You only get one chance to establish that first impression which may count for years or long. Trade fairs are one-stop-shops for many, which means, adequate business opportunity for all. However, turning a stall into a lasting business opportunity is not as tough as it seems. Just that one needs to play the right card at the right time.
Here are five essential tips to keep in mind every time you participate in a trade show:
1. Chic and attractive stall is a must
Keeping it simple and attractive is the bang on way to highlight your stall in a beauty trade fair. Use trade fair accessories like custom props, signage or may try unusually vibrant colour in an odd place to lure consumers or generate curiosity among them. Also, you must ensure that the entrance of your stall should not be cluttered, hard to find or too noisy. Make it elegant, spacious and fragrant enough that guests don’t feel skittish about coming in.
2. Tick the Checklist
Carefully prepare a list ‘essentials needed’ in advance for all such events. Your list must include an enquiry-sheet to keep a track over who all visited your stall and further interested in cracking a deal, notepads, pens, sticky tape, power-point adapters and charge points, possibly a first-aid kit for minor emergencies, product literature, point-of-sale material and price lists. Do not forget to keep a huge stack of visiting cards and anything else you might need. As you reach your stall in the fair ground and unzip your products and other essentials out of the bag and start installing them on the stall, mark all the essentials you’ve got and arrange the remaining (if left by chance). It would be far too late to start looking for these once the event has opened and you get busy.
3. Impressive stall attendants
Often at a beauty and wellness trade show, brand owners get engaged in dealing with the product distributors, leaving stalls on the attendants. If the stall attendant is smart enough to engage the consumer or may tackle them well, the consumer won’t mind spending much time on your stall. The right booth staff can also go a long way if your target audience tends to be shy. Often sitting for long or pointless smiling makes the stall attendant bored. Tackle them smartly by sending them on a round to the exhibition hall to bring highlights of competitors or else, ask them to stand at the entrance with an engaging leaflet and direct interested visitors to your stall.
4. Splurge on The Best
Whatever big amount you’ve paid to get that strategic location for your stall, the last option to trim expenses should be on equipments and supplies. Stall appearance directly indicates your product or services. This means, any stained or torn trade show furniture, broken racks, crooked show walls or uneven flooring may end up losing a potential customer. Worst-case scenario, you’ll get negative word-of-mouth publicity which is anyways not good. Instead, if your budget allows, trade show games and giveaway that expressly appeal to the immediate needs of an attendee work well. Branded versions of inexpensive objects like cold bottled water, packets of aspirin or grand prizes in the form of a massage will bring in guests walking the stall and allow you bonus time to extend chat with the consumer.
5. Attention to intention
Trade shows are massive play grounds for traders to showcase their products, services, brands and USP. Consumers’ time is money, which means, if they won’t find something engaging within few seconds, they’ll wander off to your competitor for sure. A trade show displaying a video on a loop or sound turned down to prevent overwhelming conversation is a great way to grab attention.
Conventions, trade fairs or exhibitions are mostly seen as an opportunity to attract new customers. However, the fact of the trade equally lies in the existing players and consumers, apart from new one, that these trade fairs are an outstanding opportunity to make contact with existing customers. Often traders overlook to inform their existing clients about their presence at the fair, leading to loss of word-of-mouth publicity.
Your presence won’t count successful until you get more business than the money you’ve spent on taking that spot-on booth at the trade fair.
