How To Stand Out At An Event (For ALL The Right Reasons)
When it comes to promoting your business, a very powerful opportunity can be a business stand. Notice the word “can” in that sentence though, because many business women make critical mistakes when it comes to having a stand at an event.
You see it’s not just about what you do on the day – the before and after are important components in making any event work for you and your businesses success.
So here’s a quick top tips guide to having a stand and getting the most out of that opportunity;
Tell everyone you know beforehand that you are going to be at that event.
Firstly this gives people a chance to learn more about your business without feeling pressurised. They can learn about what you offer in a nonchalant fashion which can be very useful for people who are new to what you offer. This is great for potential customers and to business owners who you network with who want to be in a position to promote and refer you. It also allows you to promote yourself in a different format to your existing leads and customers by telling them what your business has coming up. Offering a special offer, an event only price, or free ??? at the event gives people incentive to pop by and say hi to you.
Make sure at the event your stand is engaging in more than one way. Businesses assume that being there with their products is enough to ensure people will be attracted to you. It’s not!
You need to have something visual that instantly attracts people’s attention. Say for instance an event last 5 hours and you want to have the opportunity to talk in depth and explain more about what your company offers to people, and that will take 15 minutes per person. That means you can see 20 people effectively on your own. What will you do to ensure the rest of the world passing by stays of their own accord?
Your business signage needs to be easily read – in the time it takes to walk past your stand – ie 3 seconds.
You need to ensure your business cards are easily spotted – people have every intention of “Popping” back, but a busy event means they can easily get distracted – what do you do to ensure they DO come back?
Remember everyone will have signage, freebies and highly likely many will have a bowl of sweets and / or the requisite bottle of bubbly raffle – so what do you do to stand out?
Don’t hide behind your stand. I know its tough to stand all day, but sitting is not ideal either. You need to look smiley, happy to be there and loving it for every person that walks by. Where are you likely to g? To the stand with the smiley face or the one with the person on their phone sat down? The stand can act as a physical barrier so be aware of where you chose to stand.
What about asking people for their social media links, so that you can give them a shout out while you are at the event? How great would it be if you were promoting people and their businesses while at the event. How nice does that make you look?
The most important point about this day for you is that you gain as many contacts and potential quality leads as possible. And that is why the free raffle is so popular. But how can you do this with a twist?
Remember the most important part for you of any event is to be remembered for all the right reasons because the vital work comes AFTER the event and that is in the follow up. So what do you do to be remembered so that when you contact potential leads they are raring to go and can’t wait to hear from you?
Its critically important that you get in touch within 48 hours, because after that people are losing the “Wow it was great meeting that business” feeling. So your actions after need to be calculated and planned. What do you intend to do. And please tell me its not sign people up to your newsletter without their permission. A)its against the law B)Its disrespectful of peoples busy lives and C)Its gets you known for all the wrong reasons. What can you do to ensure people want to hear more from you? The answer is be engaging, interesting and useful.
Remember you can’t dictate when someone buys, but you can have a say in who they chose to buy from. So what actions are going to be in your follow up procedure to ensure that you are on peoples radar long after the event. Knowing this in advance means the day will be more effective and your follow up process will work too!
Whether you spoke to 50 or 500 people, after the event is where you need to shine – Every time.
How will you communicate with your contacts after?
What will you say?
What will you offer?
If you have free advice and reports available, now is a good time to make potential leads aware of them. The thing about effective marketing is that many different formats will drip, drip, drip snippets of your business fabulousness to them all of the time, making them feel like you already work for them. So it can feel like a natural progression in to working together. What will you do to ensure people want to interact with you?
How will you choose to interact with these potential leads after the event?
In knowing this information BEFORE an event you can ensure that DURING the event you are getting what you need to ensure effective follow up AFTER.
And effective follow up leads to more customers – which was the reason you had the stand in the first place.
I know its a cliché (I still love the saying though!) but think outside of the box An exhibition is your chance to get remembered and known and spread the word on all you can offer. Having a clear course of action and a goal will ensure that you come away from the event with leads, sales and contacts so that your business truly benefits from the event.
And on that note I look forward to seeing many of you at the Chelmsford Business Showcase where I and the Business Womans Network will have a stand and will have lots of business women promoting their businesses on our stand too. See I just love spreading the business love!
To learn more get in touch with me and if you are struggling with getting creative on how to make exhibitions work for you, just shout. I’m here for your success.
07989 935556
mandie@mandieholgate.co.uk
It will be great to be promoting your business too!
Whether you spoke to 50 or 500 people, after the event is where you need to shine – Every time.
How will you communicate with your contacts after?
What will you say?
What will you offer?
If you have free advice and reports available, now is a good time to make potential leads aware of them. The thing about effective marketing is that many different formats will drip, drip, drip snippets of your business fabulousness to them all of the time, making them feel like you already work for them. So it can feel like a natural transgression in to working together. What will you do to ensure people want to interact with you?
How will you choose to interact with these potential leads after the event?
In knowing this information BEFORE an event you can ensure that DURING the event you are getting what you need to ensure effective follow up AFTER.
And effective follow up leads to more customers – which was the reason you had the stand in the first place.