One of my clients will be attending a number of exhibitions related to their sector over the next few weeks. This will involve a significant investment in order to attend. One of the things i'm concerned with is measuring the response to attending such events.
What do you think we should be looking for in order to class the event a success? What information should we be gathering in order to follow up etc?
Any tips on making an exhibition successful
This WILL sound like blatant self-promotion but many of my clients have videos made specifically for exhibition use. These can be very useful both as a draw to the stand and a means of 'anchoring' people for a few moments while the exhibitor is dealing with other matters.
Some clients use a series of short case studies punctuated by little 'commercials' and actually hand out copies of the programme along with printed material etc; good for building 'worth' into promotional materials. Depending on what you're selling a modest prize draw can be a good way of gathering contact information.
Oddly perhaps, quite a few clients use the video as a ruse to do a follow-up. They contact the people to whom they've handed them out looking for feedback as to what direction their next programme should take; this gives them the opportunity to open a dialogue with the client... I say 'oddly' because this quite often results in me getting a new client too!
Another trick I've known use is reply cards or contact details that indicate the source of the enquiry... i.e. set up a 'sales hotline' or have reply cards with some sort of indicator on them...
I suppose ultimately you need to measure how much new business exhibiting brings in. And that means legwork and baited feedback (i.e the prize draw idea etc)
