There are hundreds of conferences and exhibits that happen every year in a number of different industry sectors. These events pose the perfect opportunity for some offline marketing and can help you make vital connections within your industry sector.
However, if this is your first time taking your business to a conference, you may be wondering how you can get the highest ROI out of your attendance. Exhibition experts, Express Exhibition Displays , have put together a useful list of things you can do to make sure your business gets the most out of the conference. Take a look below to see how you can plan ahead and get the most benefit from your offline marketing venture.
How Will You Attract People to Your Stand?
Drawing people to your stand is the first part of your funnel. You’ll be surrounded by potential competitors, so think about how you can stand out. A gimmick, including an interactive feature or a novelty attraction can always work wonders. Some businesses will offer iPads for people to use as they go past or touch screen technology to draw people over.
Making sure you have eye-catching displays and an attractive stand set up can also help you stand out from the crowd. Think about your design and branding and make sure it is clear and concise, telling any passers by exactly what you do through imagery and limited text.
What Will You Offer Your Attendees?
Once you’ve attracted your customers to your stand, you then have to offer them something to keep them there and to keep them interested. This should be something that is directly related to your business and offers those coming to your stand, some form of value. This could be a number of different offerings, such as:
- A competition
- Free advice
- More information on the benefits of your services
- A goody bag with branded merchandise
What you offer will depend on your own goals. If you are attending the conference to increase brand awareness, then offering branded merchandise like custom bic lighters and asking people to sign up for a newsletter may be a great way to do this.
If you’re looking to get new customers then and there, then offering free advice or consultancy may be the way to go.
Collecting Data and Information from Potential Clients and Customers
No matter what your reasoning for attending the conference, you want to come back with some tangible data that you can use for future marketing campaigns. The type of data you collect will depend on what your plans are after the conference. If you want to build an email list of interested prospects, then asking people to sign-up then and there or enter a competition that requires an email address to participate, can be a great way of building your list.
Remember that there will also be many other companies at the conference in your industry, so it may be an idea to grab a few contacts whilst you can. Some conferences will offer their attendees the option of electronic data capture, which you can use to collect information about your customers or other businesses at the conference.
Make Use of Effective Networking Opportunities
As we’ve said previously, the conference will be filled with potential networking opportunities, with other companies within your industry. It’s good to take a business development manager with you that can walk the floor and mingle with other stands, in order to build contacts. You may find a great business opportunity through interacting with others in your niche.
To make the most out of any conference, it’s all about setting clear goals and objectives on what you want to get out of the event. By setting these goals in advance, you’ll find it a lot easier to decide how you want your stand set up; what materials you will need; and what data you will need to collect. Think of your event like any other marketing campaign and you won’t go far wrong.
Founder Dinis Guarda
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