Exhibiting at a trade show should only be the start of the marketing strategy. It is essential to keep up the momentum and continue marketing to the leads generated from the exhibition to make the trade show worthwhile.

When planning the trade show exhibition, make sure you do not neglect to consider how the marketing strategy will continue AFTER the trade show. You need to plan how to gather prospective leads during the show. A trade show exhibition is not successful marketing, if you do not have a way of generating contact details for the prospective clients you meet.

Even if the company’s exhibition at the show attracts lots of attention with brilliant banner signs, an interactive product demonstration and interesting pop up displays within your custom made exhibition stand, it will mean absolutely nothing, if there is no follow up with those potential customers.

Do not waste the effort in designing an attractive exhibition stand by throwing away the opportunity to genuinely keep the customers enthused about the product you are selling.

If you want to make the most of your trade show exhibition, follow these rules to continue the impact of marketing the company at the trade show.

1 – Collect the contact details at the trade show
Plan for the best way to collect the contact details while at the trade show. Do not rely on people calling your business from the business cards or brochures handed out at the exhibition stand. A big glass bowl to collect business cards is one way to collect contact details. Some trade shows now have individual passes as the tickets which register the contact details when scanned.

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Holding a successful exhibition at a trade show takes careful planning, trained staff, and good exhibition design. Even if you have allowed for every element in the design of your trade show stand, you will not know if the show has been a success, unless you can effectively evaluate the success for your business.

Obviously, one of the best measurements to evaluate the success of your exhibition is the number of new customers who have come to the business directly from the trade show. Collecting business cards from prospective customers at your exhibition stand does not necessarily turn these people into customers.

Following up with the prospective customers is essential to convert the prospect into a sale. People will visit a trade show for information, not necessarily to buy on the day. A follow up phone call or email could make the difference between trade show success and exhibition failure, especially if the evaluation method focuses on how many new customers, or new sales, the business makes within a month of the trade show.

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