How to capture qualified visitors in a trade show

The objective of the communciation in this phase is to capture the objective public that you have determined for your stand. Do not forget that it is difficult to get the public to come to your stand if you have not contacted, informed or motive them before.

The bigger the trade show, the lesser the possibilities you will have visitors to come and establish contact in your stand. Trade shows generate thousands of visitors but in general, a part of it constitutes a real target public for any exhibitor. For that, the work in this consists of communicating with them before to assure their visits and attendance.

The professional visitora program their visits before the show. They know well before hand who they are going to see, what products they want to see and know. It is thus, important to make sure that you are in their agenda.

According to a study in the United States, 76% of the visitors come with an agenda designating 8 hours in a period of 2 days to the show, during which they visit between 20 to 30 stands, with 10 to 15 minutes per stand.

The exhbitor must communicate with the suitable clients and transmit their messages in a well-defined, clear and brief manner. The efficiency and the quality of these messages will depend on the success of the captation of the visitors. The communication must be centralised on a content that motivate the visitor to come to your stand. It is important to offer an incentive, something that motivates, some special conditions, a gift, the presence of a personality or simply a lottery.

Also, it is important to enumerate in a creative way and to suggest the advantages and benefits of the products or services that it being exhibited, as well as highlight its atttributes. A differentiating advantage on the competitor.

We present here some instruments that can help in developing an effective pre-trade show promotion campaign:

Mailing
Once you have segmented your database of current and potential clients, send your invitations and personalised cards using some dosage of creativity and talent. The potential visitor/buyer of a trade show is well bombarded with a large volume of publicity from exhibitors in his office that aims to capture his attention with the objective to get him to their stand. Be original and use some effective loyalty instruments such as demonstrations, gifts or special discounts.

Telemarketing
You will need to first refine and segment your database, prepare a script beforehand and have available internal or external staff to make the phonecalls.

It is important to motivate the visitor and to reassure that he will visit your stand by establishing a meeting 2 to 3 weeks before the trade show.

Specialised press
The publication of your press release in the main professional publications is also necessary as it strengthens your company image as well as promoting your products or services free of charge during the trade show.

The specialised press is full of news, reports, graphical informatio and statistics of one or various sectors, and usually dedicates a special editio to the more important trade shows. The exhibitor must take advantage of this to send interesting news and information.

At the same time, if the exhibitor has sufficient resources, he can also consider contracting some publicity spaces in these publications as a support element for the promotion of his stand in the trade show.

Contributed by: Fernando Le Monnier