Top 10 tips for exhibition success//

Making the decision to attend your industry’s major trade show is a significant commitment – in terms of both time and money. So, you’re probably in search of some top tips for exhibition success in order to ensure that your attendance pays back (as any marketing investment should).

We’ve recently been intimately involved in a six-month project tackling every aspect of our client, Wavin’s, attendance at Ecobuild 2016 – from designing the stand, running a pitch to appoint the contractor, creating videos and screen content, building web content, branding giveaways, artworking stand panels, writing fliers and much more! So, we know first-hand what it takes to ensure exhibition success. Read our top 10 tips and we hope they’ll help with your next trade show, whether we’re involved or not.

1. Maximise the investment – promote your attendance at the show beforehand and merchandise it afterwards in PR, social media and internal comms to exponentially increase the value.

2. In for a penny, in for a pound – the look of your stand says a lot about your brand and your commitment to the theme of the show, so don’t scrimp.

Simple shell schemes and pull-up banners are easily ignored when there is so much choice. Aim to be the stand that people remember.

3. Show your products off in their best light – dramatize them to draw people in.

And encourage people to get hands on with your products on the stand; don’t confine them to pictures in brochures and stand walls.

4. Promote what’s happening on the stand (and when) throughout your attendance so people have the opportunity to visit when it’s of most interest.

5. Showcase your expertise – host talks and debates with your own specialists and invite recognised guest speakers to boost visitor numbers.

6. Utilise interactive digital technology to engage visitors and demonstrate your credentials as an innovative market leader.

7. Provide exclusive, added value content to give visitor’s a compelling reason to visit your stand.

8. Use competitions to encourage footfall and, well, competition.

9. Refreshments will attract and keep people on the stand, giving you more time to engage with them.

10. And finally, everyone loves a giveaway. It’s a tried and tested trick, but people will tour the show collecting the best freebies. Get it right, and they can hang around on desks for months as a constant reminder of your brand. Just make sure yours is relevant to your brand.

Follow our top 10 tips for exhibition success and they should help you to produce a popular stand and put on a great show, just like this.

Read more about how we followed these top tips for exhibition success and helped to secure 1,500 new sales leads from Wavin’s attendance at Ecobuild 2016.