As many of us adopt a strategy of ‘living with covid’ one activity which is becoming popular again is attending trade shows and exhibitions. With this in mind, below is our ‘accountants guide to exhibiting’, which highlights what to do to get the most out of this marketing activity.
What can I achieve from being an exhibitor?
Identify what the purpose is for attending an event. It could be:
- Raising the firm’s profile.
- Meeting current clients to further develop relationships with them.
- Attracting new clients.
- Recruiting new trainees or more experienced staff.
- Launching a new product or service.
- Networking with other local businesses and suppliers.
It’s important to identify what it is you’re trying to achieve from the event as that will determine where you go and what you do and also if the event has been a success or not.
Which events should I exhibit at?
Consider who is your target audience. Then identify what type of events are they likely to attend. These could be sector-specific trade shows, business fairs, agricultural or country shows and so on. Your target audience may also determine whether you attend local, regional, national or even international events.
How much should I spend on exhibiting?
It’s important to identify how much you are prepared to spend on exhibiting. This can be a specific benchmark as to whether the event has been a success or not, particularly if the aim is to attract new clients.
When putting together your budget for exhibiting, these are some of the items and activities that will need to be paid for:
- Floor/display space at the exhibition (plus all ancillary costs identified by the organisers such as electric points, Wi-Fi, adverts in the programme, additional tickets for members of staff etc.
- Designing and printing display stands and banner stands.
- Furniture, such as tables and chairs for the stand, either to rent or take your own.
- Additional advertising away from the event to inform your target audience that you will be attending.
- Freebies, gifts and any merchandise that will be handed out at the event.
- Writing and printing leaflets and brochures.
- Staff costs – wages (if in addition to normal salaries), travel and accommodation costs if required.
Some of the above aspects may be included in the exhibition costs, but this does vary from event to event. Many people only consider the cost of the display stand. However, as can be seen from the above list, significant additional costs may be incurred, particularly if this is the first or a one-off event you are thinking of exhibiting at.
Marketing before the event
In order to make your attendance at the event as successful as possible, your marketing needs to start several weeks before the event. This should include:
- Mentioning your exhibition attendance in newsletters, social media and your website.
- Emailing and sending printed invitations to your clients or target audience to invite them to your display stand.
- Liaising with exhibition organisers to get involved in any marketing activities they are organising in the run-up to the event.
- Placing adverts in relevant publications which would be read by your target audience, to announce your attendance at the event.
Marketing during the event
Even on the day(s) of the event, you can still maximise your attendance and increase your presence as much as possible. This could include:
- If the event is running seminars, see if you can give a presentation on a suitable topic that will be of interest to delegates/your target audience. This is a great way to raise your profile and encourage people to visit your display stand for more information.
- Chatting with other exhibitors, particularly anyone who could be a target client.
- Organising activities on your stand that will attract people to you, e.g. competitions, free food, meeting a celebrity, etc.
- Engaging in regular social media posts including taking photos of your display stand and your exhibition team, promoting any special offers or freebies that you are giving away during the event, including refreshments.
- Also with social media, tagging/mentioning the event itself so your company name gets promoted across their social media followers and connections, thereby widening your potential target audience.
- Making a note of the contact details of people who visit your display stand and what products/services they are interested in and/or what you discussed while they were on the stand. Larger exhibitions may have portable scanners which will scan the visitor’s exhibition badges and log their contact details with you.
Marketing after the event
To maximise the success of attending the event you must make timely follow-up calls and emails to those people you have chatted to during the event. Most business is lost from an event because exhibitors fail to follow up on any leads which they have generated during the event, assuming that people will contact them. More often than not, they don’t!
In addition to making follow-up calls, it is also a good idea to ask these contacts whether they would like to receive some additional information which they might be interested in, such as your report on a particular sector, or be added to your newsletter list.
In most cases, new clients will be signed up weeks, months, possibly even years after the initial event. It is important to keep in touch with these new contacts on an ongoing basis, so consider what opportunities you have as a firm to keep in contact with them.
