• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

lawsie

The long-term storage silo of a human mind

  • Andrew Culture
  • Beat Motel Podcast
  • Observations
  • Consumer Info
  • Tech
  • Music Consumption
  • Musician Stuff
  • Graveyard
  • Buy me a pint
Home » blog » Exhibition stand 101 – how to market yourself effectively at trade fairs and exhibitions.

Exhibition stand 101 – how to market yourself effectively at trade fairs and exhibitions.

Published January 11, 2011 by lawsie 8 Comments

So you’ve just booked your first ever stand at an industry exhibition have you?  Well here’s a few things that it’s worth you knowing….

Mark your territory!

The most important thing to do first is to claim the small amount of space you have on your stand and brand as much of it as possible.  Roller banners are great for displaying graphics and you’ll only need a couple for a small exhibition stand.  This company in Ipswich makes great banners for all budgets – Hagley & Laws Exhibition Services…

A standing/ leaning table is also useful as focal point for talking to people, although it’s not essential.  When delegates walk past your stand you only have a few seconds (or even just a sideways glance) to attract their attention and draw them in, and if you have no focal point near the front of your stand you risk scaring people away, nobody likes to intrude!

I’d recommend displaying the five reasons folk should use you on one of your stands, and a flashy logo graphic with clearly visible web address on the other.  It’s NOT a good idea to print product photos on roller banners though, it’s far more impressive to have a huge glass bowl (or something) of samples that folk can take away with them.  It’s best to use samples branded with your own logo, but other samples can be used as long as you tape them to your business card at the time you give them to people. Delegates at these events carry around bags crammed full of free crap that they won’t look at until they get home, so a business card and a sample becoming separated from each other is no good to them or you.

We will be a very small fish in a very large pond at your first event so it’s important to capitalise on things that don’t cost anything, like being dressed incredibly smartly, being ultra calm and genial, and above all be collected and professional.

What are your goals?

There are two goals you need to try and reach with as many people as possible:

  1. Make a memorable impression
  2. Get a card and/ or sample into the delegates bag

I’d recommend printing up some double sided business cards specially for this event, print the standard contact details on one side of the card, and the same bullet points that you have on your banner on the other side.  Your job is to create a joined up full frontal charm attack, based on what you have decided are the strongest selling points of your company before the event.

The absolute best advice I can possibly give when manning an exhibition stand is to HAVE FUN, personality is a stronger seller than any amount of flashy graphics or expensive give-aways.

For more advice try a dedicated company like Hagley & Laws Exhibition Services…

Last Updated on February 19, 2023

Filed Under: Consumer Info Tagged With: banners, exhibition stands, marketing

Have you found this content useful?

Buy me a pint

This website isn't packed with obnoxious advertising but it does cost money to keep alive. Every little donation is a big help!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Unknown says

    March 11, 2011 at 9:35 am

    It's better to give away small gifts with logo printed on them to genuinely interested visitors. People remember your company as long as they use the product. But the flashy colours of banner standsare forgotten soon.

    Reply
  2. Selling the Wind! says

    July 12, 2011 at 9:24 am

    There's a really good Infographic on banner stands here that I thought was pretty good. Although I also agree with Sim; small gifts that a visitor will find useful always help. Like a pen, you can never go wrong with a free pen.

    Reply
  3. Anonymous says

    September 21, 2011 at 2:22 pm

    If you use clever exhibition stand designers then they will work with you throughout the design process to ensure your exhibition stand meets its intended goals.

    Reply
  4. exhibition stand contractor uae says

    July 3, 2012 at 2:02 pm

    It's great to see fresh, creative ideas that have never been done, before. Thanks, for sharing with us keep posting.:)

    Reply
  5. Leena says

    January 20, 2013 at 10:51 am

    Another great idea to divert traffic to your stand is to have a crowd puller maybe like a live show, performing artists etc., Freebies definitely attract visitors and having an exhibition stand takeaway helps to improve target audience recall of the brand name.

    Reply
  6. Unknown says

    March 28, 2013 at 11:58 am

    I really love this particular web site a lot. It is pretty informative and very well done.I respect your writing abilities and appreciate your unique views.I will post a link to this site on my blog. I am sure my visitors will find that very useful.
    Exhibition Stand Contractors

    Reply
  7. exhibition stands says

    September 6, 2013 at 4:14 pm

    Really very helpful words you have shared to attract more visitors on your stall .. Thanks for this useful post.

    Reply
  8. Unknown says

    November 18, 2013 at 1:14 pm

    That second to last line pretty much summed up the point of having a presence at exhibitions personally. Take a look at our http://www.enviz.co.uk/blog/ see what you think. I'll also post a link to this on my own personal blog. Cheers

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Footer

Copyright © 2023 · Site wholly owned by Andrew Laws Associates Ltd | SEO by Yeseo

  • Home
  • About me
  • Andrew Culture
  • Buy me a pint
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact me