Having a stand at a large exhibition - has it worked for you?

[silkinteriors]

We've just booked a stand for a home show for our wallpaper business. It looks like a great opportunity for us to showcase our products in front of our target audience.

Has anyone here done anything like this before?

I'm very interested in hearing about what kind of preparation you did beforehand, how you interacted with people at your stand, how you managed the follow up afterwards and how successful you'd rate your exhibition experience.

[Slade]

I had a friend who had a stand at an IT expo and it did work well in terms of generating leads.

He ran a small competition where you gave in your business card to win a prize ( I think at that stage it was a nintendo wii), and at the end of the expo the business card to be drawn out won the prize.

Obviously after the expo he put every card into his CRM system as a potential lead and called them all up.. I think he generated 2-3 times the amount of income that the stall cost.

He also had expo only discounts that was able to land him a few sales directly at the expo.

silk interiors, are you looking to sell directly to the consumer.. or to other businesses?

[The Start Up Sage]

If it is relevant to your industry, the answer is yes.

The next step is to make sure you invest in not just the cost of the stand but also fitting it out to attract people.

I think they call it the 'hover zone', the area where people are walking, hover and review your stand and make a decision to engage. From memory, the key is to ensure you design your stand with this hover zone in mind.

Some core basics:

- make sure you have it manned at all times (nothing worse than an empty stand).

- hide any boxes/junk so they are completely out of site.

- focus on higher traffic areas (corners of the trade show are cheaper for a reason ... they don't get great traffic).

- Get a list of registrants if you can and try to book those with good potential for your product/service for a set meeting time.

- have an offer to capture business information (as mentioned above a prize is good).

- make sure you follow up with contacts.

- tell everyone you know that you will be exhibiting and ask them to stop by and say hello.

These are just a few, there are plenty more. For example, some years back one guy mentioned that his company exhibited and, as part of the marketing effort, they hired a couple of people to just happen to walk past when someone showed interest. As they did, they remarked "Hey, XXX is here. There XXXX is great".

Finally, before committing, make sure you have budget allocated for fit out, manning, prizes and the other 'hidden' costs of these events.

[silkinteriors]

Thanks for your responses.

Slade - we're looking at selling wallpaper and wallpaper hanging services direct to consumers. I think the home show highly relevant for us.

We're thinking about running a competition to give away a 'feature wall'. Other thoughts we've had is to create a brochure that can be used after the event but perhaps put a sticker on it with an enticement for HIA Home show attendees if they book their feature wall and/or purchase wallpaper before a certain date.

The Start Up Sage - great advice and very interesting about the 'hover zone'. Fortunately, we have a product that makes people go 'wow' (at least I think it does!). I have been a bit worried about marketing our business - our website will be going live tomorrow and there are numerous things there we are looking at to drive traffic to us, but I'm worried that it's actually hard to purchase a wallpaper design from a website. So I'm really excited to be able to show it en mass to people as it's so tactile and visually stunning. It's really hard to capture that in photographs, though we do have some great images.

Love the idea of having the 'ooh' and 'aaah' people pointing out how great our wallpaper designs are! I've heard of the same thing with book companies and having people read them on trains and laugh out loud or express some other emotion over the story. The things marketers do, eh?

I think the follow up will be just as intense and just as important as the exhibition itself. Not everyone interested in creating a feature wall will be ready for our services, so I have to keep track of who to call in 3 or 6 months time.

[aande61]

We have stands at various expos - usually 2 or 3 a year Fine Food, Hospitality expo, Resturant expo etc. As you are well aware they are expensive ( usually about $3 -$4000 ) for a 3 x 3 m stand. And do not expect to get your money back on the day ( or days) It is more a medium to long term return. Make sure you have a jar for visitors business cards and make sure you contact them when it is all over. Be pro active - dont wait for people just to wander up to your stand. Have fliers to hand out and pull them into your stand. We always have free giveaways of our products ( people cant resist something free ) with our business card inside. Shows dont come easy you really have to work them or you will waste your money. Make sure your stand is accessable - dont block it off with a long table. You want people to wander in. Dont block it off by you standing in front - it scares people off. Leave it open and stand at the side and draw them in. Corner stands are the best and away from the edges.

We have success with expos but it is not immediate and you have to follow up on all your leads. Dont forget your business card box and give aways.

[Brendan]

Hey Sandra,

What dates and expo are you at? We are looking at having one for our business in a few months but would love to hear your feedback on how it went for you

I might even come by and say g'day.

[silkinteriors]

The HIA Home Show is on from Wed 7 April to Sunday 11 April, 10-6pm daily.

If I get any complimentary passes, I'll let you know. Only 4 weeks to go. Argh! Still so much to do but we've planned our stand and the wallpaper we've chosen to feaure is on its way. Can't wait

I'll be sure to report back on how it all goes.

[one]

Best of luck with the stand, I'll be interested to hear how it goes.

I once operated a stand at a finance industry expo, but it was a little different because all of the attendees worked in the industry, so it was more of a business-to-business type of event. We wouldn't have made our money back on the stand simply through increased sales, but it was just important to have a presence there and try to talk with as many people as possible.

The business card prize draw worked pretty well in terms of collecting lots of details, but when our sales staff followed them up most of them admitted they were only interested in the prize draw anyway, and had no use for our products or services!

[Al Kreuz]

You know what I did see work when I have attended expo just from personal experience.

I saw people standing at their stands just buzzing with really exciting energy.
they had displays and music + videos and more with music and they conducted
themselves in an exciting manner to

it drew alot of attention but it also did get me excited for no particular reason

I'm sure most of us know this already but I've seen alot of exhibitors fail to do it
and struggle cause no one walks to their stands since they dont get any attention AT ALL! which is sad really.

[silkinteriors]

The Home Show starts tomorrow. Can't wait! The bump in wasn't too stressful. Hopefully the rest of week goes just as well I'll let you know how it all goes...