This informal CPD article 'Attendee Engagement - How to fully engage your attendees at your next exhibition' was provided by Expo Stars Interactive, who are audience engagement experts supporting exhibitors worldwide to generate better qualified leads from tradeshows and events.
When exhibiting, it’s important you celebrate your successes but also learn from your failures. One of the most crucial components of exhibiting is engaging your attendees correctly, so they get the most out of their experience and you come away with a red-hot lead. In this article, we’ll share with you two proven ways to engage your attendees so your next exhibition will be one to remember.
Visual Displays
According to the Social Science Research Network, 65% of people are visual learners. Science-based technology company, 3M, also reports that people can process visuals 60,000 times faster than text. This is why a captivating visual experience is a great face-to-face engagement tool to help you inspire prospects and improve your expo results.
Apply the expertise you and your marketing team have to create innovative themes around a campaign, your business values, or your products and services. You could even repurpose existing content or use graphics to simplify complex ideas. Your goal is to tell your corporate story in a way that captures the imagination. The more people want to listen, the more likely they’ll be interested in your business.
Depending on your budget, there are plenty of innovative options for gallery customisation:
- Audio-visuals - like presentations, videos, or live feeds
- State-of-the-art fabric graphics to mould your gallery into unique shapes
- Adhesive-backed vinyl graphics (a cheaper option than fabric).
Also, if you plan to use quotes or statistics, ensure they are backed up by relevant and credible sources. Otherwise, you could lose authority and jeopardise your position as a thought leader which could derail your expo performance.
Don’t Forget the Human Element
People buy from people. So, make your engagement experience human centric. How often have you seen booth staff busy on their phones, working on their laptop, or even eating lunch on the booth? Needless to say, this kind of behaviour puts off potential prospects from approaching your booth.
Creating an open, approachable environment for attendees to initiate a conversation with a human being is the key to creating a positive first impression and initiating conversations. Ask your staff to position themselves in front of tables or display units, stand with a smile and an open body language, and always be ready to initiate eye contact with passers-by.
Six-Minute TEO Lead Generation – our exhibition secret
Our six-minute strategy for Trade Show Engagement Optimisation lead generation is central to our marketing masterclass. It’s a reliable method to capture, nurture, value, and close leads quickly. And it puts you in the best position to start building customer relationships after an exhibition.
In six minutes, you can:
- Greet a prospect
- Ask open questions
- Qualify the lead
- Do a demonstration
- Capture contact details
- Make a follow-up appointment.
Learn it, apply it to your strategy and you will succeed on the show floor.
Ready, set, exhibit
Engaging your attendees is paramount to the success of your exhibition. Done incorrectly or not at all, you’ll walk away feeling frustrated and at a loss. Done correctly, your attendees will leave with fond memories of your stand, and you’ll walk away with a plethora of leads to follow up.
Happy exhibiting.
We hope this article was helpful. For more information from Expo Stars Interactive, please visit their CPD Member Directory page. Alternatively, you can go to the CPD Industry Hubs for more articles, courses and events relevant to your Continuing Professional Development requirements.
