5 Ways To Maximise Your Exhibiting At Trade Shows.

Don’t just book a stall, maximise the opportunity.

Register Early.

The early bird catches the worm is a saying which emphasizes the importance of starting something early to maximize the potential outcome.

As a festival organizer, I cannot stress enough how crucial it is for you to make that decision to register as early as possible if you want to exhibit at an event.

In a nutshell, when you book early to exhibit at any show;

Your brand makes an imprint on the minds of the organizers.
As organizers get familiar with your brand, they tend to own it and treat it like family.
You stand a chance of receiving extra publicity and or promotional opportunities for free.
You stand to increase your online interaction with both your audience and that of your organizer.
You are motivated as you wake up every day looking forward to it.
You might be able to join any promotional challenges being run by your organizer.
Before things get busy, you have more time to interact with your organizer and possibly learn more about the event and what to expect.
The organizers have the opportunity to listen to you and deal with your concerns as individually as possible.
Early registration helps you to prepare properly for the event.
Helps you own it and gives you an edge over your competitors on the day.
Organizers are more likely to refer clients to you as they become more familiar with your brand.

2. Make the most of the pre-event promotions:

Get involved with the event organizer, establish a great relationship with both your organizer and their audience, use the opportunity to initiate marketing and publicity for your business, reach out to get some ideas. Event organizers have lots of ideas as they deal with so many different kinds of audiences.

Change Your Mindset

How you view something determines how you handle it and of course, determines the possible outcome. You must view every aspect of your marketing as an investment. When you’re exhibiting at an event, you have just bought a partnership opportunity. You must see it as an opportunity to share costs. Imagine if you had to organize your own solo product launch. How much could you have budgeted for that – to hire a space, do promotions, invitations and prepare for the day and perhaps hiring demonstrators? When you look at it this way, you can begin to see the huge cut in cost you have achieved.

Do Not Focus On Sales On the Day:

In my experience, those who focus solely on making sales on the day mostly always lose the plot. Pushing hard sales pitch on the event day scares people away. Oftentimes, people want to acquaint themselves with the products, to see and feel and try the products before they buy. They will mostly remember the businesses that gave them an audience, took their time to interact and answer their questions.

Focus on building relationships
Focus on building your database.
Come with lots of samples.
Have your guests follow your social media.
Hand out lots of giveaways.
Get testimonials – when people are excited they tend to be more positive.

Do Not Carry Lots of Inventories To Events

I usually advise my exhibitors to carry as few products as possible. Have your products available online from where you can process sales on the day than carrying numerous products that you may not sell on the day. Instead have lots of sample products for your customers to try, enjoy, review and interact with. By doing so, they have a tendency to give you loads of helpful feedback and testimonials.

Carrying lots of inventories will create lots of discomfort and disturbances for you.
You will Incur more cost on transportation and logistics.
Offer free delivery for a certain amount of money spent.
Most people do not want to carry loads at events and may not even have cash, processing your sales from your online will not only help you make more sales, but will help you capture customers you can retarget in the future, it will help you save time and money, help your customers too to enjoy their day as well as be able to buy the products they fell in love with.