19 Sep 2024
Must-know Tips for Exhibitors At Trade Fairs in Singapore
A trade fair is a major event organised to bring together members of a particular industry to exhibit their latest products and services to the public over a few days. You’ve probably been to a few trade shows, both big and small, in various convention centres either in Singapore or another country. Smaller trade fairs may also be held from a local arena or hotel, allowing area businesses to connect with potential customers.
Participating in such an event is a quick way to build your reputation among your target audience, but if only it was as easy as showing up and talking to passers-by. It takes a good deal of planning, preparation, and strategy to put yourself out there amidst a sea of competitors. But, with the right mindset and some helpful tips under your belt, you might have a little more luck than your competitors.
Preparing for the Trade Fair
Half the battle is won with solid preparations and clear goals in mind. Here’s what you ought to know!
Setting your goals
Traditionally, trade fair goals can be divided into three categories: increasing brand awareness, creating new sales leads, and building essential relationships. It’s important to identify which of these goals are the most important so you can take a more focused approach. You can still aim to achieve as many of these goals as possible, but you’re bound to overstretch yourself and find the results to be lacklustre. It’s easy to feel discouraged when you feel like you’ve wasted your time.
It’s also a good idea to have actionable goals that you and your team can work towards. It can be as simple as generating 50 leads each day throughout the trade fair, to selling at least 100 of your products per day. This gives you a measurable form of goal-setting backed by realistic expectations. You can (and should) fine-tune these actionable goals, too: if your first day was an unexpected success, you could increase your goal by a small, workable amount and see how it goes the next day.
Researching the competition
Research is always important as it helps you keep track of important developments in the industry. Equally important, though, is researching your competitors, particularly those that are also attending the trade show. Information is power, after all, and it pays to know in which areas your competitors may be lacking.
The simplest way to do it is to look up their online presence. Leaf through their website, blog articles, and even their social media. This way, you’ll know how they create their content and how they engage and keep in touch with their customer base. You might also pick up on what they may be looking for while boothing at the trade show. All of this can be very helpful in fine-tuning your strategy – especially when your competitors are probably doing their homework about you, too!
Why not collaborate?
The more interesting alternative is to reach out to your competition and let them know you want to connect. “But why?” you’re probably asking us right now. It’s fairly simple: working together, you can complement each other’s business strategy and goals to achieve. If there may be something you offer that your competitor doesn’t, your competitor can refer their customers over to you. Conversely, you can direct your customers to them if they sell something you don’t have.
It’s a nice win-win scenario for both parties, but it does feel somewhat idealistic. Regardless, it’s a strategy that’s still worth considering as long as you can iron out the details with your competitor.
Designing an attractive booth and promotional materials
There are plenty of ways to market yourself, so why not make your booth fun and engaging for visitors? It’s a good way to help your brand stand out from the rest. You can also create colourful, attractive branding materials to complement your booth or handed out to passers-by. If at all possible, consider adding cut-out coupons that offer attractive promotions that interested buyers might not pass up on.
You can even get creative by adding some simple game booths where visitors have a chance to win small prizes or set up an Instagram-worthy photo booth.
Engaging with Visitors
Once your booth is ready, you’ll need to work smart to attract visitors throughout each day of the trade fair. Word of mouth is powerful: the more people see your booth on social media, the more likely they’ll want to find out what’s on offer.
Being knowledgeable and approachable
Greet people when they come into your booth and make sure you use positive body language (don’t forget to smile, too!). For the latter, a simple example is to not cross your arms over your chest – it does give the impression of arrogance or displeasure. As you talk to them, try not to convince them to buy your products right away; conventional hard-sell methods don’t work as well as they used to these days. Instead, ask questions and find out about what they might be looking for.
The trick here is to engage them without intimidating or overwhelming them. If you know the right product for them, talk to them about it – again, be mindful not to force them into buying it. Let them ask you questions about the product; if it’s possible, demonstrate the product to them so they can see it for themselves. Let them give it a try, too: even something as simple as that can help to convince a customer to buy your product.
Offering interactive experiences and demonstrations
Going on that last point, interactive experiences and demonstrations tend to garner a lot of interest quickly, especially if it’s a brand-new product. Integrating the latest technology or trends, like LED touch screens or even virtual reality, is a great way to do this. Use these as talking points for interested parties and invite them into the booth for further value-added conversations.
Make sure you tailor the use of these interactive experiences to your branding principles and marketing approach. Ideally, it will help lead them to how you provide a product or service that they would want or need.
Collecting visitor information
Having a solid lead capture strategy is also beneficial in the long term. Whoever may be visiting your booth, you can take a moment of your visitors’ time to fill out a lead collection form (as long as they’re willing, of course). They don’t have to be customers who are buying; interested would-be buyers can help you market your brand when they leave the trade fair.
Whatever your lead capture strategy is, make sure your staff know how to capture lead information for every visitor who’s willing to fill out the form. Your lead management systems also need to be aligned to accurately capture attendee information before they’re sent to your sales team.
Maximising ROI
Measuring success with metrics and analytics
Trade fairs can be incredibly effective for B2B companies to connect with their target audience, generate leads, and establish their branding with the public. But they’re still a sizeable investment, sometimes being the largest expense on your budget sheet. It’s always a good idea to be able to measure your marketing success and see if you’ve met your goals.
When presenting the results of your trade fair boothing, provide a summary that highlights the most important details first: things like your lead captures and new customers. Make sure to include simplified charts and graphics that illustrate the outcomes of the trade fair. You can also add visual aids to better communicate your message to management.
Following up with leads and building relationships
Your sales team should promptly start following up on the contacts and leads you’ve made during the trade fair; in most cases, the follow-up should be done within 24 hours after you’ve interacted with the lead. This isn’t a matter of “chasing” that sale, but to make sure the lead remembers interacting with you and may still be agreeable to talk. Even if they still don’t buy after the follow-up, they may be more likely to remember your brand and (in)directly promote your brand to others.
It also can be a good opportunity to solidify your relationship with them, even with those who’ve bought from you. Loyal customers can do plenty of good for your business down the line!
Post-fair evaluation
After the trade fair, spend some time with your team to evaluate your successes. Analyse the leads you’ve gained and evaluate how well your social media engagement has been doing. You can compare them to your overall costs throughout the fair and see how you’ve fared. It’s also a good time for everyone to share what they’ve learned from the event and where you can make improvements for a more successful trade fair visit in the future. There’s always a lesson everyone can benefit from to help the company grow!
Looking to make your mark at trade fairs?
Trade shows are a great way to market yourselves to a wider audience who might not know who you are. With a well-thought-out strategy in place, you can maximise the time spent at these events.
Aspen Event Planner can help you brainstorm a comprehensive trade fair strategy, ranging from your booth setup to the use of technology and revamping your marketing materials. We can breathe plenty of life into your boothing plan while you focus on marketing yourself to potential clients. Contact us today and let us help you build your trade fair presence!
