Making an exhibition of yourself
Exhibiting at a business to business exhibition recently, served to remind me of the pitfalls of such a marketing activity. Whilst the rewards of exhibiting can certainly outweigh the long day and aching feet, for many exhibitors it can be a fruitless exercise.
The cost of exhibiting tends to be one of largest spends of a marketing budget and an activity which demands a significant time from not just the marketing team but other staff as well. How then can a business improve the return on its money? Ironically the starting point is to probably ask yourself if exhibiting is the right activity to do.
All too often people rush in to booking space at an exhibition without it being planned or considered as part of the overall marketing plan. Often the decision is an historic one based on the fact they you’ve always exhibited so why stop now?
This a-side, exhibitions do play a key part of many business's marketing activities and there are a few simple steps to getting a greater return on the marketing investment.
The starting point must be to clearly identify the reasons for exhibiting, be it to generate new business leads, promote a new product or service, to enter a new market or simply just to maintain a presence in your market place.
The next question to consider focuses on the exhibition and is it the right one for your business? Such a decision focuses around a combination of the business sector you are in and the proposed attendance by potential visitors, for example there is no point in exhibiting at an international event if you can only service a local market. Equally if you are looking to reach trade buyers there is not point in exhibiting at a consumer show. Deciding if the event is for your or not can be made easier by asking the organiser to let you have details of the profile of both previous year's attendees and numbers as well details of exhibitors. It is also worthwhile considering a decision to defer attendance to a following year so you can visit the exhibition to assess it for yourself.
After making a decision whether or not to exhibit follows the task of booking space. The ‘wrong’ location or size of stand can be a costly mistake, as too can be the lack of consideration or budget given to the stand design and promotional materials. It is not untypical for the cost of the stand and design to equal or exceed the cost of the space.
As the exhibition approaches it is important to ensure the team representing your business is well briefed as to why they are there and what is expected from them. This should also include aspects of dress code, breaks and staffing rotas. In the main most exhibitions revolve around the team collecting details of potential business and contacts.
This conveniently leads on to probably the biggest weakness of most businesses with their marketing as a whole, not just with exhibitions, their failure to follow up the leads generated. Timing, as ever, is the key to success and follow up and striking whilst the iron is hot is essential. In all cases keeping in touch certainly helps to boost the value of your return, adding contacts to a prospect's database is an effective way of keeping in touch rather than confining the business cards to the bin or a box to sort out at a later date.
Finally take time as with all your marketing activities to review the effectiveness of the exhibition there may well be lessons to be learnt and considerations for future events.
James Pinchbeck is Marketing Director at Streets Chartered Accountants.