The right routing or visitor flow at a B2B trade fair ensures that you attract visitors, maintain their attention, and then lead them into your sales funnel. But how do you create such an ideal visitor flow? To help you with this, we’re happy to share our insights so you can achieve the goals you have in mind.

What is a visitor flow and why is it important?

A trade fair stand could be seen as a marketing funnel: you attract visitors, spark their interest, make them consider your product or service as a solution to their problem, and then you need to persuade them to take action: conversion.
Visitors move through the trade fair in a certain way (the visitor flow), and the question is at what moment and in which place you lead them to the next step. You must maintain their attention and guide them to the place where you want them to be to achieve a conversion.
What information do you provide at what moment, and when is the right time for an account manager or salesperson to approach the visitor? Once you’ve figured this out in the form of a route for the visitor, you can make much better decisions about how you use the space of the trade fair stand, what resources you need, and how you will shape your trade fair strategy to achieve maximum conversions.

The optimal trade fair flow starts with your objectives

Online marketing is becoming increasingly important in the B2B market. But as we also know, not all marketing and sales activities can take place online. Therefore, it is important to set KPIs and goals specifically for the trade fair that ultimately contribute to the objectives of your overall marketing strategy.
Ask yourself the questions: Why do we need a trade fair? How does this trade fair fit into the bigger picture? What company-wide KPIs do we want this trade fair to contribute to, and how? Once you have determined these objectives, ensure that you make the relevant data measurable. Based on that collected data, you can determine to what extent the trade fair has really contributed to achieving those goals and where you can improve next time.

Attracting visitors

Initially, visitors must come to your trade fair. This does not start only at the trade fair itself: in the overall marketing strategy for your company, the trade fair is a means to achieve conversions, not a goal in itself. Therefore, ensure that you reach a group of potential customers with marketing activities long before the trade fair begins and that you capture their details. For example, when you want to launch a new product or service in the market, you start a campaign where you show enticing content to potential customers in advance. They get excited about learning more about the solution you offer and sign up via a short form for the launch at the trade fair or for a one-on-one meeting with a specialist. By capturing the data they provide in the form, you take them out of anonymity: the more you know about the visitors in advance, the better you can prepare the stand. Such as what purpose they come to the trade fair for.
Secondly, you need to consider the location: where are you situated in the hall? What does the hall look like, and where are the main walking paths? Which other exhibitors are you positioned between?
Moreover, you need to visually stand out by creating the WOW factor. Look for something unique, year after year. Also, ensure that you present yourself as a recognizable brand by incorporating your house style well. Because the trade fair is part of one or more campaigns, it’s important that the expectations set in the campaign align with what you realize at the trade fair and what you follow up with afterward. The best outcome is if you can exceed the visitor's expectations.

Make smart use of the space you have

The visitor flow in your trade fair stand is not only dependent on the placement of information and how you guide visitors through the trade fair. You can guide visitors using digital signage such as LED strips, giving them the feeling they need to walk in a particular direction. Another great option to create dynamics in your space is to install an interconnected touch display that allows you to control the entire trade fair setup—such as lighting or certain projections—based on themes like sustainability or innovation, or to give a customer-specific presentation in a specific area of the trade fair stand. This way, you can quickly transform a space to a completely different look.
Next, we come to the question: where do you place the product or service presentations? If you have several, it can be challenging to determine where to place each in the stand. Many companies tend to only give a select number of products and services a prominent spot, but how do you also highlight the rest of the portfolio? And how do you then build a flow around the products or presentations leading to a conversion? We know several solutions for this.

Leaving a lasting impression with visual experiences

Cool, interactive visual experiences are a fantastic addition for attracting and retaining attention and generating conversions without necessarily involving an account manager. And if there’s one thing that leaves a lasting impression, it’s evoking positive emotions such as wonder and recognition of the challenge they face. You need to empathize well: what genuinely appeals to your potential customer? How can they identify with someone who needs your product or service?
Videos, animations, or interactive presentations on touch displays are great examples of applications that tap into the customer's emotions and situation. But if you sell technical products like machines, you often have to take the machine out of the production environment where it provides the solution. Often, machines are too large and heavy to bring, or are part of a system, so how do you handle that smartly? How do you demonstrate the solution the product offers?
You can showcase products or services in many ways without bringing them to the trade fair: with a video, digital display, VR or AR technology, a projection on 3D-printed objects, holograms, or a virtual showroom. This way, you can also show cross-sections, swipe through the product portfolio, and display additional information for the tech-savvy among us.
Especially with interactive visualizations like a virtual showroom, viewers can click on what they want to see. You can also place products and services in the right application environment, which is difficult for an account manager to explain in words at the trade fair. What you must never forget is to concretely show what solution your product or service provides.