If you are in business for yourself, you know how important it is to advertise, and get the word out about what you do, and the products or services you provide. One of the best ways that you can do this is by taking part in exhibitions and trade shows. Just think about it. At each trade show you attend, you have the opportunity to meet hundreds, if not thousands, of potential customers. You will also meet up with current customers that you already have, and have impromptu meetings with them as well. This is a great way to keep in touch with your clients.
If you have a new product that you have designed and would like to start marketing, participating in trade shows is an excellent way to introduce your product to the public. Here are some ways you can introduce new products at trade shows, and potentially see your customer base grow by leaps and bounds:
• Have a great, eye-catching trade show display. If you don’t have anything that is going to attract customers, you are going to have a long, quiet and boring trade show experience. Use colorful signage, audio/visual displays, and great furniture to create an effective trade show display.
• Offer plenty of literature and promotional items to promote your product. People are bombarded by information at trade shows. If they have literature to look over later, when they are not feeling so overwhelmed, chances are they are going to read it.
• Whenever possible, offer free samples. If you are selling food items, make some there and give samples to people walking by. This is a great way to introduce yourself and your product, and when people like it, often they make purchases right on the spot. If you have opened up a printing company, give away pads of post-it notes with your company logo on them.
• Along the same idea as free samples, you should also have some candy or other treats (home-baked sweets are terrific) to entice people to visit your display.
Trade Shows Are Inexpensive Advertising
Okay, maybe they’re not that inexpensive (it may cost a couple of thousand dollars or more to take part), but spending a few days getting the word about your business out to potentially thousands of people at a trade show is actually less expensive than many other forms of advertising. Plus, if you have a website, or use social networking such as Facebook and Twitter to promote your business, you can get the word out to people about the trade show, and that you will be attending. By doing this, you are not only giving yourself free advertising, but also advertising for the trade show itself.
Trade shows are terrific if up until now you have been doing the bulk of your business online. This way, your customers (as well as many potential new ones) will get a chance to see your product up close, and not just in photos.
Make New Contacts at Trade Shows
Trade shows are an excellent way to meet new business contacts. Ideally, you will have a couple of employees, or at least some friends or family members, who will be at the trade show with you to help you out.
This way, you will have an opportunity to get out there on the floor and talk with the thousands of potential customers walking around the trade show. Make sure you have plenty of literature and promotional items on hand, so you can give them out as you are meeting people, and entice them to visit your display, try your product, and maybe come back with their friends.
Taking your small business to a trade show gives many benefits for a few days of hard work and the initial costs in setting up your stand. If you use the trade show as a successful marketing tool, you will see your small business grow rapidly.
Although trade shows and exhibiting in general are used as forms of advertising and making contacts, the real reason most companies exhibit is to make sales and profits.
That’s why it’s a “must-do” part of any exhibit program to have a closed-loop, lead development system in place to take the leads you invested time and money to get, and turn them into immediate sales and lifetime customers.
The booth, the contacts, and the experience of the show are all great, but turning the leads into cash and customers allows you to invest again in another event, and increase and improve your presence.
The Center for Exhibition Industry Research shows that around 82% of leads gained from exhibiting are never followed-up at least ONCE! So you have the customer to yourself when you build a closed-loop lead development system in advance of the show, and let it automatically follow-up much of the time for you. This is done for weeks, months, and even years after the show.
So don’t forget to take as much time building your closed loop lead system and the numerous “touches” to the prospect for the post-show phase. You’ll see your investment of time and money in the actual exhibit go from expensive marketing into profitable sales.
Steve Underation, CTSM
Certified Trade Show Marketer
Co-author: “The Platinum Rule for Trade Show Mastery”
Coach to Money-Making Exhibitors
TradeShowProfitSystems.com