Exhibiting at a trade show for the first time can be a daunting process, but what about actually deciding to exhibit in the first place?
Many businesses often don’t even get this far, and are more often than not missing out on very valuable customers (who are literally primed for selling, and coming to you).
In this guide we’re focusing on three of the main reasons why all businesses should consider exhibiting at an industry event or trade show as a primary part of their marketing strategy… Let’s get to it.
Discovering & Meeting Potential Clients
Arguably the biggest justification for attending a trade show event is that you’re literally placed within potentially thousands of new customers or clients. At industry-specific events, attendees are much more likely to understand and react to your service, and at the very least will understand enough of your business offering to engage in your stand, and speak to the staff manning your exhibit.
You also get the chance for your staff to interact on a personal level with both new and existing clients, which will only serve to elevate brand relationships and put a human face to your business.
Establish Your Brand to Potential Clients
If you’re exhibiting for the first time, you can think of attending a trade show as a way to emerge into your potential pool of customers. It’s not uncommon for businesses to go to bespoke exhibition stand designers to really get the most out of how their stand can look, perform, and ultimately reflect their brand.
Having your own stand enables you to completely influence how new audiences and potential customers view your brand, and gives you the very rare opportunity to make a lasting first impression with how your business is presented, and the connotations for your brand in relation to its target audience. This is certainly a factor that cannot be overlooked.
Get Feedback from Your Target Audience
As a business owner, how often are you going to get the chance to sit down with either your existing or potential customers, to really understand how they view your brand?
Going back to point #2, when exhibiting at an industry event you get free reign and an opportunity to really influence how your customers see your business. But, when it’s all said and done, you’re going to need feedback to understand how you can develop your brand moving forward.
Providing visitors to your stand with feedback forms and an incentive to fill them out (such as a monetary prize) will allow you to get valuable feedback on how audiences interpret your brand, and you can then use this information to better your exhibiting process in the future.
Exhibiting is an ongoing process that takes years to perfect, and can allow you to both break into your industry and control how new and existing customers view your brand.
Make exhibiting part of your wider marketing strategy and take advantage of the very real, measurable and cost-effective benefits that both attending trade events and exhibiting at shows have to offer.
