BEFORE THE TRADE FAIR
Purpose of the trade fair
Before the trade fair starts, you need to decide what you want to achieve with your participation in the trade fair. The trade fair is part of your marketing mix and contributes to the overall marketing effort that can lead to sales.
Tip! Clarify the purpose of your trade fair participation (branding, sales, customer care or something else?) and set clear objectives.
Send the first team
The staff on your stand is crucial, so make sure you have the right team in place, with each person having a specific role during the trade fair.
Tip! Divide your staff into three roles according to their expertise: the 'catcher', the 'nurturer' and the 'closer', so that the salesperson can do their job while the specialist does theirs. Also consider whether each role should have an individual dress code.
The stand
Concept: You have the guest's full attention when they are on your stand, so use the stand to its full potential and give them the best experience of your business and product.
Tip! Organize your stand into different zones that follow the customer journey - from welcome and product demonstration to lead capture.
Activities: Plan activities to attract visitors. This could be anything from competitions, lectures, product demonstrations, give-aways and much, much more.
Tip! Decide whether you want quality or quantity and plan your activities accordingly.
Message: Visitors to the trade fair should be able to quickly decode your message from a distance and want to visit you.
Tip! Test your message before the trade fair. Have a third party look at your stand for a few seconds and tell you what they remember. This will give you an insight into whether your stand sends the right messages and generates interest from the customer's point of view.
Invite
Let your customers and partners know that they can meet you at the trade fair - we will of course help, but an invitation from you just works better.
Tip! Create interest in your stand before the trade fair via your social media, web, newsletter, advertising and MCH's online profiling opportunities. If necessary, create the first potential leads via a direct mail campaign where you invite and arrange meetings at the trade fair even before the start of the trade fair.
DURING THE TRADE FAIR
Act as host
You are the ones who have invited the visitors to your stand - you are therefore also the host.
Tip! Be proactive, welcoming and greet everyone with a smile.
Keep an overview
There is nothing worse than coming home and lacking information on your leads.
Tip! Create an easy system so that you can quickly note down the information on your leads and also add one or two things you have talked about so that it is easy to track the conversation on the phone afterwards.
AFTER THE TRADE FAIR
Follow up
Don't let your warm leads go cold. Use the rule of thumb that if you haven't followed up within a week, the trade fair visitor has forgotten about it.
Tip! Extend the trade fair by an extra day so that time is set aside in advance to quickly follow up on the leads you have received at the trade fair.
Evaluate
Evaluate internally and write down your experiences so that you can optimize your trade fair participation for next time.
Tip! When you do follow up on your leads, ask about their experience of your participation at the trade fair, so you get concrete input from the customer side to work on.
10 TIPS
To help you get started with your preparations, we have prepared a checklist:
- Order and confirm technical orders
- Take out exhibitor insurance
- Order catering for your stand staff before, during and after the trade fair
- Prepare and enter your company profile, news, products, events etc.
- Follow HI Tech & Industri Scandinavia on Facebook / Linkedin
- Prepare a plan for your activities on SoMe
- Invite potential and current customers
- Book hotel rooms
- Plan logistics for the dismantling