Take a Walk to Benefit your Trade Show Marketing
Even if the major reason you attend a trade exhibition is to work the display for your company, you can learn a lot simply by roaming around the exhibition in your spare hours. Not only will you get a break from being front and centre in your booth, you will also gain valuable information that will be of benefit to your exhibition marketing efforts in the future.
Use your Time as an Attendee Wisely
On average, an attendee might spend seven or so hours walking the floor. You will have to organise your time well to see the exhibition if you have also to work in your company display space. Take the time to go through the exhibition directory so that you can plan which booths you want to visit in advance. If there are competitors at your show, visit their display to see what they are doing and take some mental notes to help you compare their exhibition presence to your own.
What’s Your Trade Show Strategy
To make the best use of your time on the floor, plan an exhibition strategy for visiting other displays that allows you to see their marketing approach, as well as find out about what is on offer. Here are some of the things you should look our for:
?What do the other booths look like? Have any exhibitors done something out of the box? What display styles are prevalent on the floor?
?Take note of the giveaways promoted in different company's exhibition spaces. Do exhibition workers give them to everyone or only those who stop and provide information?
?What visitor attraction techniques are other exhibition displays using? Contests? Videos? Games?
?Are they offering scheduled demonstrations or presentations within their space?
?What kind of product information do they offer? Are they using brochures or flyers? Will they send more information if you request it? Or are they embracing the digital age with QR codes?
?Does the location of the stand seem to have an impact on traffic?
?Do the exhibition stand workers engage you when you stop? What methods are they using to collect leads?
Use Walking the Floor as an Opportunity to Network
As you walk around the showroom floor, your observations will offer you insight into exhibition marketing trends, and inspire you with measuring tools you can use to assess your own display space and presentation. Interact with other exhibitor and don’t be afraid to give them your business card and as for theirs. Talk to them as a regular visitor might and ask about their products or services. If there is a small amount of traffic at the time, exchange some small talk about the show, quantity of traffic, lead quality and how often they change their display. While this approach may slow you down a bit, you may pick up valuable insight if you slow down enough to walk around an exhibition, rather than past every stand on the floor.