Every exhibition and trade show will involve a lot of vying for attention. You are going to be attempting to attract potentially hundreds of visitors to your stall, which is no easy task when there could be dozens of your competitors exhibiting within metres of you.
Furthermore, you are going to be trying to grab the attention of people who might never have heard of you or the products you offer. In these circumstances, you might find yourself wanting to just give up and go home! However, this should be seen as an opportunity for success and a challenge to be overcome.
There are all sorts of tactics you can use to make sure you are noticed above your competitors at your next trade show. Here are a few of our favourite:
Get a charity involved
Charitable donations appeal to most people. It will make them feel better about themselves, convinced they have helped out someone in need. However, they can also make people feel awkward, for example if they don't support the cause you're collecting for or if they don't have an appropriate amount of money on them.
So how does this apply to your next trade show? One tactic you can use is making charitable donations on other people's behalf for visiting you. For example, you could pledge to give £1 (or more) to charity every time someone tags you in a photo on social media, or even add something to your company website allowing people to 'check in' in exchange for a donation.
This makes you look good, but also encourages people to visit your stall for the opportunity to do something worthwhile without putting themselves out at all.
Hold a competition
This is an old tactic, but it is also one of the best. Holding a competition at your stand is a guaranteed way to pique people's interest and get them to come over and talk to you. Even if they only come for a chance to win, you can use the time they're with you to pitch your product or service to them.
For this to be as successful as possible, you are going to need a worthwhile prize. This can be one of the products you sell, but probably not one of your services; a competition will be more attractive if the prize is something tangible that can be seen from across the venue. It doesn't have to be connected to your business at all.
Be active on social media
One of the easiest ways to increase your exposure is to be as active as possible on social media surrounding the trade show. The venue - or even the event itself - will probably have its own Facebook or Twitter account that you can associate yourself with.
Be active on social media throughout the event, not just before and after. Attendees might be looking at these accounts to make sure they have not missed anything worthwhile, so if you are active it can easily lead to more visitors.
