The importance of Exhibition Stands and how to make yours work for you

There are hundreds of exhibitions and trade shows in the UK every year, ranging from small, local expos to vast, national trade shows that fill stadiums and dedicated exhibition centres. These shows are a fantastic place to look for new business or get advice on overcoming a business problem. For example, a company needing a new website might attend a local marketing or tech expo to look for a new provider.
Whatever the reason for attending, exhibitions can draw big crowds and create an exciting atmosphere that encourages sales or, at the very least, conversation. This can be a great networking opportunity for your brand. In order to achieve this, it’s important to prioritise your exhibition stand’s first impression to potential customers and contacts through its design.

In this article, our exhibition stand designers explore how you can drive business success with an effective design for your stand.

Represents Your Brand

At an exhibition, an attendee will be exposed to hundreds, sometimes even thousands, of potential customers; the key is getting them to stop and engage. Your stand’s design must be eye-catching and engaging, as well as being able to inform someone quickly and clearly what your company is all about. By effectively portraying your core values (eco-friendliness, high-end luxury, or affordability) and brand (for example, your style and concept), your exhibition stand will not only be authentic to your brand but will stand out and be more likely to engage exhibition attendees. This is the first component of a quality exhibition stand.

Engages Your Target Audience

Now that you’ve represented your brand, the next step is to engage your target audience. An easy way to do this is to incorporate a TV into your stand design and have a showreel playing on a loop, showing off all your most compelling pieces of work. Great exhibition stands can even include meeting areas, refreshment areas, and interactive technology. These features all help increase interaction, allowing you to build a strong initial relationship with potential consumers that can be nurtured for consistent sales down the line.

Helps Generate Interest In Your Products

One of the best ways to draw people to your exhibition stand is to offer them the opportunity to try a few of your products. If you have an easily transportable product, this is a given, or if your service is digital, get a few computers set up for people to test it online. People always prefer to try before they buy. It gives them a chance to check the product's quality and durability. There is no downside to allowing people to try out your product, so take the opportunity to get people excited about what you do. When planning your stand, user experience is vital, not only to keep your customers satisfied but to boost engagement for your brand and its products.

Showcase What Makes Your Brand Unique

So now that you’ve drawn in new customers, engaged them, and proven that you have a quality product to offer, your next job is to answer the question, “Why us?”.
More often than not, even after completing the first three steps, you still won’t have fully converted a lead into a future client. The final thing you need to make clear is why they should choose you over your competitors, as at many exhibitions, you will likely have a direct competitor no more than a few stands away.

Your stand design and pitch must undoubtedly emphasise what makes you unique. Whether it be a superior build quality that spotlights your product or unrivalled customer service, your concept should be clear within the design and authentic to your brand. If you want to highlight your customer service, for example, make sure you have some freebies to give away, like sweets or cakes. Or if, as previously mentioned, you have the highest build quality, have people test the durability of your product to show why your product is the best amongst your competitors at the exhibition.

Product Launches

An exhibition stand is not only a great opportunity to show off your existing products but also for potential consumers to test new products and prototypes. By offering trials of a brand-new product, you’re much more likely to generate a buzz around your stand and get a higher footfall as a result. If the product is relatively cheap to produce, offer free samples or, if the product’s a little pricier, offer a competition to win one. This way, you can collect people’s names and contact details for marketing campaigns after the show is finished. If you choose to do this, make sure you’re transparent with people that you will be contacting them about the product and ask if they are ok with this, as this will help ensure you comply with GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) guidelines, which is a legal requirement.

Many businesses attend exhibitions without properly considering the above and will return with few or no leads. They invest thousands of pounds in attending multiple expos each year but only spend a few hundred pounds on their stand. This won’t deliver anywhere near the results you should aim for.

More often than not, investing well in a great stand and exhibiting at just one show that year often works out better than exhibiting at numerous shows with lower-quality exhibition stands. A high-quality exhibition stand is a reusable, one-time purchase that can increase your return on investment if designed with your brand and messaging at the forefront of its creation.

If you’re in the market for an effective exhibition stand, get in touch with the team at The Expo People to see what we can offer.

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