration should be given to your own company as well as its competition. Use a SWOT analysis, speak to the sales personnel of your company and use post-show evaluations.

In the competitive analysis include all the questions you need to have answered regarding the exhibition such as:

• Current exhibition strategy and trend
• Size of space occupied
• Style and theme of exhibit
• Graphic message
• Staffing levels
• Lead capture and follow up
• Pre & post show promotions

You also need to examine competitive positions outside the trade show environment.

After collecting and understanding the market analysis you then need to set the strategy and decide how you will accomplish your goals.

The Trade Show Marketing Plan should include

• Market analysis – include the key findings from your study
• Marketing objectives for the trade show. You can link the trade show programme to wider corporate marketing objectives. These need to be measurable and can include:
  • Who will be attending
  • What is the purpose of the exhibition
  • When are the dates of the exhibition
  • Where is the location of the exhibition
  • Why – define the objectives and purpose for attending
• Marketing strategies – how you are going to accomplish your goals
• Action plans – what are the tactics you will undertake to carry out your strategies
• Resources and timings – what do you need to carry out the plan in the timescale
• Executive summary – summarise the above elements as a distillation of your plan so that you can communicate it to senior management

Once you have written the Trade Show Marketing Plan, check that it is in line with your other marketing mix plans. Ensure you refer back to the Plan to make sure that you are fulfilling your strategy, objectives and actions. The Plan can be used at the end of the exhibition to review your return on investment.

Reference: Jim Burch, How to Write a Trade Show Marketing Plan You Can Actually Use