Exhibitions are an incredible opportunity for many industries/businesses, providing sufficient reasons for both brand and customer to attend. Although, when it comes to cost – things can get a little pricey however, exhibitions provide the ideal chance for brands and companies to interact and communicate directly with their target audience.
Exhibitions are considered to be one of the best platforms for live interaction with the target audience as well as for retrieving value feedback and input from them.
When planning a show-stopping exhibition stand there’s a lot that can go wrong. It’s easy to forget tasks, slip up and make mistakes. The good news is that, with the right knowledge, preparation and support, mistakes can be avoidable.
We’re here to walk you through a list of common mistakes that can spoil your exhibition which you would never want to hear!
Poor Staff Management
Untrained or unsuitable staff is one of the most common mistakes made by exhibitors during an exhibition or a trade show. Why would someone buy from a company that looks disorganized or unprofessional? Exhibition deserves your best team – people having energy, confidence, stamina and most importantly knowledge about your product.
No matter how much time, money and effort you have dedicated to outstand your exhibition booth among others, if it’s managed by unenthusiastic, unresponsive staff then visitors won’t think twice about moving on. Staff should be solely concerned and determined with interacting with potential customers rather than being ‘Zombified’.
Not Having an Eye-catching Exhibition Stand
The first thing that will attract visitors and drag them towards your booth is your exhibition stand design – something that the visitors will subconsciously appraise when deciding whether to stop at your booth. One of the biggest misconceptions of an exhibitors is to assume that his/her brand or product will naturally shine through no matter now it looks.
To grab the attention of your customers, encourage them to interact with you and finally generate leads and sales, you need to make sure your stand is eye-catching and appealing. However, a poor and/or dull stand design will definitely deter attendees and drive back your customers.
Poor Marketing Strategy
Another essential element to promote your brand and your attendance at the exhibition is to create a marketing plan and implementing tactics. Marketing is one of the most vital tools that can help you achieve your goals. However, without having a marketing strategy you risk your target audience not knowing about your exhibition stand.
Nowadays, the internet is the magic word, and it is extremely tempting to create social media campaigns and roll out some promotional stuff regarding your business. As a result, you will be driving traffic to your stand days before your exhibition. You should also use marketing materials such as handouts, brochures and leaflets emphasizing your brand which will help audiences remember you.
Poor Knowledge About Your Clients
Client relationship is the foundation of any business. Knowing the likes/dislikes and needs of your clients is essential in order for you to deliver event that are of high relevance, in other words, events that will be recommended, remembered and re-booked. However, failure to understand this and/or ignoring the relationship with your client can cause trouble and block important revenue.
Being Unwelcoming or Unfriendly
Imagine ending up on an exhibition booth where the staff is huddled together chatting? Or eating? Or on the phone? I could go on, but hope you get the picture. Exhibition stands can always be intimidating for a visitor, so try avoiding such things if you want to encourage people onto your stand. One thing should be straight in your mind – no matter you have time or not, no matter how you’re feeling – never neglect a visitor to your stand. Engage them with the hope of converting them into a customer by creating an immersive, interactive, and valuable customer experience.
Not Having Clear Event Objectives
One thing that every business owner needs to make sure is that every piece of marketing he/she does generates a return on investment, and exhibitions are no exception.
Things can always go wrong no matter whatever business you are doing. Hope for the best but prepare for the worst with back-up plans for everything that might go wrong at an exhibition. For example, if you can’t product a demo without Wi-Fi? Take back-up!
Be that the design or location of your stand, to your marketing plan and sales approach – your expo goals/plans will help you determine everything.
Poor Location
Location always matters – whether it is your workplace, office or even an exhibition! A good location not only affects your ability to attract visitors but it also enhances the chances of communication with your audience and generate leads. No matter how much you have invested on your exhibition booth or how attractive your stand looks, it won’t have the desired impact if prospects cannot see it.
Therefore, you will need to get in early to reserve the best space so that you receive passing traffic as a result maximum people can see your booth. However, if by any chance you fail to book your slot timely, the only thing you can do is to design an eye-catching stand for maximum customer attraction.
Not Following Up Your Leads
Failure to follow up leads after you’re done with your exhibition is an absolutely heinous crime! You should not forget to follow up with leads or opportunities after all your hard work at the exhibition, otherwise all that effort will go down the drain.
Make sure to follow up as you need to stay fresh in a prospect’s mind, and work on nurturing those hard-earned leads. It’ll be a mistake to try follow leads up a month after the show.
Lack of Use of Technology
With the integration of innovative technology, the exhibition world is also updating itself to promote businesses in a distinctively. By adopting new methods that involve technology, you can make your promotion job hassle-free. Moreover, an online portal will help you out with all your important files (exhibitor kits, shipping form, prospectus, etc.) before and after the exhibition so the exhibitors can access them anytime, anywhere.
Not incorporating technology can make you fall behind your competitors and eventually lead you towards losing out the opportunities that could possibly make your show a hit.
Lack of Robust Reporting
Once you are done with your exhibition it is very important to write a post-event report as it gives you valuable insights regarding your event. Furthermore, it gives you a record of all the events, tells you how well things went and how things can be improved for the next time around.
Therefore it is very important to build and save custom reports that show you exactly which exhibitors have and have not completed specific tasks such as company logo report, company description report, etc.
Contact us now for more tips to get started with your exhibition and to make it exhibition a success!
Chief Revenue Officer
