Making the most of Exhibitions

We’ve just got back from the largest show we’ve ever done – The Baby Show at NEC in Birmingham, and I’m still buzzing! Which also explains why this diary is late – you can write off at least 2 weeks if you’re doing a large exhibition. The week before is just so concentrated on getting ready for it, and the week after is following up and then recovering!

I know I’ve mentioned exhibitions before, and we aren’t experts by any stretch of the imagination, but I think we’re getting a lot right when it comes to making the most of them. And looking around, it’s obvious that some others don’t really maximize the show’s potential. Maybe they have a different reason for being there, but for us the key aim is to get our brand out to as many people as possible, and convert them (either at the show or afterwards) into paying members.

I thought it was worth talking about shows again, just to share our experiences, in case you’re thinking of doing one yourself and haven’t a clue what to expect.

We’ve ‘exhibited’ (I use the term loosely in some cases!) at several different types and sizes of shows. In our market (parenting/consumer) we have:

- the local church hall type of show
- the slightly larger leisure centre/town hall venue which may last from a couple of hours to a whole day
- then you have the major shows which are usually held at exhibition centres and last at least 2 days.

At the smaller shows you generally buy a table space – you’re given a table to exhibit from and sometimes chairs are provided as well! Anything else you need, you have to provide yourself. We’ve always managed to request a table close to a power socket, because we need to plug in the projector and laptop. But of course we’re not going to get a broadband connection, or even use of a telephone line at these venues, so we’ve had to connect to the internet using our mobiles!

Sometimes you can stick posters on the wall, but not often. So if you want to display anything above your table, think about buying the concertina-type boards or use cabinets, rails, moveable shelving etc. But you also have to think about how you’re going to transport all this to the venue! We have the large screen as our main backdrop, showing the website, and we’ve constructed a nifty (& very cheap) way of hanging posters either side of the screen by using a bamboo cane frame.

For these small/medium sized shows, the cost of exhibiting can range from £25 to £250. If it’s the first time the event has run, you take a bit of a chance with their estimates of visitor numbers. Our fingers were burnt a bit last time we did a fairly large show in March, because it was a first time event and just didn’t achieve the numbers of visitors that they were expecting.

When you’re doing deciding whether to exhibit & doing the research for your budget, you need to know whether it’s going to be worthwhile for you, and so visitor numbers are key to that assessment. But you can only take a view at the planning stage about the ability and dedication of the organiser, the amount of promotion work they’ve done, and who the other exhibitors are, in order to attract the visitor numbers they have suggested. Once a show has already been run by that organiser before, and in the same venue, then you’ve a little more certainty that they are going achieve their predictions. But things can always affect that, such as the weather, a large football game, or some other local event that’s competing for the same audience.

I’ve done an enormous amount of research about shows in our market, expected visitor numbers, price of exhibiting etc and I’ve got all sorts of ratios that I now work to. The cost of exhibiting per expected visitor, the likely sales we’ll get on the day (as a % of the visitor numbers), the cost per member etc. As a result of this I’ve turned some shows down flat, because the cost per expected visitor is just ludicrously high.

You’ll see with the larger shows that the cost per visitor is much lower than for the larger shows, even though the actual £s are usually substantially more. But remember, for the very large shows, not all the visitors will pass your stand. At The Baby Show, they had about 25,000 visitors. Over the weekend, we collected over 1,000 email addresses (data collection, I’ll mention more later), and I think that was probably one in 10 people who passed our stand, so we actually only benefited from 10,000 of those visitors.

Most large shows will provide you with an Exhibitors Manual, which contains all the key information you need to know, including ‘Build-up times’, ‘Show Open times’ and ‘Breakdown times’, also contact details of any contractors you need to contact for any furniture, electrical work and telephony/communications etc. In some cases you have to use the contractor they specify (eg for electrical connections, telephony/internet & construction of the stands) but in other cases you can choose who you use (eg furniture suppliers)

You can usually choose a ‘shell stand’ or ‘space’ and you generally pay by square metre. Sometimes they’ll negotiate rates with you, especially if they are trying to sell their last few stands, but sometimes they won’t. The organisers of The Baby Show don’t negotiate for shell stands at all, because they have taken the decision that they don’t want exhibitors finding out they’ve paid different rates when they get to the show, which may also cause problems when they’re trying to persuade you to rebook for the show the following year.

You’ve got to use all the space you’ve got, and ensure your stand show’s what you do very quickly. You can use special show offers to entice the bargain hunters, and samples/giveaways if they’re not going to cost you too much. You also want to consider whether you can also use the show for data collection, by running a competition where you collect customer details. We did this at The Baby Show, having a range of prizes on offer, and approached people passing our stand to enter, just by writing down their name & email address on our pre-printed sheets (on clipboards). We found this much quicker than asking for full address details etc, & visitors appreciated it too because they were generally sick of filling in these details over and over at the show.

The sheet made it obvious that they were signing up for our newsletter, but we were clear that we weren’t going to ‘share’ their email address with 3rd parties, weren’t going to ‘spam’ them and were only going to email them once a month with our newsletter – which they can choose to opt of receiving after they’ve received the first one anyway. It’s interesting how times have changed, because I think only about 10% either didn’t have an email address, or couldn’t remember it. Three years ago that would’ve been much much higher.

I was delighted that we collected 1,100 email addresses. But we certainly worked hard for it! We had a system – a standard thing for all of us to say (short & catchy) and made sure we asked almost everyone who passed our stand. If they said ‘no’, we followed up with a card (we have business card sized handouts), because we reckon very few people will say ‘no’ twice! We raised our voices so people could hear us (over the public address system/music) and walked over to people on the other side of the aisle. There were a minimum of 2 of us most of the time, and sometimes 3.

When someone showed a lot of interest in the website when they were signing up to the competition, then we offered to show them how it worked. And we converted 3 in every 4 of those we showed the site to. However we were never going to make a ‘profit’ at the show just by selling memberships whilst we were there. Many of the visitors were pregnant, and so not actually ready to use our site yet, and most didn’t want to spend the time sitting down with us. So we used our time much better by collecting the email addresses, as we can now use those over the coming months and hopefully convert a lot more of them.

If you have a chance to pick your own stand (usually only at the larger shows) try to aim for a position where there’s going to be lots of traffic:

· On a wide aisle
· Facing ‘inwards’ to the show (rather than with the back of your stand nearer the centre of the room)
· On an aisle where there will be lots of visitors walking eg – near the restaurant, stage, main/popular exhibitor, toilets etc
· On a corner stand if you can afford the extra cost so you get 2 aisles

Personally I don’t think those stands immediately next to the entrance are any better, because most visitors start off by browsing once they first arrive and won’t be in ‘buying mode’ until they’ve settled down a bit. And when they’re leaving, they’re usually so tired they can’t be bothered to spend any more!

But once you are at the show, don’t complain about your position, the lack of visitors passing or admin problems with the organisers. There’s nothing you can do about it once you’re there, but work hard to make the most of the visitors who do pass your stand. I thought that some exhibitors around us just didn’t appear to use their space well. If you have paid for a corner stand (which at the larger shows are usually more expensive), then use your space well – make sure you work both aisles! Don’t just expect people to come up to you to show an interest. They are usually so overwhelmed by the number of stands that you have to make them notice you somehow before they will stop. Besides approaching people for the competition, we had brightly coloured buckets & spades as our ‘giveaways’ for members who joined at the stand stacked up on the table and hung from the ceiling grid (along with a ‘15 months for the price of 12’ offer) – so these often caught people’s eye because many thought they were for sale! We also had a small activity table with colouring sheets & crayons to occupy any children – who’s parents then felt obliged to have a look at our website!

Be happy, laugh and smile all day (very tiring!). Imagine every person you see is the first visitor you’ve seen that day. Because it’s the first time they’ve seen you, and first impressions count for so much. Don’t allow your team to chat amongst themselves, it looks liked they’re bored, not interested in customer service, and very few potential customers will be bothered to interrupt them to enquire – they’re not usually so desperate to buy.

I could go on for ages and I’m sure I’ve not covered everything here. I’ve not even touched on the look/feel of the stand and trying to make it multi-sensory, or the Health & Safety & insurance requirements. But if you were wondering about exhibiting, hopefully you’ve picked up a few ideas here. If you have any comments or questions, drop me a line! kirsty@entertainthekids.com

Kirsty