How to turn your trade fair stand into a visitor magnet (in 6 steps)

Trade fairs - there is hardly a place where the attention of potential customers is vied for more. Just as a pilot navigates the aeroplane to the runway, where it can see the bright lights on the edge of the tarmac from afar, the staff at a trade fair stand also try to somehow lure visitors to their stand and then engage them in conversation. All kinds of elaborate means are used to do this. But how does your trade fair presence actually become a visitor magnet? I'll explain it to you in a simple 6-step guide.

Step 1: Marketing measures before the trade fair

Raising awareness doesn't just start with the actual trade fair, it starts a few days - if not weeks - in advance. There are various options that you can use and various channels that you can utilise.

Make use of your website, mailings, social media etc. to let your customers know that you will be at the XY trade fair and would be delighted to welcome them to your stand. Don't forget to take this opportunity to let them know your stand number. You can also create an incentive by giving your customers a small preview of what to expect when they visit your stand.

However, you can reach even more people before the start of the trade fair than just those who are already your customers and are familiar with your brand. Report in detail on your website about your upcoming trade fair appearance and also provide information about the trade fair itself. If this page is search engine optimised, visitors who google the trade fair in advance may find your website and become aware of you. This will automatically draw attention to your trade fair presence.

Step 2: Pay attention to the stand design

First impressions count. There should be a concept behind the design of your exhibition stand. The colours should match your corporate design, the furnishings should be well chosen and the lighting should be neither too bright nor too dark. But these are just a few of the things you should consider when designing your stand.

Basically, however, it has to be said that there is no universal construction manual for the perfect exhibition stand. Your exhibition stand should always reflect the company you represent. For example, a colourful, loud, experience-oriented stand for a gaming manufacturer would be less suited to the comparatively simple and informative concept of a pharmaceutical company. Think about how your company's image is characterised and how you can support this with your trade fair stand design. Does your brand stand for quality? Then make sure that your technology works perfectly and that your chairs don't rattle.

Less is sometimes more - this can also be applied to the design of exhibition stands. Too bright colours, too many moving images and too much light can sometimes trigger a flight reflex rather than a desire to ‘I absolutely have to go there’. So utilise your options and ideas in a targeted manner instead of trying to show ‘Here I am!’ at all costs. But there are numerous stand builders here who are familiar with exactly this kind of thing and who

Step 3: Brief the stand personnel

The stand personnel are often the decisive factor in the success of your trade fair stand. Even the best stand design is insignificant if the stand personnel are unqualified. Imagine Mr Müller has been standing at the stand for seven hours - now with back pain, has told around forty visitors the same thing over and over again and really just wants the trade fair to be over. No good dialogue will develop here. That's why it's important that your stand personnel are one thing above all: motivated. And motivation arises above all when you yourself are convinced of the products or services you are selling. Make sure that your stand personnel know your products down to the last detail, know why your company is better than the other exhibitors and why your company in particular creates added value for the customer.

But your stand personnel must not only work, they must also be likeable. Of course, your staff should always be friendly, polite and attentive, but it is also important that your stand personnel can identify with your target group or the target group of the trade fair, as this is the only way to have good conversations - and these are essential.

Step 4: The right choice of giveaways

Every visitor is happy about small gifts and every exhibitor is happy about visitors who carry their advertising message around. It doesn't matter whether they are simple, inexpensive gifts such as notepads, sweets, mugs or bags, giveaways create interest and sympathy and ensure that visitors remember your brand.

For visitors who are ‘important’ or with whom you have had an interesting sales discussion, you can also provide higher-quality gifts. This reinforces the positive experience of the conversation they had. And makes the customer remember you better.

However, the most important thing to remember about giveaways is that although customers should be attracted to your stand by your giveaways, they should stay because of your company, your staff and your products or services. So don't try to make up for shortcomings in other areas with more expensive gifts. In this blog article you will learn how to find the right giveaway for the next trade fair.

Step 5: Plan additional activities at the stand

Additional promotions at the stand - which have nothing to do with your products per se - can turn your stand into a visitor magnet. Under the principle of hospitality, you can make your stand visitors happy by offering them something where the benefits are immediately recognisable. Popular means here are, for example, snacks and drinks that you offer visitors to your stand free of charge. In this way, you invite potential interested parties to take a short break, which will probably increase the time they spend at your stand. Other options here include charging stations where visitors can recharge their mobile devices, competitions or programmes designed to entertain visitors and ensure more interaction at the stand.

Well-designed additional activities always attract attention and quickly become a talking point at a trade fair. However, it is important to proceed in a similar way to the giveaways. Trade fair visitors will be attracted by your additional activities, but you should stay because of your company's services. Make sure that when visitors leave your stand, they don't just say: ‘Wow, the skewers were delicious’, but also ‘Product Z is really interesting, I'm glad I took the employee's business card with me’.

Step 6: Follow-up to the trade fair

Optimising your trade fair presence is not a 100-metre sprint, but rather a marathon. The perfect trade fair presentation requires constant adaptation to new trends and innovative thinking. You will therefore test many concepts for their effectiveness and the motto is: before the trade fair is after the trade fair. In the follow-up you ask yourself: What didn't work well, what do we need to improve? And what worked well that we should expand on? When analysing this, however, you first need to determine what success is based on.

One of the most meaningful indicators of success is probably the behaviour of trade fair visitors at and around your stand. You can take a superficial look at behaviour by focusing solely on the number of visitors who visited your stand. However, you can also go into more depth and ask about several factors - similar to analysing a website in online marketing.

• How many visitors were there?
• How many of them came back several times?
• And how much time did they spend at the stand?

Because this can no longer be investigated simply with a clicker operated by an employee, there are digital tools that analyse visitor behaviour. Inconspicuous sensors (e.g. event metrics) are installed that use Wi-Fi technology to take measurements in two radii around the stand in compliance with data protection regulations and clearly identify devices (e.g. smartphones) that are searching for Wi-Fi.

Conclusion

So there are many ways to attract visitors to your stand and make your trade fair appearance a success. Do you now have precise instructions on how to organise your trade fair presentation so that you can welcome many qualified visitors to your stand? No. But you do know how you can tweak things to increase your success and have gained ideas on what options are available. Find a trade fair concept that suits your company and reflects it well and, most importantly, keep analysing and optimising it to make your stand a magnet for visitors - and above all: a success.