I recently attended the North East Expo, always a great event for showcasing a plethora of businesses, as well as great speakers. It’s great that so many businesses are there, but it’s sometimes hard to pick out the ones that are truly relevant to solving the issues you’re facing.
That’s where it’s absolutely vital for those businesses exhibiting to make sure they stand out – either by having a striking proposition message or by bringing a completely different solution to anyone else there.
Two businesses, in particular, stood out to me this year & for very different reasons.
Expo Wins
This banner from Oak truly got my attention & made me laugh out loud. I got a clear message as to what they were saying & knew they would be my kind of people to go to should I need their services as they obviously had fun as well as solving a business critical issue.
The other stand I really enjoyed was from Graeme Tennick & Co Accountants. Why did they stand out? Because their stand said little about accountancy but gave the true benefit of what they were offering; the fact they were there for your journey, almost as part of the business, not just to dip in & out once a month type of thing. (Apologies for the stand photo – they were really busy the whole time I was there!).
So on one hand, having impactful signage with a clear message is a real attention grabber, but a more subtle approach can also work, making passers-by inquisitive as to how you’re going to honour your message & causing them to want to talk to you (sales funnel here we go!).
Either way, for me, the event marketing from these 2 businesses was absolutely on point. Unfortunately, I couldn’t say it about some of the other businesses exhibiting.
Expo Fails
I noted a few had lengthy banners with huge amounts of detail on but not a clear message. Clever in some ways I guess, making the banner do the work of the people manning the stand?
Even worse there were a number of stands (quite a few!) who either had no-one on the stand to engage with the footfall or (even worse in my opinion) had someone there sat on their phone or laptop clearly not interested in the potential opportunities passing by the stand.
Clearly not ideal if you’re there to sell the benefits of your business to the wider public, which I am guessing is the aim of attending an expo in the first place?
So many time I hear people say that a show hasn’t worked for them, hardly anyone stopped at the stand, they got very few leads & most of those were just after the free gift swap for a business card.
Tips to Maximise Your Business Potential
Do you feel the same? Do you see little return on your investment but feel you ‘should be’ there? Here are some pointers on how to maximise your potential at expos & get the return that you really should be seeing on your event marketing budget…
- Be engaged – for me, one of the most important rules of event attendance as an exhibitor. Don’t send an office administrator (lovely as I am sure they are!) to cover the stand, send someone who is a decision maker, a real face of the business and someone who is looking for success from the show.
- Make your banner impactful & easy to spot amongst the crowds. Reflect on who was next to you & what theirs was like, what your competitors were doing & see how you compare.
- Be there to make connections & create partnerships, not just to say you are there. Be in the moment and you’ll find you have a much greater success rate at every expo you go to, rather than it just being a drain on the budget.
Want some new ideas? Call…
Is your business in need of an injection of bright ideas, new sales opportunities and enthusiasm to make your marketing budget work better? Give me a call on 07976 378605 to see what we could do together and get maximise the return on your investment.
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