Page 29 - EXHIBITION BOOK - BOOK 1 Before!_Neat

CHAPTER 10 MARKETING YOUR STAND…THE HOW, WHY, AND WHERE

Marketing your stand before you exhibit is crucial in terms of building visitors to it, once the doors open.
The organizers are a strong port of call here and you need to be utilizing their marketing machine whilst
also doing plenty of your own marketing to ensure you get the visitors you are looking for. Below are a
couple of things you really should consider. They won’t all be relevant or necessarily possible, but you
should be looking at all these as possibilities. I don’t put myself forward as a marketing expert, but they
should help!

Use of the Organizers PR Company Most if not all shows will have a PR team working on the event and
whether that’s an internal or external team, they are always looking for a good story so utilize them well by
sending them as much information on your company as possible. The better and stronger images (high res)
have a far greater chance of landing on social media or press and a story always goes down well. Your
business could be celebrating a big milestone in number of years trading, it could be a family business over
a certain number of generations, you may have won awards recently or be the first company to bring this
product to market or indeed anything that sets you above the competition.
Tip: Get your team to engage with the organisers PR Company

Interesting teaser mailers/competitions where the answer or prize is given at the show itself
You might want to do a teaser campaign to your database by giving them little bits of information about
your products/services with a competition element or everyone going into a draw at the show itself. You
could engage the organizers to announce the winner at the show over the PA system at the show…People
love to hear their own name being called out or be the winner of something! Engaging people like this also
increases the chance that they will visit the show and ultimately your stand.
Tip: Create a clever teaser campaign

Promote something that will be given away for free or at a discount specifically at the show
As with all things in life, people like to get the best deal or a discount on something so it’s always worth
promoting a special offer just for the show. This is also a nice introduction via email before the show to
entice them to visit as you are giving them something of real value. Facebook is a great avenue for this
type of promotion and works well. One thing I saw recently was a Company offering a €50 Voucher at the
show to redeem post show, just for visiting their stand. Not everyone can afford to do this but it’s a great
way of getting visitors to come to your stand…what happens after they do is up to you!
Tip: Have a free/discounted offer for the show only

Send them a discounted voucher that can be redeemed at the show
You could look at the same thing as above but send them the voucher in advance, but they must redeem it
on the show days only which should help you with traffic but also entice them to buy at the event. You
could go a step further here and personalize the voucher with their name in it as this has a strong impact. It
makes them feel more “special & loved” and is a strong way of getting personal engagement. As an aside
but connected…emails sent with the person’s name in the subject line get a 2.6% higher open rate and I