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Planning A Successful Trade Exhibition

Updated on January 9, 2014

Planning For An Exhibition

Attending an industry exhibition can help your company win new business contacts and showcase your products and services to key decision makers within your industry sector.

To get it right, you need to plan everything well in advance and make sure your objectives are clear from the very beginning.

Pop Up Display Banners
Pop Up Display Banners

How To Plan A Successful Industry Exhibition

Industry exhibitions, or trade shows, can give companies a unique opportunity to showcase their products or services, meet potential new customers or form new business relationships. If you organise it well, then taking a stand in a trade show which is relevant to your sector can give your business a real boost. However, be warned that you can actually damage your reputation if you don't plan enough in advance or develop a clear strategy.

So how do you make an industry exhibition work for you? The first and most important thing is to make sure you know what you want to achieve from it, and then gear everything else towards that goal. Is it about introducing a new product to the market, making new contacts or simply making direct sales, for example? When you have identified exactly what you want from the event, your planning will be much easier.

Next it is absolutely imperative that you book everything you need to in advance. This includes your actual pitch, accommodation for you and any staff you are bringing, your logistics team, your graphic designers and any corporate hospitality you may be extending to valued clients during the event.

Basically, everything that needs to be covered, cover it early on. Leaving things until the last minute, particularly vital things such as the artwork for your stand which needs a great deal of time and care, can leave you looking unprofessional and won't stand you in good stead when it come to making new business contacts.

In order to draw in potential customers or business partners, you do of course also need some visually arresting exhibition banners. These need to be designed in such a way that your message can be absorbed in a matter of seconds, before the onlooker loses interest. Don't use too much text as it will be hard to read from a distance, and make sure they look clean, simple and uncluttered in order to make the biggest impact possible.

When it comes to the kind of popup exhibition display banners you choose you should consider what you will be using them for. If it's for a one-off product launch and the event is inside, you can get away with spending less on some non-durable banners. On the other hand, if you intend to use them again and again for a long-running marketing campaign you may want to use more durable material, such as vinyl, which can even be used outside without being damaged.

Banners
Banners

Creating Your Exhibition Business Advertising

Your exhibition business sign is not just there to let customers know where your company is. In many cases your sign is the first impression a potential client may have of your business, which makes it a very effective marketing tool if designed properly. In addition to your logo, business signs should reflect, clearly and simply, the ethos of your company.

Here are some things to bear in mind when you are thinking about the design:

Work Out Your Message: With a sign, the marketing or branding message is all-important. It is this which tells your customers what kind of business you are - not just what you offer, but what makes you different from your competitors. Take time deciding on a message which is clear, concise and ties in with your marketing strategy. This is quite a skill, as your message needs to be conveyed in seconds.

Customer Base:Business signs should always be designed with the core demographic in mind. For example, if you run a shop selling clothes aimed at younger people the graphics you use need to reflect this. You sign needs to 'speak' to your target customer group. Make sure the graphic designer you are using understands the needs of this target group.

Bold Design: When it comes to the design of the sign itself, it needs to stand out in some way - even if you are going for a more subtle, classic feel. Some people make the mistake of believing that a subtle sign needs to blend into its surroundings, but this is not the case at all. Your sign can stand out without being brash, if you make sure you use contrasting colours and don't over-clutter it with too many graphics. Also, make sure the wording is large enough to be read clearly and easily.

The Right Positioning: Think about where you are going to put your sign in order to make it visible to the most people possible. Approach your business from every angle and decide which is the most obvious spot. You'd be surprised how many companies, after spending a long time creating the perfect sign, put it in entirely the wrong position.

Keep It Fresh: Don't just create the perfect sign and then assume that's it for the foreseeable future. After all, your essential company ethos and product focus may remain the same, but times change so your sign - one of your biggest marketing tools - must reflect this. In this fast-moving age, customers will be put off by dated advertising, so don't get stuck in the past.">

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