4 Secrets To A Successful Business Exhibition

December 8, 2015

Small business owners will often worry about one thing, getting noticed. How can you get your company noticed by lots of people? The only way you’ll attract attention is my marketing and promoting your business. And, one of the best ways to do this is by attending a business exhibition. Expo’s give you a chance to promote your business to the general public. So, here are four things to you can do, for the perfect business exhibition:

Consider What You’ll Talk About

One of your main considerations will be what you’ll talk about at the exhibition. Small businesses use expo’s to promote themselves. But, they usually have one or two things that they talk about. This could be a product or service that you’re particularly proud of. One idea is to speak about your best product and show it off to the crowd. It’s arguably the best way to get people interested in your business. If they don’t care about the top thing you have to offer, they’ll never care! Another tactic is to talk more about your business in general. Tell people what you can do for them. Make sure you focus on reasons why you’re better than your competitors. Throw a few stats and facts their way, keep them entertained.
That brings me nicely to my next point; you have to keep the crowd entertained. You need to ensure that they’re sticking around and enjoying what you’re doing. If you bore them, they’ll be gone in a matter of seconds. Practice your public speaking beforehand, you don’t want to mess this up. Your small business can benefit from an exhibition, but only if you’re presenting it properly. Keep people around your stand for as long as possible. Remember, crowds draw in more people. Whenever someone sees a crowd of people, they feel compelled to join them. Great exhibition content can keep an audience engaged and draw in some more people.

Focus On Your Stand

If you’ve ever been to an exhibition, you’ll notice a common theme. Every business at that event will have a stand. They’ll set one up and try and get people to come over so that they can talk to them. Exhibition stands vary depending on the business. Some can be more extravagant than others; it depends a lot on your brand image. If you’ve built your company up to look professional and well-respected, you can’t go over the top. You can’t have a crazy stand with glitter and extravagant things. It has to reflect your business. Make it look sleek and respectable, but still ensure it stands out. That’s the main thing here; you want your stand to jump out and wow people. A boring exhibition stand will lead to an unsuccessful event.
The key is design. Find a company that designs exhibition stands for businesses. They can help sort you out with a killer design that represents your company. It will turn heads – for all the right reasons.

Hire Staff To Help You Out

No business exhibition is complete without some staff on hand to help you out. If you’re busy organizing everything, you can’t focus on some of the other important things. Like, for example, gathering people around your stand. You’ve put all your effort into making sure the stand looks great, but you need people to generate a crowd. As you can see on the Envisage Promotions website, there’s a wide range of staff you can hire for any event. You can hire people to focus on promoting your event to the public. They’ll hand out fliers near the location and direct people towards it. Then, you have the actual exhibition staff, people who can help you during the event. They’ll man your stand and get a crowd milling, so you have lots of people to address. They don’t have to be business experts or have an understanding of your company. Their task is, purely, to draw people in, create hype. It’s their job to make your business look a little bit more exciting.
If you hire some staff, you’ll find that your exhibition will run a lot more smoothly. Crowds will be gathering around your stand all day long. You’ll be put in a good position to shout about and promote your company.

Use Technology

I find that using technology is a great way to get ahead of the competition at an expo. You may not know this, but there are plenty of ways your small business can use technology. For starters, bring tablets with you. You can use these tablets to display information about your business. Think about handing out a couple of tablets to pass through the crowd. They can have a look at the things you’re talking about. Another idea is to bring a projector along to display infographic or presentations. Get a high-quality one so you can wow the crowds. Something as simple as bringing some TV screens along to display information is also a great idea. Also, if you have any screens that aren’t being used, then use them to show your logo. It’ll help get your brand logo stuck in people’s minds and constantly a part of their thoughts.
To give your small business the edge, you have to use technology. It’s one of the few things you can do to stand out from the rest. Plus, it helps to heighten your reputation. A small business that brings technology to an exhibition will earn respect. People see it as a very modern move, they’ll judge you in a positive way.
These are a few things you can do to have a great business exhibition. If you focus on all four of them, your small business will reap the rewards. A successful expo can help you gain customers and see sales go through the roof. It’s a brilliant way to engage with the consumer and promote your company effectively. It’s an excellent idea for small businesses that are just starting out. You can get your foot in the door and make yourself more known.

Mark Asquith

That British podcast guy, Mark is co-founder of Captivate.fm, the world's only growth-oriented podcast host. A Harvard, TEDx, Podcast Movement and Podfest speaker (amongst many more!), he's a wildly approachable Brit and Star Wars/DC Comics geek.

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