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Use goals to increase your return on investment from exhibiting

6/22/2015

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If you’re exhibiting at a business exhibition or tradeshow, one of the ways to guarantee a return on your investment is to set a series of goals and objectives that you’d like to achieve.

Many exhibitors forget to give themselves goals, which means they have nothing to use as a tool to determine if exhibiting was worthwhile.  Without setting goals before the event, you will not be able to measure the success of the stand, and figure out properly whether or not you should re-book for the next event.

Sitting down before you exhibit at an exhibition to set your goals is good practice, and we encourage all exhibitors to do it. 

Start by deciding on why you have chosen to exhibit in the first place. What was the driving force behind the decision to exhibit? Perhaps you’re looking at generating enquiries, raise brand awareness or collect a certain amount of business cards to add to your company database… it doesn’t really matter what your own goal is, but make sure you’re aware of the reason you booked initially.

Then you need to make your goal smart.  You need to make sure your goal is specific, measurable, achievable and realistic, and can be achieved within the amount of time you have.

For example, if your goal is to generate enquiries, to make it specific your goal should read something along the lines of… ‘To generate five enquiries for our online cloud service on the day of the exhibition’.  This is specific because we’ve determined how many enquiries we want to generate and what type of enquiry we want.

The next step is to check that the goal can be measured.  We know it can be measured easily because at the event you can record who is interested simply by using a notepad and pen.  It really is as easy as that. And of course, we can count to make sure the target of five enquiries was achieved.

The final three elements is to ensure your goal is achievable and realistic.  If you’re exhibiting at one of our events, for instance, and you’re exhibiting as part of a small team, you’d easily be able to generate five enquiries if you’re working your stand properly!  Talk to the organisers of the event you’re exhibiting at beforehand to make sure your goal can be achieved. 

You also need to make sure that you can achieve your goal in the time frame given.  You may wish to change the time element in your goal so that you give yourself enough time.  Don’t limit your goal to expire on the day of the event though, as most business actually happens after the event has finished.

By setting yourself a goal, you’ll be able to see if the event helped you achieve that.  If you managed to secure those five enquiries for the online cloud service, for example, you’d recognise that exhibiting worked and you’d be more confident in re-booking for the next events.

Many people don’t see a return from their investment in a stand at a business show, simply because they didn’t really understand what they were working towards.  With a clear and smart goal, you can make sure everything you do at the event is working towards achieving your goals and objectives.


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The secrets of exhibiting successfully

6/15/2015

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There aren’t many things that you need to do when you exhibit at an event to do it really well.  In fact there are just four key elements that all successful exhibitors share in common.  None of the secrets are actually secret, but you’ll be surprised at how many companies still forget to use these tools to maximise their presence at an exhibition.

The first secret is to have a clean and effective stand design.  When it comes to displaying your exhibition space go with the fact that less is more.  If you try cramming loads of displays, units, graphics, props and anything else you think of to help create a buzz, you’ll end up doing the complete opposite.  Visitors are always put off by cluttered stands that look like they belong at a bring-n-buy sale, rather than at a professional business expo. 

The second best advice to exhibiting success is to pick two or three things to promote.  Again, don’t confuse visitors by telling them everything that you do.  Choose a few of your products and services that most of the visitors will benefit from and then promote those as much as you can.  Tell people you’re the best company for web design and you’ll attract loads of the right people.  Tell everyone that you can provide this, that and that and you’ll put them off.  Niche yourself and be confident in what you do really well.

Thirdly, you need to have a special offer.  Forget having a competition that simply helps you to collect business cards, instead invite people to take up on your exclusive deal that’s only available to people at the event.  Include a deadline that lasts up to two weeks after the event to give you enough time to follow up with people.  It also allows people to think about buying from you, instead of forcing them to make a decision quickly.

Lastly, don’t slip up on a lack of follow up.  Exhibiting only works if you follow up with people after the event.  If you promise someone that you’ll email over a proposal, make sure you do.  If somebody said they are interested in your service, pick up the phone and arrange a 1-2-1 appointment with them.  Remember to connect with them on LinkedIn and follow them on Twitter.  This will help keep you in the front of their minds.

You don’t always win business directly from exhibiting at events, but it’s not just about the people you meet directly at the show.  Ask for referrals, because you don’t know who they know…

Exhibiting really is a fun and relaxed way to generate sales for your business and if you follow those four secrets you can’t go wrong.

If you’d like the chance to put these top tips into practice, contact us to find out how you can exhibit at our next local business show


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How to use local expos to grow your business

6/8/2015

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You see it and hear it everywhere.  Business coaches, business books, online courses, seminars, webinars and yes, even blog articles – they all tell us the same thing… they can help us grow our businesses.  

But let’s think about that for a minute. 

What does ‘grow your business’ actually mean?

Does it mean it will help grow the number of employees I have?  Does it mean it will help increase my turnover or profits?  Perhaps they mean to grow my business by increasing sales, the number of produces we sell or improving our services…

The truth is you can’t trust the expression ‘…to grow your business.’  You just can’t!  Especially when it’s as vague as that!  In order to truly understand why something can help you ‘grow’ your business you first need to know how.  How will you help me grow my business?  How will your book help me grow my business?  How will exhibiting at my local expo help me to grow my business?

Fortunately we’ve done our homework and have the answer to those question.  I too run my own business, Memo Events, which I started on my own back in 2011, so I appreciate how important it is to fully understand how something will work before signing up or registering or even wasting my valuable time listening to something or reading something…

So here’s how exhibiting at events can help you grow your business.  Firstly, booking a stand at your local business show is arguably the fastest and quickest way of meeting a lot of people in one single day. 

A good event organiser will also refer your business and recommend people to your stand to discover more about your services.

Secondly, exhibiting provides you with the platform to focus on your core objectives.  Whatever your goal, you’ll probably find that exhibiting at your local business expo will help you achieve the results you want. 

Perhaps you’re looking at generating leads, raising your business profile, making new connections, building your database of local business contacts or even launching a new product, collecting feedback, showcasing your own customers or recruiting for new staff – again, whatever your goal you can achieve all of that by being smart and by being at your local business show.

It’s a bad habit for an event organisers to over promise when selling exhibition stands.  It’s like that in most sale scenarios.  But with Memo Events we take the pressure out of the equation.  You either want to exhibit or you don’t.  We can either help you grow your business or we can’t.  It really is as simple as that.

But the secret to using a local expo to grow your business is to establish ‘how’ you want to grow your business.  Decide on your goals, aims and objectives.  Figure out what you want to get out of the event and then share your ambitions with the event organiser. 

At Memo Events, we work with our customers to understand your goals and objectives so that we can help deliver the results you want.

So to grow your business at your local expo, make sure you’re clear on the objective and I guarantee you’ll have a better exhibiting experience! 


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© Copyright 2013 Memo Events Ltd.  All rights reserved. Founded by Matthew Larcome
Registered Address: Memo Events, Devonshire Business Centre, Aviary Court, Hampshire, RG24 8PE 
Company No. 08371039  |  VAT Registered  |  Tel: +44(0)1256 838386
Our local business expos in Basingstoke, Portsmouth, Southampton, Brighton and Farnborough are now under the B2B Expos umbrella