How To Do Well In Exhibition Marketing In The Exhibition

Peter Drucker, in his post capital society, called this new century "a profession and knowledge" century.

"We no longer manufacture and move goods; we apply knowledge to knowledge.

"UFI- global exhibition industry association promotes the exhibition marketing resources to exhibitors.

The first step: choose the right Exhibition for your business

Keyword: select the exhibition

Choosing the best show that matches your business's sales, marketing, branding, or other goals is the first step to success.

But this is a challenge because the world holds about 30000 B2B exhibitions a year.

Before you choose to participate in an exhibition, you have to answer three basic questions:

Can the subject of the exhibition cover my products / services?

Can the exhibition represent my market? How important is it?

Will exhibitions allow me to contact existing and / or new target groups?

In addition, the following questions should be answered by the organizer of the exhibition.

Is the exhibition a national, regional or international event?

What is the frequency of the exhibition? When is the next exhibition?

Which companies will participate in the exhibition?

How much is the exhibition area per square metre?

Besides the exhibition, are there any additional meetings / conferences?

What promotional activities will be adopted to attract visitors to the exhibition?

The statistics of spectators and exhibitors at the last exhibition? The number of spectators at home and abroad? What is the type of audience? What countries are they from? What are the decision levels? The number of exhibitors at home and abroad, and the exhibition area occupied by net domestic and international exhibitors?

What is the satisfaction of the audience and exhibitors after the last exhibition? {page_break}

Here are some thoughts that can help you choose:

1. focus on the global exhibition suitable for your business in your field.

2. based on the importance of these exhibitions in the industry, and their attractiveness in the local, regional and international sectors.

For example, how long has the exhibition been in operation?

3. if your competitors participate in these exhibitions, this is a good indication that you should consider exhibiting.

4. carefully examine the audience's statistics (published visitors, exhibitors, media, VIP indicators or data).

Are your customers attending the exhibition?

5. if you are concerned about the brand of an enterprise, these spectators will help you confirm whether participating in the exhibition can help you achieve this goal.

6. ensure that the organisers of the exhibition are in good financial condition.

Look at how long the company has been doing exhibition business.

7. the geographical area of exhibition service should be in line with your marketing needs.

8. the facilities for exhibition venues should also be assessed, especially in terms of technical services.

9. assess the exhibition host city. Are there any good hotels nearby? What are the hospitality opportunities when you meet your customers?

10. consider the mode of pportation to the exhibition, air, railway and motor vehicles, as this will affect the attendance of spectators.

Are there any other modes of pportation?

11. evaluate the support services at the exhibition.

For example, plation services are often needed.

12. finally, the year and political considerations of the exhibition are also important factors.

After a comprehensive study, contact the exhibition that is suitable for your company's marketing objectives and needs.

Remember, exhibitions involve immediate sales, or significantly shorten future sales processes.

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The second step: set the exhibition target / customized exhibition strategy / exhibition target marketing.

The second step towards success is to set goals for your company's participation.

Regrettably, 71% of the exhibitors did not set goals or formulate strategies for their participation.

To make matters worse, only half of the exhibitors who set up their goals follow their goals from pre exhibition to exhibition.

However, exhibitors who have set goals and constantly measured their goals have achieved great success.

Goals and sales

Goals can also stimulate sales performance in the booth, especially when measured by the quantity and quality of customer contacts obtained by sales staff.

This means that employees pform the goals of an enterprise into the goals that each member should achieve at the exhibition.

Research has consistently demonstrated that successful exhibitors will develop sales related goals as their top priority.

Basic objectives

To set goals, you must first decide what products or services your company wants to sell, promote, marketing, brand build or communicate and target at.

Typical objectives include the following factors:

1. increase sales through new orders and high quality sales leads.

2. introduction of new products or services

3. enhance your relationship with existing customers.

4. conduct market research

5. get the name of the contact person for your corporate email list.

6. develop new markets or regions.

7. get media exposure

8. monitoring competition situation

9. enhance corporate image or brand

10. hold sales meetings related to exhibits.

11. to provide relevant education for visitors.

12. recruit new staff.

Setting goals is the first step in all successful marketing activities.

As a marketing master, Lawrence J. Peter wrote, "if you don't know where you are going, you may not get anywhere.

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Third step: target marketing

Target marketing is the next important step in the exhibition marketing process.

In theory, this is very simple: contact the visitors you want to see at the exhibition, tell them where your booth is, what you will exhibit, what brand you will build, or what to demonstrate.

The fourth step: the pre exhibition communication between exhibitors and the first visitors.

Contact with such target audience is a choice in many ways of communication, but remember: visitors spend their own money and valuable time to the exhibition - so you have to spare no effort to make their investments worth the money.

In addition, please use appropriate language to communicate with you.

In a typical exhibition, 40% of the audience came to visit for the first time.

In addition, more than 50% of important buyers and / or buyers will not participate in another exhibition next year.

This creates a huge marketing opportunity for your business.

In fact, research shows that 88% of your potential customers may not have been contacted by your local sales representative the year before.

So you need to let these new potential customers know.

Your exhibition activities.

Here are some suggestions for specific communication:

1. advertising in pre launch publications, including print and electronic advertising, especially the special issue of your industry publications.

Remember to mention the important sales information of your exhibits: who will appear on the booth like your booth location.

Pre show advertising will help you double the volume of visits to your booth during the exhibition period, as 83% of visitors use their pre view to plan their visits.

2. provide some small gifts or other promotional means to locate your business and products at the booth.

Personalize the marketing information you give to different audiences: let them know that if they do business with you, everything will be better and help them save money.

3. make use of new promotion opportunities on the Internet.

Most exhibition organizers can provide a link to your company's website on the exhibition website, and of course there are other good online advertising opportunities.

Banner advertising or blog can effectively let target groups notice the special place and location of your booth.

Remember to use the right language.

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The fifth step: communication with long-term visitors.

Another important finding is that 60% of the typical exhibition visitors visit the same exhibition for two consecutive years or more.

Exhibition organizers can help exhibitors distribute direct mail to these target groups.

You can use these targeted direct mail to tell these important buyers and / or purchasers that you want to see them at this year's fair.

An effective direct mail plan can increase the number of visitors on your booth by 53%.

Direct mail

Personalized direct mail is a very effective facilitating factor.

You should try sending three rounds of mail.

Research has confirmed that every round of new mail can increase the rate of recovery: one round of mail can get 25% visitors' reply, two rounds can generate 50% recovery rate, and three rounds can increase the recovery rate to 75%.

In addition, as you send out every round of mail, buyers' perception of your company's participation is also improved.

Featured objects

Creative use of gifts or featured items with direct mail is also very effective.

Choosing a unique object, if possible, is a memorable and environmentally friendly one.

You can use this method: send half of the characteristic items to the former visitors, so that they can get the remaining half on your booth during the exhibition.

Advertisement

Advertising for this group is also important because it can enhance your perception of participation and enhance your awareness of your company.

You can even consider the follow up of key potential customers and opinion leaders by telemarketing.

This personal connection can make a very good impact.

In addition, the assessment of different advertising opportunities, because each advertisement may be effective, depends on your needs: Internet, print ads, trade publications, local or regional newspapers, outdoor billboards, radio and television, hotel video tapes, multimedia kiosks or shuttle banners, etc.

News flash

Newsprint is another way to effectively promote your participation, whether printed or electronically.

Newsletters for your target customers and potential customers are easy to read and organize.

Depending on the background of visitors, it can be used in different languages, but mainly focuses on technology and technology.

The newsletter allows you to position your company as an expert in your industry.

Transmission is more effective before and after Exhibition (as a final promotion).

Sponsor

Sponsorship is especially effective in demonstrating your support for an exhibition.

Make sure that the sponsorship program will provide you with an opportunity to increase your exposure.

Make sure your target audience knows that you are a sponsor of the exhibition because it emphasizes your enterprise's commitment to the development of the industry.

Finally, don't lose the main idea of losing Jingzhou: take the exhibition as an integral part of your enterprise's overall marketing plan.

Research shows that exhibitors who plan carefully and integrate other marketing media into their exhibitors are more successful in attracting target audiences and converting them into high-quality sales leads.

The sixth step: Management Perspective

Do not doubt whether it is worth the effort to do pre marketing, because 75% of visitors arriving at an exhibition have a prepared agenda, including who they want to see, and many times including what they plan to evaluate and purchase.

If you want your company to be one of these exhibitors, then promotion is the best way.

Besides, at those super exhibitions, the efficiency of visitors must be very high, and their visit behavior is greatly influenced by what they read and heard before the exhibition.

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CEO research

Incomm International asked the chief executives why they would attend the exhibition. Their answer was very positive:

84%, they say they participate in order to contact their customers personally.

78%, they want to evaluate the market, and the exhibition is the best way.

69%, they want to observe their competitors' movements.

66% said they came to support their exhibitors.

Finally, a recent study of the most successful exhibiting companies found one thing in common: they all worked hard to promote pre promotion or target marketing.

Some companies mistakenly believe that the organizer of the exhibition should shoulder the responsibility of bringing the high quality audience to the exhibition alone.

Smart exhibitors know that they should share this responsibility, while promotion is the key.

The bottom line is that everything you do in advance is rewarded at the exhibition.

Trade Exhibition

Aerospace and aviation

Electronic manufacturing and assembly

Machine tools, metalworking and industrial materials

Packing

Medicine, health care and health care

Gifts and home

Lifestyle, tourism, gambling and real estate

The seventh step: Exhibitors

The most important question you need to consider is how to choose people who are passionate about the company and products.

It is better to have multiple languages.

If your booth area is large, you can consider selecting a variety of personnel to participate in the exhibition, including executives, professional sales / marketing personnel, technical service personnel - each of them plays an important role in receiving new and old customers.

For example, a survey shows that technical service personnel play a very valuable role in solving the related problems of high-tech products or services on the spot, and it will be easier for them to communicate with people with similar backgrounds.

If your budget is not large and only a small number of people are allowed to participate, you will need to install a telephone or computer on the booth to maintain contact with the technical department or the company headquarters so as to solve the guest's problems at any time.

The audience's impression of booth design and publicity is far less impressive than that of their exhibits: your employees' image is particularly important because they stay at the booth and become an integral part of the company's image.

At the same time, it is also necessary for them to have conversations with native speakers. You may need to hire a few interpreters or students to ensure the company's participation in the exhibition.

Finally, the most important point is that your team needs to work closely together, and is very familiar with related products / services to help the audience.

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Eighth step mobilization meeting

A mobilization meeting should be held before each exhibition, in the exhibition hall, in the nearby conference room or in the hotel room.

Everyone who is going to work on the booth should attend.

The following agenda is available for reference:

1. introduce each member of the exhibition team, including plators.

2. check booth, exhibition structure, print advertisement and exhibits layout.

3., discuss marketing plan;

4. reiterates the objectives of each member;

5. discuss products that will be used to demonstrate or demonstrate.

6. make plans for receiving existing customers during the exhibition.

7. confesses the work schedule of exhibitors.

8. discuss the order conditions and sales process;

9. explain how to sign new customers.

10. finally, discuss how to communicate effectively with potential customers with purchasing power.

Work objectives of exhibitors

While reaffirming the objectives of the company's participation, it is clear that every team member needs to achieve his goals at every moment of the exhibition.

Tell them how to work effectively on the booth and remind them that it takes only 5 seconds to make a good impression on the visitors. So be vigilant at all times.

A bad impression takes at least 30 minutes to change.

The more prepared your personnel, the greater the chance of success.

The ninth step: sales promotion on the booth.

Some exhibitors may not know how to sell on the booth, and it may be the first time to participate in the exhibition.

It is very important to introduce the fair, audience and correct sales skills to help them successfully accomplish their tasks.

A recent study on policy makers showed that 46% of them had purchased at the exhibition, and 26% had placed orders in the latest exhibition activities.

Therefore, your team must strive to sign the sales contract on the booth, not just purchase intention.

Selling points

In order to help your staff to do this, we must review the three basic steps of the exhibition promotion with them.

1. self promotion

2. Marketing Company

3. selling products or services

For some employees, the biggest problem in the exhibition environment is "self promotion", so how to train them to greet strangers can help.

In addition, we should assess each employee's interpersonal skills and language skills, focusing on training those who are not good at interpersonal communication.

Some companies take a form of pairing to form a pair of introverts and another extrovert, so that the latter can guide the former.

There are also companies that match salesmen with technicians to form the best combination.

In addition, all successful exhibitors will organize exhibitors to meet every day to enhance team spirit.

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Secondly, the work of "promoting the company" started very early before the opening of the exhibition.

Exhibitors are one of the marketing methods adopted by the company. Therefore, brand promotion, pre launch advertising, direct mail, news release and other promotional activities on the company's website form the reputation of a company, thus pforming the audience's trust and recognition.

However, all promotion and sales information must be consistent and form a whole.

In today's market competition, audience recognition has the greatest contribution to exhibitors.

In the last step, "selling products" is often the simplest, because most people know something about products.

However, it is not easy to introduce products to achieve sales, because this is different from selling the company that visits potential customers. You only have a few minutes to guide potential customers to the booth, confirm his purchase intention, have meaningful negotiation, get order information, and then bid farewell.

Once again, the more freely your staff can grasp the key points of the exhibition, the more likely they will be successful during the exhibition.

The tenth step: cooperation with the media

As we all know, the purpose of visiting more than half of the exhibition visitors is to see what new products and services are on display.

"New" is one of the most effective words in today's communication industry and has become synonymous with the exhibition.

Therefore, exhibitors should promote their new products, new services, new staff and even new equipment at the exhibition.

You can use attractive graphics, demonstrations and other effective methods to attract the attention of the audience.

Pay attention to the plation of the appropriate language.

Experience shows that engaging the audience in the actual operation / interactive statement will make them more impressed with your new product or service, thus contributing to more successful promotion.

press release

Write a news release about your new product or service.

Some of the recommendations for the press release are as follows:

1. avoid using exaggerated sales terms (called "exaggeration") because they are usually not good enough to plate accurately.

2., concisely and emphatically.

3. insert pictures with explanatory text (captions).

4. press releases will be sent to the exhibition co operative media before the exhibition.

5. announcement on the Internet;

6. prepare the promotional materials that will be used at the booth and the media office of the exhibition.

Press conference

You may want to hold a press conference during the exhibition. The planning work should include sending special invitations, giving special hospitality to VIP, speaking of leaders, printing, electronics and audiovisual services before the exhibition starts.

Food and beverages and other small items (such as exhibition souvenirs).

Successful media relations are very important for the company's marketing work.

The eleventh step: expectation management on exhibition stands

As mentioned earlier, only 15% of the typical exhibition audience generate general interest in the exhibition, while 10% will have special interest in products, services or companies at the exhibition.

Therefore, you can only make your expectations of target sales or sales clues based on these 10% audience groups.

Any effective contact / potential customer beyond this percentage is an additional gain (or perhaps a good team effort).

Estimated booth activity

Another important concept: your overall sales activities are based on the number of staff on the booth and their interaction with the audience.

For example, if you need to spend 10 minutes with your audience / potential customers to discuss, demonstrate products and confirm the identity of each other, then each team member should get about 6 sales leads per hour.

However, this did not take rest and lunch time into account.

So, in this case, it is a reasonable goal for each employee to get 4 sales leads per hour. By multiplying the number of hours worked by an employee on the booth, you can get a person's overall sales clue.

Add up the sales clues of all the booth staff, and you can get the biggest sales leads you can get from an exhibition.

At some exhibitions, you may collect the names and addresses of potential customers to follow up after the show and add them to your email database.

In this case, it is possible to get a large number of sales leads per hour.

In fact, it is useful for a person to be responsible for entering the name and address into the database alone.

The twelfth step: expand business networks and monitor competitors.

Expanding the business network is the responsibility of every booth staff, including management staff.

Meeting with customers, potential customers, media, students and industry leaders will be very beneficial for future sales and company growth.

Therefore, every day must take some time to carry out this important function.

Other employees' duties are to observe competitors' actions at the exhibition.

Watch their booth activities. If possible, visit your competitors and learn how they are introduced, demonstrated and sold.

This is especially helpful for your company's new employees, because it allows them to observe competitors in action.

The thirteenth step: meet your existing customers.

Studies show that 95% of decision makers meet with their existing suppliers at the exhibition.

This is also why the positive evaluation of customers is also an important part of your exhibition marketing strategy.

If you need more power, remember that your competitors are locking your existing customers as their potential customers to achieve business growth.

Studies show that 77% of decision makers find at least one new supplier at the last exhibition they attended.

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The exhibition brings together a large number of competing companies, so that audiences can easily compare many products and suppliers in a short time.

Try to find out if they have any special needs or problems with their products, and ask appropriate employees to answer their questions.

Don't neglect this important customer behavior, otherwise your competitors will take advantage of it.

This is the relationship sale as we all know.

Based on extensive research, the following reasons are cited for your clients to visit your booth.

1. learn about the latest products and services available to them.

Trends, modifications, improvements, etc.

2. look at the latest product supply.

3. meet with technical representatives on equipment upgrades or problem solutions.

4. meet management team

5. compare and evaluate competing products

6. a social visit or attendance at a reception.

7. expand the network

8. purchase new products

The fourteenth step: to greet potential customers on the booth.

A general rule is that 86% of spectators at most exhibitions have purchasing power.

This means that they can either purchase the company or directly affect the purchasing decision.

Therefore, every audience who comes to your booth will be treated as a new potential customer.

Remember: if someone takes the time to visit you, it means he has a certain degree of interest in your company or product.

Finding out where he is interested and turning it into a positive relationship is a challenge for your booth sales team.

The study also showed that 94% of the buyers at the exhibition would compare similar products, and sometimes they just did so to ensure that they would get the best products in the market.

Many times, such products are more related to your employees and their referral behavior, so remind them to be friendly, knowledge-based and concise.

Another key point about the exhibition is that only (15%) of the audience is comfortable when your sales team approaches.

Most viewers prefer to approach your employees in their own way.

An audience who visited the exhibition but failed to reach its expected visitors:

(a) 16% of such audiences do not trust booth sales staff or feel uncomfortable when the latter approach them.

Arranging your team members to leave the booth and relax, cheer up is a very good idea, so that they can have a good eye contact with the audience and show a sincere smile.

Please remind them to read the facial expressions of the audience and not to greet the spectators who stand on the aisle.

(b) 28% of the audience said that when they arrived at a booth, no one came to help.

Recommendation: sometimes employees will be busy with other customers / potential customers, unable to take care of everyone.

But if your sales team spends precious time talking to each other or talking about mobile phones, you have a problem of wasting sales time.

If plation services are needed, no one can help at that time.

When talking to customers, employees should stand on the side of the aisle so that they can readily identify and identify potential customers.

If you divide your total exhibition cost by the hours of the development period, you can instantly realize the value of every hour on the booth.

(c) 42% of the audience felt that the salesperson on the booth did not really understand their needs.

Make sure your employees listen carefully to potential customers and give appropriate answers.

The fifteenth step: identify potential customers.

Research shows that companies that offer formal staff training have significantly improved their ability to turn visitors to valuable sales leads.

The exhibition is a great opportunity to get high quality sales leads.

A recent study showed that 76% executive level policymakers asked for quotations at the last exhibition they attended.

Equally important, 51% requires salesmen to visit their companies.

However, not all potential customers who visit here can make purchase decisions at the exhibition - they only want to compare the company / product / service / price.

The booth staff should understand this and collect important sales leads and intelligence so that sales contacts can be promoted.

Pricing information, quotations, and future sales calls can be carried out in this way.

Timing is also one of the most important conditions, as all sales leads (or new sales opportunities) have a clear time to achieve.

To sum up, the confirmation of potential customers is made up of the following components:

1. ensure that the other party is in need of your product or service.

2. make sure that the other party has a reasonable purchasing time.

3. make sure that the other party has sufficient funds or budget.

4. make sure that the other party has the right to purchase or have the ability to influence purchase.

The sixteenth step: classify sales leads.

Some companies use a "clue classification system" to reflect two important variables that affect the sales leads of a show: time and money.

The time frame for visitors to purchase products or services is a key consideration, so that your company can give you a prompt response.

The next consideration is the possible purchase amount, because this usually determines your company's energy to follow up.

The following is a simple clue classification system, which can be used by many companies around the world:

"A" category: large amount, short purchase time.

"B" category: small amount, short purchase time.

"C" clues: large amount, long duration of purchase

"D" category: small amount, long duration of purchase

Another reason for this classification process is very simple: after the exhibition, everyone is exhausted. The only need for us to take immediate action is category A and category B sales leads.

Others can follow up later in the week. At that time, the team recovered after a period of rest.

Many companies use Internet based processing systems to ensure that clues can be stored, classified and followed up properly.

These systems are usually able to automatically prepare letters to potential customers, including price information, and then set up face-to-face interviews with company representatives.

Last but not least, keep track of all sales leads you get at the exhibition, so you can measure your ultimate success in sales and overall results.

This can help you prove the rationality of the exhibition investment and compare the effects of different exhibitions.

Companies that measure their participation can achieve much more success through exhibitions than other companies.

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The seventeenth step is to work smartly on the booth.

Research confirms that our best working status on the booth is only 4-6 hours.

After that, we began to get tired from physiology to psychology.

It is important to recognize this situation.

If possible, arrange your staff to work on the booth for 4 hours at most.

Water shortage is another real problem.

It is important to drink large quantities of liquid food when working on the exhibition booth, especially water.

Exhibiting ergonomics, that is, the special demand on exhibition stands, is also important.

In order to achieve the best results, two staff members are arranged on the scale of each 9 square metre exhibition area.

Control the mess on the booth to a minimum, so that the booth will be more neatly and safer.

During the exhibition, staff should keep their posture from beginning to end instead of sitting.

Therefore, comfortable shoes are essential.

Some exercises can help employees feel more comfortable in body.

You can't use mobile phones at the exhibition unless it's business reasons.

Every minute of the exhibition is too precious to waste on mobile phones.

Finally, some simple practices may make your participation experience easier: prepare more business cards, pens and spare glasses and batteries.

Eighteenth step: other considerations for participation

data

95% of the audience will ask for sales information or information.

Data usually cost relatively high, and the input-output ratio is not very high at the exhibition.

Sadly, 65% of the information received from the booth will be thrown away immediately.

A more effective way to get information is to get visitors' names, addresses and e-mail, and send them to them after the exhibition, either by e-mail or by mail.

To know that the audience who can spend time to get information should have genuine interest in your company, so it is very important to follow up this kind of audience.

In addition, receiving your information in your office creates a better reading possibility. In fact, research shows that this can achieve an excellent reading rate (20%).

And your company also has a mail / e-mail contact.

The impact of travel

Because exhibitors and spectators usually need to travel in exhibitions, the economic impact of the industry is remarkable.

Early booking of air tickets, hotels, car rentals and ground pportation, hospitality and meals is very important.

In fact, over a relatively large scale, more than half of the visitors traveled over 2400 kilometers.

At a small exhibition, 43% of the viewers live within 100 km radius.

The new product introduction, brand building, market penetration, and promotion of your company's target marketing are generally based on the geographical scope, and these activities are often associated with the exhibition strategically.

Understanding regional or small national

Audience composition and use language are important in preparing your company's participation marketing plan.

The nineteenth step: the last suggestion.

Successful business is built on relationships.

The exhibition is famous all over the world for creating good B-B relationship between exhibitors and spectators.

You can't create a face-to-face relationship through a website or a sales brochure.

In the final analysis, the success of your company's participation is directly related to how your booth staff interact with the audience (your present and future customers).