Exhibitions that many visitors visit become excellent marketing measures if utilized well.
However, I also hear voices that even if you spend effort and conduct exhibition marketing, results do not go up.
This time, targeting persons in charge with shallow experience in exhibiting at exhibitions, after grasping the benefits and disadvantages of exhibiting, I will introduce how to proceed with exhibition marketing effectively.
▶ A manual on the fundamentals of exhibiting at trade shows to ensure your event is a success.
BEEATS, with its extensive experience in supporting exhibitions, will introduce eight essential preparations you should keep in mind!
Successful first-time exhibitors! A manual for the basics of exhibiting at trade shows. Please check it out!
Exhibitions are events that gather exhibiting companies according to industry genres such as IT, machinery, and fashion, and attract targets seeking solutions for new products or services.
Since people who have been screened to some extent gather at the exhibition venue, you can aim for efficient acquisition of new customers, such as exchanging business cards with many prospective customers (lead customers) at once, asking for questionnaires, or taking them to business negotiations if things go well.
Business card acquisition can be said to be the royal road of exhibition marketing, and it becomes the starting point for registering information as prospective customers or future customers and performing follow-ups to connect to business negotiations.
However, there are not many cases where visitors call out to you at the exhibition venue.
If you want to exchange business cards with as many visitors as possible, you need to call out to them actively from your side.
Even if you are ignored often, that is normal. To have them stop, it is important to think about what kind of calling-out method is good and call out without giving up.
At an exhibition booth, there is a method of having visitors answer questionnaire surveys in exchange for sample provision, novelties, tasting, etc. The purpose of taking questionnaires at exhibitions is to grasp the issues of prospective customers and the certainty that they will become customers, and to set priorities for future approaches and aim for efficiency, or to connect to business negotiations that are more suitable for the other party.
At business exhibitions, you can unearth needs beyond business card acquisition through industry seminars and product experiences that visitors are highly interested in.
Also, at consumer exhibitions, you can expand fans with fun events.
First, let's organize the benefits of exhibiting at an exhibition.
At a large-scale exhibition, thousands to tens of thousands of visitors visit in a short period.
Since companies in the same industry also gather in one place, you can aim for communication such as exchanging business cards with many prospective customers in a short period.
For companies thinking "I want to acquire new customers in a short time" as exhibition marketing, it can be said to be a very efficient measure.
Because trade shows are held with specific industries or themes, people interested in the exhibition content will gather.
A trade show is a rare opportunity to meet such attendees directly.
It can be difficult to carefully explain the features of a product on websites, web advertisements, or mass advertising.
Especially with business solutions, there is a wide range, and it is usually difficult to see the difference in services.
It can be said that trade shows where you can meet and explain directly to people interested in your products and solutions lead to business negotiations and are easy to turn into customers.
Exhibitions can also be utilized as a place to strengthen relationships with existing customers.
By inviting existing customers to the exhibition where your company exhibits, there is a possibility that you can get introductions for grade-ups or plus contracts from current products, in addition to corporate personnel you are on friendly terms with.
As a major benefit of exhibiting at an exhibition, there is an advertising effect. Many people and companies you don't usually meet participate in exhibitions.
By calling these visitors and companies to your company's booth or distributing flyers, it leads to the improvement of the company/service's fame. You can also promote new products or services.
If you utilize exhibitions, you can have a dialogue with companies that are usually difficult to create opportunities for proposals.
Even if it is a company or product not yet widely known, or even a company inferior in scale, you can raise your company's fame, or propose your company's products to personnel in charge at major famous companies and ask for their opinions.
In large-scale exhibitions with clear themes, there is also the possibility of acquiring promising, large-volume leads that your company's sales cannot approach.
On the other hand, there are many things in exhibition marketing that can become disadvantages.
Exhibiting at a trade show costs various money, including exhibition fees and construction costs, as well as staff labor costs and money for using equipment and fixtures.
However, you are not guaranteed to get results commensurate with those costs in a single exhibition.
Trade show marketing also takes effort, such as sorting and listing the many business cards you receive, and it has the disadvantage that it is difficult to lead to results unless you follow up carefully afterward.
When exhibiting at an exhibition, there are a wide variety of preparations and applications before the exhibition day.
Depending on the company, there may not be a dedicated person in charge of exhibitions, and there may be many cases where a small number of people handle it while holding other normal duties.
If you set goals, decide the booth's design, and consider/handle everything such as budget management and personnel allocation, it will become impossible to do normal duties and a large burden will be placed on the person in charge.
Not all exhibition visitors are coming for the purpose of business negotiations or contract conclusion, etc.
There are many cases where they are simply aiming for industry information collection or inspection, or the visitor himself does not have decision-making power, and business negotiations are rarely decided at the exhibition venue.
Therefore, since results do not come out just by exhibiting, many things that must be done after exhibition participation, such as follow-up and narrowing down of prospective customers, occur.
In the disadvantages listed here, many reasons why exhibiting companies are not able to conduct exhibition marketing effectively can be seen. If you are going to conduct exhibition marketing, you need to work with a clear purpose. From here, I will summarize and introduce the points to keep in mind for exhibition marketing below.
If the goal becomes collecting many business cards, it may not lead to results.
Since the goal is to connect to business negotiations and increase new customers, set a goal of collecting business cards that have the potential to lead to business negotiations (= acquiring valid leads), rather than collecting just anyone's business card.
The acquired business cards are ranked, prioritized, and followed up by digitizing each.
For example, classifying decision-makers with needs as S-rank, decision-makers without needs as A-rank, persons in charge without needs but decision-making power as B-rank, and business cards that cannot be called other prospective customers as C-rank, etc.
When the budget is limited, we will plan by focusing on prospective customers who are highly likely to become a case for novelty distribution and questionnaires. After the exhibition, we will decide who is in charge for high-rank prospective customers and follow up.
Although exhibiting at an exhibition costs money, it is an important marketing measure that creates business opportunities that exceed it. To lead to success, it is indispensable to set clear goals from the preparation stage and build a strategic marketing plan rather than just exhibiting.
Points to value for exhibition preparation are also introduced in our "Basics of Exhibition Participation" manual, which helps even first-time exhibitors succeed!, but in particular, "booth design that maximizes encounters with prospective customers" is also a major key to success. To create an effective exhibition booth, it is important to consider the following elements.
✔Booth design that conveys the brand and service at a glance
✔Experience design that catches visitors' interest and remains in their memory
For these points, I am explaining hint information in the manual as well, so please take a look.
▶ A manual on the fundamentals of exhibiting at trade shows to ensure your event is a success.
BEEATS, with its extensive experience in supporting exhibitions, will introduce eight essential preparations you should keep in mind!
Successful first-time exhibitors! A manual for the basics of exhibiting at trade shows. Please check it out!
◆◆◆How to make an exhibition booth that leads to results?◆◆◆
However, it is not easy for companies or people in charge with little experience in trade shows to design a booth that can produce results immediately. It is difficult to consider from scratch contents such as "What kind of design is optimal?" or "How can we attract attendees?", and professional know-how is required.
So, why not consider the option of consulting a trade show professional?
At BEEATS, we deeply understand the strengths of companies and products and propose the optimal booth design. Furthermore, we provide one-stop support from construction, personnel arrangement, video production, pamphlets, to novelties.
If you are thinking, "Isn't it expensive and slow to commission an advertising production company?", please rest assured. BEEATS utilizes its diverse experience and unique network to realize high-quality and reasonable trade show booths.
Companies having trouble with trade show booth planning and design, please consult BEEATS!
Q1. What is Exhibition Marketing?
A1. Exhibition marketing is a marketing technique where you exhibit at exhibitions along specific industries or themes and directly approach prospective customers seeking new products or services. Through business card exchanges, questionnaires, seminars, etc., you can efficiently acquire new customers and connect them to business negotiations.
Q2. What are the benefits of exhibiting at an exhibition?
A2. There are 4 main benefits: meeting many prospective customers directly in a short period, approaching targets interested in specific problem-solving, leading to strengthening relationships with existing customers, and obtaining high advertising and promotion effects by exhibiting itself.
Q3. Are there any disadvantages or precautions in exhibition marketing?
A3. Disadvantages include the high costs for exhibition fees, setup, and personnel expenses, as well as the fact that preparation requires effort and can easily hinder normal business operations. Also, since results are hard to come by just by exhibiting, prior goal setting and careful follow-up after the event are essential.
Q4. What are the points for succeeding in Exhibition Marketing?
A4. The point of success is to acquire effective leads that lead to business negotiations without aiming only at the number of business cards acquired. It is important to rank the acquired business cards by needs and presence of decision-making power to set priorities, and to focus on prospective customers with a high possibility of becoming a case to perform follow-up.
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