Few marketing tactics have stood the test of time quite like exhibitions. They’re still an amazing way of showcasing new product ideas and generating a lot of leads. The key to all successful exhibitions is getting enough foot traffic to your booth. As such, follow this plan, and you’ll cause a stampede as consumers flood to your location.
Step 1: Promote On Social Media
Normally, the start of an exhibition is the worst part. The crowds are thinner, and people are basically making their way around with a general sense of curiosity. They don’t know where to go, and there’s no buzz about certain booths as the event has just started. Well, you can change this by being active on social media before the event starts. Spend a good few weeks building up the suspense and creating hype around this event. Show pictures of your booth on the morning of the exhibition, and give people incentives to come. Post statuses of tweets saying that the first one hundred or so visitors get a free goody bag. This generates hype around your booth before the event has even started. You can continue this throughout the event too, and make sure you either post on the event page on Facebook or use the event hashtag to get more activity.
Step 2: Make Your Booth Stand Out
With so many businesses all competing for a slice of the same pie, you need to ensure people notice you before anyone else. This places a huge emphasis on good booth design as you want to catch the eye of the consumer. With a creative design, your booth will stand out and be noticed. Be a little funky here, do things that others aren’t doing. Bland and boring exhibition booths might be cheap and easy to set up, but no one pays them any notice. Be bright, colorful, and different.
Step 3: Put On A Competition
Exhibitions can be boring, it’s up to the businesses to make them fun. The best way you can do this is by putting on a competition. Have a game or something at your booth that people can play to try and get high scores. This element of fun combined with competitiveness will get everyone running to your booth to try and win. Hand out prizes for the top three competitors at the end of the day!
Step 4: Use Signs To Direct The Traffic To You
Your booth isn’t the only place you should have staff at an exhibition. You need some out on the trade floor with signs pointing to your location. They can help promote the booth and encourage people to go. The signs should be noticeable and include incentives that make people want to see your booth. Again, this could be something like ‘Free goodie bag this way!’ or even just promoting the competition. Either way, you direct people to your booth even if they’re nowhere near it.
Follow this four-step plan, and you will see a dramatic increase in foot traffic at any exhibition. The more traffic you get, the more potential there is to generate new leads and gain some new customers for your business.
