Exhibitors are always looking at ways they can try to get better return on their investment before an events doors even open.
At the innagural FaceTime Masterclass that I spoke at, one of the areas that we covered was engagement pre show.
As an exhibitor, can you realistically expect to turn up at the event, set up your stand and meet the people you are hoping come through the doors? A lot of you may say yes and let the show team do the work for you. Works in some cases – but very few!
You’re probably already spending quite a few thousand on your stand, products, personnel and material that you want at the event – so why not put a little bit more effort into creating leads before the doors even open?
57% of sales have already taken place before you will hear from your potential customers.
So, if you’re already interacting with them pre-show, finding out more about what they’re interested in and in turn having the right information on the stand to show them, you’ve already done the hard work – now you just have to close the deal!
How do you find out who is attending and what they’re interested in?
A lot of organisers offer tools, such as N200’s Partner Portal, which enables you to have a central portal to create personalised links to the show registration form. You may think great, I’m getting more visitors to the show – but how does it affect me?
The clever software out there will actually show you who has then registered through your link so that you can start to communicate with them before the show starts. You can start to ask what they’re interested in (if not captured on the form) book meetings onsite and ensure you have the right products or that the right colleague is there to meet them when they arrive, offering your prospects and existing customers a more tailored experience.
Don’t limit this to just your existing clients either. More often than not, you’re hoping to meet new or past customers on the stand, so wouldn’t it be better if you knew who was attending?
When you have your personalised links, make sure you add them to your email signatures, tweets or LinkedIn posts. A number of exhibitors have recently started there own adword campaigns to be able to capture more data – and in turn, have a much better show!
We caught up with Electronic Theatre Controls, who attended the Masterclass and who wanted to see how they could further enhance their exhibiting experience. You can see the full case study here
If you’re interested in how we can help you to create more engagement – drop me a message on here!