As we start a new year, there’s a very good chance you’re doing what most other businesses are doing and reviewing your current marketing and advertising strategies, working on a way to take your business to the next level through a number of strategic moves over the next 12 months. No director should ever be content with the current level of their business and areas for improvement and growth should always be identified; if only to set a challenge and a range of goals for the team to work towards over the coming year. One of the likely approaches you’ll perhaps be considering in 2015 will be exhibiting at trade shows, however this is still an area which is often debated as to whether costs are justified and, as such, we’ve teamed up with Zoom Display to bring you three great reasons to exhibit!
1. Connect With Potential Customers
Exhibiting at a trade show allows you to get up close and personal with your target market and really connect with potential customers for your business. Regardless of whether you’re selling products or offering a service, it’s a fantastic way to add that personal connection into your sales funnel and, as such, a marketing approach which simply cannot be rivaled in many respects. Absolutely nothing beats having the opportunity to speak face to face with those who have the potential to become clients and customers, giving you the chance to really showcase your product and industry knowledge and first hand outline why you and your business are leaders within your niche. Personal connections account for a lot and to us, this is by far the leading benefit of trade show exhibiting.
2. Increased Brand Awareness
Whilst in many instances, you could well be one of hundreds of different businesses exhibiting at a trade show, especially a more generic business show such as ‘The British Business Show,’ one thing you’ll undoubtedly benefit from is increased brand awareness and exposre. So long as you take the time and put in the effort to create an exhibition stand which is visually fantastic and helps to portray your business as a standout company, you can be sure that people will pay attention. Of course, getting your stand right is half the battle, however and as such, it always pays to work with a specialist exhibition stand design agency to ensure you get it just right. In addition to a great stand, considering standout additions such as inflatables from the likes of Bloon can go even further to helping you stand out from the crowd!
3. Build A Marketing List
Regardless of whether or not you make direct sales and customer acquisitions at the trade shows itself, such events provide a fantastic platform for building a marketing list for future use! Data is of unquestionable value to businesses and, as such, if nothing else, you need to see such events as the chance to capture data in the form of email addresses, phone number and postal addresses. Of course, how you later use this data will be largely dependent upon your industry however you simply cannot exhibit at a trade show without capturing. A number of options to do so include running competitions or having ‘opt in’ giveaways, however a brainstorm with your marketing department is likely to come up with innovative ways of doing this.
All in all, exhibitions are still very much a valuable marketing approach for the majority of businesses in 2015, you simply need to be selective as to which shows you attend and make sure that, once there, the opportunity is relished and taken advantage of to the best of your ability!
