A successful scholarship post-corona: how do you do it?
HOW TO STAND OUT AT TRADE SHOWS
Being at a trade show is not the same as it was before the corona era. There may be fewer visitors at the moment, but slowly, fortunately, the number of visitors is picking up. The regulations have changed and now you have to seriously consider whether you want a physical, online or hybrid booth. Especially if competitors are already making full use of it.Due to corona and the rethinking to organize a trade show, the importance of sales and lead acquisition has become perhaps even more important than before. In this blog, we'd like to share our insights on how to organize a successful trade show, differentiating your trade show booth from competitors' and boosting lead conversions.
Manage the visitor's expectation
Because in this day and age it is not immediately obvious how a trade show is going to take place - physical, online or hybrid - and what the visitor to a trade show can or cannot do based on corona measures, it must be well communicated in advance what a visitor can expect. That way, you remove the visitor's barrier of having to figure everything out for themselves, you give them a sense of security and, at the same time, you can actually get the visitor excited by cool promotional material.
A trade show as part of your strategy
Many companies deploy trade shows in the traditional way, paying less attention to the purpose of the show, why they are participating in it and what KPIs need to be achieved. The trade show is then an end in itself. "If you integrate a trade show into your all-round marketing strategy, you deploy the trade show as a smart tool at the right moment in the customer journey. It becomes part of the entire marketing process," said Ton Kuper, founder and managing director of C4Real. "A trade show is successful when you have properly integrated it into your overall marketing strategy and sales strategy and when it represents a role of value in it and ultimately manages to achieve the objective you have set."
Define your goals
SPECIFIC TRADE SHOW OBJECTIVES PROVIDE FOCUS
Therefore, first think about the objectives: why are you at the trade show and what are the KPIs? How many leads do you want to attract or convert in the marketing funnel? So it is important to think about how you will get the target audience to your trade show booth and how you will properly follow up on the leads that come from the trade show. For example, create trade show personas, advertise with a cool teaser as an invitation and make sure you include a number of questions in the registration form, for example, that allow you to find out what the expectations and needs of that specific person are. Then you can capitalize on that. You can then not only personalize the marketing activities leading up to the trade show (tailor them to the person), but also during the visit itself. The account manager who is present at the trade show can then prepare himself well for the conversation, since he will know where the visitor's interest and request for help lies. This significantly increases the chances of the lead entering the next step of the sales funnel.
Also consider the choice of a physical, online or hybrid trade show. Sometimes it is simply smarter to host an online event, as it often does save on budget planning. But even that depends on the goals you want to achieve. It's never just about a product or service. A trade show is about the solutions you offer (portfolio of products and services), relationship management of existing customers, demonstrating innovativeness or strengthening your branding compared to your competition.
Design and visual content
Based on the strategy, you determine the design and subsequent visual content (assets) needed for the trade show booth to fully align the experience and perception throughout the customer journey. The flow in which a visitor moves through the trade show is already a customer journey in itself. Therefore, it is important to place something in several places that makes people want to leave their contact information or make a purchase, each with a different teaser to interest the target audience. The goal of collecting that contact information is, of course, to get leads into your sales and marketing automation system."
Stimulate the visitor's visual experience
TOOLS FOR VISUAL EXPERIENCE
Many trade show booths are fundamentally similar. This can make it difficult to stand out and interest and surprise visitors. Therefore, focus on the visual experience you want to create for the visitor: how do you attract and retain attention? Companies do this by, for example, organizing a spectacular show in light, image and sound at the booth to unveil a new product launch. Innovative, technological means such as holographic, interactive touch screens, moving screens in special shapes with spectacular animations and films or projection mapping (projections on 3D printed objects) are also used to showcase products or services.
Context and recognizability
Many companies only show their products at a trade show: ''This is our beautiful product and this is what it does''. However, they often forget to provide some context and to take the potential customer into a situation that is recognizable for the customer and for which the product or service provides the perfect solution. Some of these products are not visible to the eye or are too large to take to the fair, such as machines. They may also be services or technological solutions that cannot be demonstrated at the trade show. How then should you show what you solve?
A virtual showroom
Our Virtual Showroom can work very well for this purpose. The potential customer virtually steps into a world in which the products and services are placed in a market context, and therefore it is quickly clear what solution it offers. Augmented Reality (AR) shows products in reality in an innovative way, so you don't have to drag all your products - such as large, heavy machinery - or other expensive products to the trade show or to a customer. With AR, the product is shown as a visual layer over real reality. This is also used by IKEA, for example, to see how furniture will look in your home.
Need help creating visual impact or a distinctive trade show strategy?
C4Real is always full of creative ideas and strategic knowledge,, We have been creating impressive visual experiences for years. In doing so, we not only deliver visual content, but also think about the entire marketing strategy and what content is needed where.
We are happy to be your sparring partner for concept development, design and production of visual and virtual content, interactive events and complete marketing strategy. Are you ready to see your most amazing trade show booth ever before you?