There is no shortage of trade fairs and events in the UAE. And with the costs of these ranging from a few thousand dirhams to hundreds of thousands in some cases, you have to carefully choose the event best suited to your business and maximise the return on your investment. Several SME’s only have budgets for one or two major trade fairs a year and there is an inherent risk of that investment going to waste if you don’t have a strategy to make the most of your attendance. Especially that your competitors will most likely be present, vying for your clients’ and target audiences’ attention. Here are some tips to help you get the most out of your booth at a trade fair or show:
Manpower
To make a mark at an event, make sure you have a good number of your staff members present ready to promote your business and brand name. Find out and understand how large the show is before you decide how many representatives you will need there.
Branded uniforms: create a memorable visual of your company name and logo
Branded clothing for your staff is probably the best way to get your company name and logo in front of people and within their line of vision. Try to recall the last time you went to a trade show, did you later remember which companies were present because you saw a logo on their staff’s uniforms? If the answer is yes, then you know why this can be a powerful tool.
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Move around
To make the maximum impact, make sure that your staff are moving around and interacting with visitors and are not just sticking to their post. You should not wait for people to approach you as you will discover that it is often easy for people to walk past your booth with so many other companies there.
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Bring enough cards and marketing material
One of the most unfortunate things that could happen to you at a trade show is that you end up running out of marketing material or business cards to give visitors to your booth. As people tend to stop at so many booths and talk to so many people, unless they have some contact information to refer back to, you probably won’t hear from them. If you don’t have business cards at least, you could be wasting your time and money. So make sure you print a sufficient number of these!
Attract people’s attention
It is easy for your booth to blend into the background at a trade show. This is because you will likely be surrounded by several companies possibly selling a very similar product or service. So how do you stand out? Grab people’s attention. Product or service demos are a good way of doing that and they should combine visual presentations, audio as well as interaction by one of your staff members. This will ensure that you are able to engage your audience. If you manufacture a product, consider giving out samples provided these do not add significantly to your cost and exceed your budget.
