The Impact of Making an Impact

Recently I have been looking into the potential effects an exhibition or similar event has on the local community, and found an interesting development from Edinburgh University.

They have developed a toolkit that determines the impact an event has on the community by looking at factors such as transport issues and crowd noise.

Personally I think this is a great idea. In this day and age, it is important to analyse the effect your business is having on the environment, and a by product of this is that you will appeal more to a consumer's green standards.

It is important not just for the event organisers, but the individual businesses to work closely with the local authorities in order to minimise the disruption holding an event can have on the surrounding area.

Something I would focus on, is what could the business do FOR the local community. Be it hiring local people to help out setting up the show, to free tickets for the event. Even something as little as giving out your promotional 'goodies' can leave a lasting impression on the community. At the end of the day they are potential customers too!

Promoting Your Promotion: 5 Tips to Help Promote Your Next Trade Show

Previously I have talked about how to get the most out of your stand during exhibitions and trade shows, but this article is going to focus on getting attention for your stall before the show takes place.

The best bit is, all these tips cost nothing to implement!

The first question I hear you ask is, "why would I want to promote myself before a trade show, isn't that what the event itself is for?" and my answer is yes and no.

Of course the exhibition is there to help you promote your business, but say you have a new product coming out, or a new piece of technology that no-one has seen before. In this instance, the power of 'hype' can have a huge impact on the attention your stand will draw at the event. If journalists and industry commentators know there is an exciting feature being announced, you bet they're going to make sure they are there, drawing extra publicity for your brand.

Even if you don't have anything new to unveil, getting word out to the right people (i.e people attending the exhibition), you are making sure they are aware of your company name so when they see you at the event, they will usually make the effort to come over and check your stand out.

So, where do you start? Here are 5 tips on how to promote your attendance at an exhibition or trade show:

1. Forums/Trade Directories - ever read a forum, seen a comment with a link and follow it? If you approach the relevant sources (Google is your friend here) you will find a receptive audience for your promotion. You don't even have to include a link to your website, though if there's the option to I say do it! Just a couple of lines saying what your company does, and that you will be at a certain trade show is enough. Here is a great place to start.
   
   
2. Facebook Events - hopefully you have a Facebook page for your company (if you don't, shame on you!). You may or may not be aware of the feature to set up an event. This contains the usual details such as when, where etc. but the key to this is to put relevant keywords into the title and description. Naming the event something like 'Company X @ Exhibition Y', will lead to getting hits for both your company name and the name of the show. You can invite everyone on your friends list, and what's nice is that Facebook give them a reminder on the side of their profile of any upcoming events, with the title you have just created.
   
   
3. Viral Marketing - The most relevant form of this is the YouTube video. It has to be short, and capture the general populus imagination. One of the most viewed videos of all-time is a skateboarding dog! Imagine how simple that is to create, and how many millions of people have seen it. On YouTube you have two options of promoting your event; in the main video screen, though this is less likely to be embraced by the public, or the less intrusive method is to announce it in the description. If it works, not only are you promoting your next trade show, but also your brand as a whole. The key to viral marketing is to not push it too much. E-mail a few of your friends telling them to check it out, and if you've got it right it should spread like wildfire. Most importantly be creative. Here is an example of a great piece of viral marketing on YouTube.
   
   
4. Write a Blog - as you can see, you don't need to be the next Oscar Wilde to write a blog. There are lots of free ones to use, such as the one this is written on; Blogspot or create one on your site. Over time you will build up a following (put a link on your Facebook page for instance), and what better place to announce your next trade show!
   
   
5. Word of Mouth - as you might have noticed, I'm a huge fan of Internet marketing, but often the best way of increasing awareness is word of mouth. Now, hopefully the techniques listed above will generate word of mouth promotion for you, but next time you meet a client/customer why not just mention you will be attending 'Exhibition X'. In fact tell EVERYONE you meet, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. If you talk to people in your industry, you will likely hear a response of, "Actually, I'm going to that, I'll have a look out for you." and you've just got one more person interested in your stand for 5 seconds of work.

These tips are just a starting block, hopefully they will inspire you to think of other great ways to promote your appearance at the next event you attend. Good luck!

Aaron,

Discount Displays

A Display of Power: The trade show industry's fight-back against the recession

I have had several conversations recently where people tell me, matter-of-factly, that the display business must be suffering.

Obviously I ask what proof they have on this, and this is where the conversation usually quickly changes tack.

Of course all businesses have been affected to some degree by the economic downturn, but from personal experience, and watching the market, there are strong indicators to suggest that the fallout isn't as bad as first expected.

I think this idea comes from the fact that most businesses, when faced with a gloomy economy, initially look to cut costs across all departments. They then quickly learn that they can't afford not to spend money promoting their product. There's very little point in having a product with minimal overheads if nobody is aware of it!

My resolve has been strengthened by the report that Gamescom has just finished and attracted 248,000 visitors, becoming the largest games fair in the world.

Reports from other areas of the world report that attendees to trade shows and exhibitions are better than expected for the current climate, and the general consensus is that this industry is in a excellent position to recover from the impacts of the global recession.

We are doing our bit for the industry at Discount Displays. Through publishing guides and promotions we are doing all we can to help businesses realise that exhibiting doesn't have to be as costly as they first fear.

The Rules of Engagement

A brief guide on the importance of interaction between you and potential customers.

So you've bought all the components needed for attending a exhibition, you've spent time creating a design to make your stall stand out from the rest, and you've meticulously planned the logistics of getting to the event itself.

All this is great, but where many exhibitors fall down is that when it comes to crunch time, they do very little to actually interact with potential customers, and are content to let them just walk on by.

It is perplexing, and surprising, as a regular attendee of trade shows and exhibitions, to not be engaged even when I'm looking at the product or service on offer. To know how much effort has gone into exhibiting and to then not capitalise on it is a crying shame.

There are obvious, yet simple, ways to maximise the conversion rate of passers-by to potential customers:

• Make eye contact - I'm not talking about staring here, just catching somebody's eye can lead to them engaging you in conversation or for them to take a second look at your stall, enabling you to start your pitch.
• Preparation - a well known saying states "luck is where opportunity meets preparation", well this is your opportunity! Before you set off to your event, make a note of the key benefits of your product/service, any special offers for this event, anticipate objections and how you can overcome these, and if they aren't willing to commit instantly what measures do you have in place to follow-up with them (e.g. mailing list, contact details database, brochures/catalogues to take home).
  
• Mentality is the key - some people are gifted sales-people, but perhaps this isn't your forte. The key here is to change your mentality to 'what have I got to lose', or more importantly 'what have I got to gain'. If you see somebody walking past your stand without taking a second glance, and you don't actively engage them, the chances of them becoming a customer are roughly zero. If, however you take a moment to announce your product to that person, you never know what the outcome will be, hopefully a new customer, or at least a sign-up to your mailing list.
  

If you recognise yourself as one of these exhibiting culprits I hope this guide can serve as a useful reminder on the importance of active selling, and increase the return of investment on your exhibition displays.

Bought to you by Discount Displays

Slatwall Displays; an exhibitor's friend

In the present climate, marketing budgets are tighter than ever before. There is increasing importance on being able to justify costs, and buying a versatile piece of equipment like the Slatwall Display, might be just what is needed to keep the accounting department at bay.

Being able to hold poster frames, literature racks and product hooks, they are equally at home in retail environments, trade shows or reception areas.
They are also double sided meaning they have double the impact of regular wall mounted Slatwall displays.
Made from an anodised aluminium profile, and with optional LED lights, they are at the height of modern display design.

They come pre-assembled, which means you are up and ready in a matter of minutes. These Slatwall display stands are a versatile solution for displaying and promoting your business.

Visit www.discountdisplays.co.uk for more info.

New money saving hints and tips

I have been asked to write some articles about exhibition displays for a Display ideas blog. You'll find it here. Ill be looking specifically on money saving ideas during the economic downturn. Should you hire or buy exhibition stands. How to save money on display graphics. Top 10 tips for getting the most from your display budget. Just to name a few.

School Signs or Books

We have recently looked at the School Signs market in the UK. With our new UV printer and low cost base we felt that we would be able to offer better and service to the UK school sign sector. Looking at this sector prices seem to have remained bouyant. Percieved as a niche product sign companies have marketd themselves as specialist or experts in school signage. Well not to put too finer point on it a sign is a sign. The message may change but the methods of manufacturing school signs is the same as post mounted signs, business signs or corporate signage. To find out a little more about the market I spoke to a headmistress friend of mine. It turned out that the key points she considered when order school signs was how easy the process was. She perceived that it was far easier to get a local sign company to visit the school and take her brief than it was trying to order goods on line. Ease came far higher up when ordering school signs than price or speed of delivery. When artwork is involved either supplying it ready to print or providing logos and text for the designer to create an image was perceived to be easier in person than online. My conclusion? It's a worry if purchasing is not carried out with cost in mind. Every pound saved on purchase products be they school signs or gym equipment is another pound of tax payers money that could be used for books or field trips. From a web sites point of view we need to make purchasing signs online as easy as possible. Keep an eye on www.discountdisplays.co.uk/html/schools-signs.html to see how we implement online design and other easy artwork ideas.

UV flat bed sign printing

flat bed UV printers are changing the way signs are made. In the past if you want a full colour image printed onto signs for a trade shows you would need to go through a 3 part process. Firstly print the sign onto paper. This would then have to be laminated and have double sided self adhesive sign film applied to the rear. The laminated sign would then have to be mounted onto a substrate material such as foam pvc board. This process was costly in terms of materials and labour. An alternative would be to print the sign onto self adhesive vinyl and then mount this to the sign board again more materials and labour. Our disadvantages of these methods is the risk of delamination of the print or in the case of the self adhesive vinyl shrinkage of the vinyl itself. UV printing saves time and money. The large format flat bed machines print the ink direct onto a wide variety of sign substrates. So no need for laminate, adhesive or labour. The resultant sign is UV stable, weatherproof and will not crack peel or fade. Customers get better signs faster and at a lower price. At discountdisplays we are finding our UV printed replaces many of the traditional large format digital printing methods we have used in the past.
http://www.discountdisplays.co.uk/html/signs.html