Smash Your Expo ROI – Week 5

Have you ever noticed when attending expos that certain stands seem to be perpetually busy? There are various ways to make sure your stand is optimised to attract people in.

 

Create an attractive stand  This may seem obvious but is imperative.

• Create visual impact with well-designed banners or backdrops (our pitches are 2m x 2m so please make sure what you bring fits in the pitch)
• Make sure your literature is eye-catching and displayed attractively, perhaps fanned out or in special dispensers
• Create height and interest with tiered displays, leaflet dispensers (as above) and coloured tablecloths – you may need multiple tablecloths to achieve this, use shoe boxes or anything to get height
• Have a beautifully presented show prize and promo items (see more below) – using corporate colours is a brilliant plan.
• Have a display screen showing your product, services or promo video – if you’ve ordered a power socket that is – you could always bring a laptop if not
• It’s worth mocking up your stand ahead of time to make sure it looks the part
• FYI tables we supply are 1.2m x 0.6m – if you don’t need a table as part of your stand and haven’t let us know please let us know asap, thank you

 

Have a fabulously presented show prize.

• Nothing attracts the roving expo attendee quite like a shrink-wrapped hamper of delights that they might win, especially if it’s elevated somehow so they can see it over the throngs
• Using corporate colours (if they’re colourful – if not use loads of colourful ones) makes the prizes match your livery and can look very smart

 

Have some kind of edible treat to attract hungry, sweet-toothed or sugar-depleted attendees. 

Particularly popular are cupcake muffiny type things, sometimes with company logos on the top. There’s nothing quite like someone wandering around munching your logo – it’s like pollen to bees as attendees start to look round and see where they can find such treats. Shiny chocolates in a large bowl such as Quality Street etc work quite well too as they’re visually impactful as well as sugary, you’ll find people popping back later for another couple.

 

Promotional items aka Merch

You’ll have already got your wonderful Merch ordered after reading our SYER Week 3. Visitors are like magpies, drawn to shiny silvery things and everyone loves free pens! If you’ve not already secured some merch take a look at the weird wonderful and quirky business gifts that don’t harm the planet from BusinessGiftUK.com

 

Engaging thing – could form part of your competition

• We covered competitions earlier in SYER too – you could have a bleepy wire thing, a Mario Kart game, anything interactive and competitive, a kids game will do, especially if you create a leaderboard
• People are generally competitive and will love to get involved, there’s FOMO (fear of missing out) so others will come just to have a look, and people who do well will keep coming back
• Having a selfie cutout where people have to tweet in it / with your fluffy mascot etc using your social media handle is great PR for you, pretty much anything engaging is good!

NB! If your business happens to have a lifesize mascot have them there on the day engaging visitors. They’re great draws to stands, are mobile so can wander and hand out leaflets – or hugs – and make super promo photo fodder.

Now, obviously, your first goal will be to talk to people who may become clients. But don’t discount folks, you don’t know who people know, and where a conversation with someone might take you. Keep an open mind, a welcoming stand and a smile on your face and the expo is your oyster!