Succeed at events

Set your goal

Goals direct the planning of participation in an event, as well as implementation and results evaluation. The goal may be qualitative, quantitative or functional in nature – the main thing is that it can be measured and naturally realistic. Your goal could be for instance:

• Sales
• Nurturing customer relationships
• Gaining contacts and compiling a customer register
• Publicity
• Building a corporate image
• Launch of a new product or service
• Recruitment
• Testing a new product
• Research or survey
• Finding new dealers

Plan with care

Successful participation in an event begins with good preparation. What are your goals and available resources? Base your planning on marketing goals, and set your measures of success on that basis.

• Set a clear, concrete goal and weigh up different participation solutions
• Clarify the messages for your target groups 
• How can you ensure active presence at the event? Consider some form of supplementary programme, data collection etc.
• Take care that communications and marketing are comprehensive
• Put effort into selecting and training event personnel
• Define your success indicators
• Make use of the services offered by the event organiser
• Put importance on after-sales service

Activities provide an attraction

Activities that support your event goals make your stand more appealing and assist in reaching the objectives set. Offer experiences and create thrills – this is the way to generate both a positive buzz as well as sales.

Well-judged on-stand activities serve to attract event-goers to your location, generate interaction, transmit a clear message and provide a convincing demonstration of your product or service’s advantages.

When details of your programme are provided via the eShop, we publish them on the event’s website. Make use of your company’s own channels, too, when marketing the programme!

Ideas for planning a programme: launches, interviews, appearances by influencers, competitions and prize draws, demonstrations, info spots and seminars, tastings and product testing, photo walls and other participatory activities.

Invite customers to your stand

Marketing the event is the task of the event organiser, while participating companies take care of marketing their own stand.

In addition, to informing people as part of normal marketing that your company is taking part in a particular event, it also pays to invite customers to your stand.

You can order tickets from Expomark for distribution to customers or give away tickets as prizes in social media competitions. Invitations to trade fairs can also be extended using e-invitation. You can also send a newsletter to your customer register that promises readers some form of reward if they visit your stand.

Market your stand

Utilizing the event logo and banners in your marketing efforts is an excellent way of reminding customers about an upcoming event and encouraging them to make a rendezvous with precisely your company during the event itself.

Event logos and banners are freely available. The material in use can be found from the media bank whch is accessible from the eShop and the event’s own web pages.

The logos and banners can be used, for instance, on your website, in online newsletters, adverts and customer magazines. In electronic media it pays to link the logo or banner either to the event’s web page or your own exhibitor web page.

Use social media

Make the event your own on social media as well!

• Build a path towards the event by announcing your participation and what will be happening on your stand.
• Invite people to the event and to your stand.
• Follow us on social media and tag the event in your posts! Together we can reach a wider audience.

Reach the media

Make use of the publicity the event attracts! Journalists attend events in order to sniff out industry trends as well as new products and services. Carefully conducted communications can significantly boost the results obtained from participating in an event.

• Publish your own media release to the event’s newsroom via the eShop. Let the event’s press officer know about anything of particular interest related to your company or stand.
• Send a media release to journalists working for trade journals and other media.
• Invite representatives of the media to visit your stand.

Succeed on your stand

The personnel on your stand need to have courage and a positive event attitude. A handsome setting does not guarantee success if the people manning your stand are unclear about what is expected of them, or how they should conduct themselves while at work. It pays to choose only those people for your stand who genuinely want to be involved in an event.

Tips on manning a stand:

• Give some thought in advance to icebreakers and opening lines. At events the competition for visitors’ time is tough, and for this reason it is a good idea to keep conversations on the stand short and effective.
• Make sure that the personnel on your stand are competent, knowledgeable and motivated.
• Brief your staff on the how the stand should operate and make sure that each is aware of the goals set for the event.
• Create individual goals, get your staff committed to these goals and reward success.

Remember follow-up

Efficient follow-up and after-marketing transform event encounters into business. The way this follow-up is conducted tells a great deal about your company and the way it works.

It pays to plan and resource after-marketing before the event so that in the post-event return to normal things do not get forgotten.

Tips on after-sales:

• Go through your contacts after each day of the event
• Keep all the promises made during the event, because an event contact has a limited shelf life!
• Handle requests for quotation and other correspondence as quickly as possible
• Send a letter or message of thanks to people who visited your stand
• Contact your most important customers right away, thank them for their visit and tell them how things will proceed
• Publish photos and/or video footage of your stand on your website – your stand will live longer
• On the net, let people know the event vibe and takeaways – and thank your visitors one more time.
• Evaluate the results immediately after the event and once again after a more substantial period of time has elapsed, record ideas for development and evaluate visitor feedback obtained.