3 seconds to pull your prospects in your exhibit.

When it comes to an exhibition or trade show, it is crucial that you engage with customers as much as possible.

The goal is to create a compelling, impactful experience for your visitors to pulls them from the aisle into your space. You then need to engage and captivate your prospects with experiences that prompt conversations with quality leads that turn into your next big wins. Lastly, whilst the experience needs to be compelling for the users, they also need to resonate with them long after they have left the booth.

Basically, although your booth’s design and activities will draw your prospects in, it’s up to you to keep them there, as well as ensuring that they remember you after the exhibition is over.

In a world of short attention spans and lack of information retention engagement is the key to your success. If you don’t captivate your prospects, someone else will.

Engagement will enable you to:

-      Attract the right people to your exhibit.

-      Design environments which generate productive conversations with prospects.

-      Use innovative tech to elevate your brand.

Before starting any engagement strategy plans, exhibitors ought to focus on what they are trying to accomplish along with the visitor’s experience.

-      Raise Brand awareness

-      Launch new products

-      Generate leads

-      Maintain key client’s relationships

-      Educate prospects and clients

-      Make more connections within the industry    …

Once you have set your goals, the fun starts. How do you translate those intentions into demonstrations and activities that will encourage visitors to enter your exhibit and engage with your brand? Here are a few guidelines to align experiences with your goals:

With your goals in mind, you can create a truly incredible experience even with small budgets but just remember these few tips:

-      Anticipate crowds. Be prepared for big numbers or attendees waiting for their turns will leave frustrated.

-      Get tactile. Use sensory solutions to complement your experiences. Smells, Noise, Winds…

-      Don’t neglect testing. Make sure you constantly test your experience for any kinds of failures or attendees will leave frustrated.

-      Go interactive. Let the users make their own choices as much as possible. It will be less boring for you and feel more real to them.

There are a few ways to effectively reach the passers-by with compelling exhibit engagement, including: - Graphics that Grab - Lead Qualification that Understand them - Product Samples that Move Them.- Learning Experiences to Invest in Themselves.- Gamification for Fun- Brand Activation to Awaken Them - Hands-on Experiences such as AR to Amaze Them and Social Media to Go Viral.

Graphics that Grab.

Have attendees centred graphics as visitors ignore graphics that ignore them. Very often it is not what is said but how it is said which is important. Keep your messages shorts and let your exhibit staff or handouts be your information resources. Make sure that your messages are everywhere to be seen and have a clear CALL FOR ACTION such as Interact with your staff, answer a question or share an experience.

Lead Qualification that Understand Them.

The Ask Method, by marketing expert and author Ryan Levesque, is one methodology commonly used during Trade Shows. It is designed to help you better sell to your prospects and serve your customers. The basis of the Ask Method is simple — ask. By asking your prospects what needs they’re looking to have met, you can figure out exactly how to sell to them.

Product samples that Move Them.

Product sampling is one of the oldest and most effective marketing techniques, it’s when a brand gives customers a free sample of product. When done right, sampling can increase brand awareness and build loyalty. Sampling offers brands several advantages:

-      Customer acquisition doesn’t get any easier than when you’re giving away free stuff.

-      Samples put products directly in the hands of customers for stronger emotional engagement.

Learning experiences to Invest in Themselves.

As Warren Buffet said:

And prospects have understood it.

Branded Games for Fun.

One of the best ways to engage with your prospects is to get them to have some fun with branded games.

Branded games will keep them at your exhibition stand for longer, allowing you to serve them better.

A branded game introduces a competitive element, which will draw in more prospects to your exhibit, give them a positive view of your brand and make them more receptive to your marketing strategies.

Brand Activation to Awaken Them.

Trade shows and industry events provide ample opportunity to activate your brand. Whether you book space for a branded booth on the trade show floor, or host a live seminar or presentation, these events boost brand authority and introduce your brand to new audiences. 

Hands on Experiences such as Augmented Reality to amaze Them.

At an exhibition, you want to encourage your prospects to use their smartphones as much as possible, as this will increase the chances of them using social media to further engage with your brand.

Augmented reality (AR) is a great way to achieve this. AR uses 2D or 3D content based within your exhibit that will come to life with the use of a smartphone.

Your visitors will be amazed at the wonder of the technology in their hands. Using AR also gives you the opportunity to engage with customers once they have left you, ensuring that they remember your brand for all the right reasons.

Social Media to Go Viral.

Social media is by far one of the best ways you can engage with your prospects at a trade Show.

Social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have millions of users all over the world, and these sites can be used to engage with prospects when you are at an exhibition.

Visitors want their friends, families and colleagues to know where they are, who they are with and what they are doing, so make it easy for them! As well as encouraging people to “like”, “share”, or “comment” your posts you can fully engage with them by integrating social media into your exhibit. Tagging your brand, posting a picture of them during an experience are all good for your brand.

By integrating social media into your exhibition stand, you can easily engage with your prospects at your exhibition as well as reaching non-attendees.

You only have 3 seconds to drag a passer-by into your exhibit so make these 3 seconds counts. Use the 3 levels of exhibit engagement to your advantage during your next Trade Show: Attract - Hold - Close.

• Attract your prospects with creativity and graphics which can be spotted from across the show floor.
• Hold your visitors with relevant messages that makes them feel special and understood. Use LCDs with punchy information to capture buyers’ attention.
• Close the transaction with genuine and personal interaction. Use conversation, gamification and tech elements like AR/VR to increase engagement.

So, if you are an exhibitor, are you engaging with all your potential clients? Do you have an exhibit engagement program, and does it include the right, Attract – Hold - Close process? How do you measure the success of your exhibit? Make sure you are positioning your organization’s exhibit program for success!

After thirty years and tons of research, I believe it is so important to ensure that trade exhibitions are understood and used to leverage long terms client’s relations and ultimately business growth.

To know more about Luxury Business Connections please visit our website