Attending a trade show is always a great opportunity to generate relationships and business, even more so in the current context, where the covid-19 has caused many of the opportunities to reach our customers and target audience to be lost. Now that these types of events are taking off again, make sure you make a difference with a stand that shows the full potential of your company.
Participating in a trade show involves an investment in money, time and effort, so it is always important to maximize results.
The main advantage of a trade show like Mindtech is that it brings together in the same space all the relevant stakeholders for your company, such as potential buyers, suppliers and related institutions eager to do business. An industrial fair is a highly professionalized space, where you make sure that the public visiting your booth fits your target profile, while showing all your muscle in front of potential competitors.
Therefore, making a good planning of your participation in the fair can help you attract the largest number of buyers to your booth. Here are 9 keys to succeed with your booth at Mindtech 2021!
1. Design a strategy
Although an essential part of the fairs is the spontaneity component, the more you plan and prepare your participation, the more benefit you will get. Study the exhibitor directory and identify with whom you want to establish a business relationship. Also, remember that your booth is not prepared overnight, whether you opt for a modular design or a designer booth, make sure that the colors, vinyls, slogans and promotional materials themselves send the message and the image you want to convey.
2. Inform everyone that you are attending the show
Take advantage of all your channels to announce your participation in the fair and make sure that the customers you want to impact visit you at your booth. Don’t wait until the actual trade show days to do this, you have many options to maximize your presence:
- Send email invitations to all your contacts and potential customers. Mindtech offers you in this sense a personalized service from your exhibitor area, where you can even keep track of who signs up through your invitation.
- Make the most of social media: share on all your networks that you will be exhibiting at the show and in which number of booths and make sure to share daily updates during the show days. You can post photos of the set-up, of meetings, small videos from the booth… You have endless possibilities before you. And don’t forget the trade show hashtag to make sure you are seen! #Mindtech21
- Take advantage of the impact of the trade fair: trade fairs generate great interest, do not miss any interview request you may receive from the trade fair itself or from general or specialized media.
3. Define a speech and a presentation
It is essential to be clear about the added value of what you are going to sell, how to capture the attention of the interlocutor and convey your advantages over your competition. The what is as important as the how.
Prepare your commercial speech but also take into account what information you are going to transmit through the signage, promotional brochures or possible videos that you are going to project. All messages must be aligned and convey your added value and commercial slogan quickly and easily.
4. Design an inviting booth
When attendees pass by your booth, it should invite them to enter and arouse their curiosity to learn more. That is why it is necessary to plan and make the most of the exhibition space.
The first thing to be clear about is that attendees are attracted to visually attractive booths, so don’t be afraid to take risks with colors, distribution and exhibition materials. If you can bring a machine or product, it will always attract more impact than a stand without any additional attraction. The message you want to convey must be clear and visible everywhere.
Remember that less is more: one of the most common mistakes is to overload the space, preventing visitors and staff from having enough space to interact comfortably. You want people to stop at your booth and stay, possibly even sit with you in a meeting at your tables, so make sure the space invites them in.
5. Build relationships
Of course you know this, but it needs to be emphasized. One of the most interesting aspects of a trade show is the opportunity to talk and build relationships.
So meet and talk to everyone and everywhere. Contact visitors, other exhibitors, the event organizers. You never know where and when a business opportunity will appear.
Mindtech also includes a B2B tool – don’t miss it! At least one week before the fair, check the list of exhibitors, buyers and companies that are registered in the B2B meetings and use the Mindtech tool from your exhibitor area to request meetings with all those companies that interest you. These meetings can be a big part of the success of your participation in the fair!
6. Give away promotional products and keep your booth active
One option to consider is to offer promotional products and gifts with your brand. In this case, the most important thing is that you choose something relevant to your company and useful for the consumer.
The most common and most durable are: pens, reusable bags, folders, notepads, mugs, reusable water bottles or a USB.
Another important issue is to keep your booth active and moving. To do this you can organize a product demonstration or a short presentation and announce it on your company profile at the fair. Remember that all the events and activities that you register in your booth during Mindtech 2021 will be visible to visitors in the official APP of the fair.
7. Post-show contact
Once the fair is over, it is crucial to get back in touch with potential customers that have arisen.
An interesting option is to thank them for attending the event through an email and make yourself available for more information or to arrange a meeting.
In this case, it is advisable to leave one or two days to make further contact. In this way, your email will not get mixed up among all the emails that have accumulated during the days of the fair.
8. Evaluate the objectives achieved
It is important that, during the course of the fair, you keep track of the fulfillment of the pre-established objectives and the opportunities that arise.
This will facilitate the final evaluation of the participation in the event and the detection of opportunities for improvement for the next edition.
Conclusions
To be successful at a trade and industrial fair, prior planning is necessary.
These are some tips that Mindtech, Metal Industry and Technologies International Trade Fair 2021 wanted to offer to the companies that will participate, from September 14 to 16 at the Instituto Ferial de Vigo, and that will have the opportunity to give the best of themselves in the benchmark industrial fair in the Iberian Pole.