If you aren’t already aware of why exhibition advertising still works for B2B companies, it boils down to the fact that people prefer to buy from people. All the internet fluff and dandy digital doodads in the world cannot replace genuine face-to-face interaction. When your business has its own place in the microcosm of a trade show, you have the chance to make a personal impression on prospective clients and maintain a warm relationship with current customers. Your business’ presence at a trade show through your exhibit gives you a tool to interact with other businesses in a real and human way that is unparalleled by standard remote communication options. If you are still on the fence about taking this opportunity to get your business in a place where it can intersect with the businesses that may need you, get off of that fence and start looking for shows. We’ve put together the below in conjunction with UK based modular exhibition stand suppliers, Zoom Display.
Choose the Right Exhibition for Your Business
The first step you should take toward a successful show will be selecting the exhibition that best matches you business’ marketing objectives. The rise of digital communication did spell the death of some smaller or less organized trade shows, but the practice of holding exhibitions for B2B marketing is still alive. With the weaker shows taken out of the mix, those that remain are more important individually. Take the time to find a show that: is attended by your target audience, has a history of good attendance and outcomes, and holds some importance relative to the sector appropriate to your company.
Staffing Your Exhibition
Choosing the staff for your stand is going to be the most important factor in the success of the show for you. While you company is represented at the show, your stand staff will dictate the impression of your company that visitors carry away. Everybody who you send to the show must know their role and know how to listen for facts that will determine how each contact will be handled. Anybody you send to represent your company must be genuinely enthusiastic about your business and the products that it offers: an extremely knowledgeable person with a lackadaisical demeanor will chill warm relations and thwart the progress that might be made by the rest of your team. If a person has all the personality of a computer monitor, then the protective clients may as well be online.
The size of your staff will ultimately be determined by your budget, but you should send as wide of a cross-section of your business as you can. If you have representatives of your business’ executives, marketing, and tech support all manning the stand, then visitors will be able to see a miniature version of your business and get a better feeling of how it will be to work with you. You don’t just want a stand full of sly marketers flashing their pearly whites at the show floor, it is more important that you are available to accept visitors to your stand and deal with them on a personal level that answers all of their questions and makes a good impression. Be ready to trade visitors around the booth to give them a wider sample of your staff and to allow each person in your stand to focus on their specialties.
