Banner Stand Design

1. Select the exhibition that suits your business

Take time to research exhibitions that are tailored towards the type of clients you wish to work with and who you feel would be a good match for your business. Look closely at the published list of visitors from previous exhibitions or those already signed up for the one you are researching.

2. Set goals you can measure

Be realistic but set measurable goals that can be assigned to the exhibition, such as the number of follow up appointments set, the number of new leads to be distributed to your sales team, the number of new business quotes issued and ultimately the number of confirmed orders.

3. Design your stand to match your objectives

Your exhibition stand is what will attract people to come and talk to you, so ensure it lets people know what you do. The design needs to reinforce the objective you have set for the exhibition, for example to generate sales leads around a new product launch.

Find out more about Exhibition Design from Piranha

4. Encourage visitors to your stand and engage with you

Be ruthless, you are not at the exhibition to provide background information to educate the general public, you want sales and to get sales you need to start a conversation. Include things on your stand designed simply to get people stop by, perhaps a competition, some entertainment, but avoid being seen as a free bar! A gimmick works well to bring people to you; however, it needs to be credible and related to your brand so that it is memorable and not tacky.

5. Maximise promotional and advertising opportunities

Use all promotional channels before the event to let people you know you are attending and fully utilise the channels provided by the organisers. Do everything you can to get people to visit your stand – a busy stand is a successful stand it and will make it easier for new customers to visit you.

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6. Interaction

Include interaction on your stand, things that people can see, touch, hear, small or taste. It is a long day visiting a trade show and people want to exercise all their senses. You will be more memorable if you have some theatre weaved into your corporate presentation.

Find out about our POS (Point of Sale) design service

7. Record Everything

Have a system to record everything, make sure you fully understand everything about the visitors to your stand. If possible, get them to sign up to receive further information to make yourself GDPR compliant for the future.

8. Follow Up

The final, and possibly most important stage of the exhibition is to follow up on the visitors who have taken the time to talk to you. If you do not follow up the leads, then the entire exhibition expenditure will have been wasted.

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9. Review & Learn

It is unlikely you will only exhibit once so you need to evaluate your success at meeting your objectives, learn what worked for you and what did not, and implement this for the next exhibition you attend.

Approximately 75% of visitors at an exhibition are there because they want to buy, or plan to, soon. It is therefore important for you to ensure the impression you make is remembered days, weeks and even months after the event! If you adhere to these pointers from Piranha, you should easily hit exhibiting success!