Exhibitions are one of the best ways of getting face to face contact with potential buyers and firming up relationships with existing customers. They offer a great opportunity for increasing brand awareness, gaining an insight into new developments in the market place and a look at what your competitors are doing. But they require hard work, are often costly and the unexpected can happen. To make sure they are as successful as possible requires careful planning and with so much competition you need to maximise your efforts to really stand out. 

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Interpack 2017 is recording the highest demand among exhibitors in its history of over 55 years. Around 2,700 exhibitors from 60 different countries are expected. So what can you do to make the most of an exhibition like this and make your presence felt amongst all those 1000's of visitors?

Firstly choose the right exhibition. It seems fairly obvious but exhibiting at the wrong event could be a serious waste of time and resources. John van Winden account manager at Clever Labels and Flexibles, has attended many exhibitions and stresses the importance of researching who the visitors are, choosing a well-known exhibition and one that offers something new. For him the most successful exhibitions have been Interpack and Fruit Logistica.  Good ways to find the right exhibition include checking where your competitors exhibit, getting recommendations from trade associations and looking at which media are sponsoring the event. 

Before the exhibition

Be clear about the purpose of exhibiting. For example are you looking to increase brand awareness or do you have a new product or innovation to launch? With this clear, you can then design your stand and plan your marketing around these objectives, and set some measurable targets, for example 50 qualified sales leads.

Promoting your attendance at the exhibition or trade show is critical and can have a fundamental impact on your success. With all those other companies exhibiting, you want visiting delegates to know where you'll be located and give them an incentive for coming to see you. Take advantage of the free marketing support that is often available through the exhibition organisers. For example, Packaging Innovations offer access to a PR service, free telemarketing, VIP invitations and free ticket invites.  Follow the step-by-step guides that exhibition organisers provide to help you ensure you have done all you can to promote yourself.

Pre event exposure is important, so make sure you've got something on your website and your emails telling people you'll be attending and include a link to that page in your email footer.

Generate as much interest as you can with relevant news or blog posts.

Do some email marketing to customers and prospects inviting them to visit you at the exhibition. Have your sales team make calls to people who you think may be attending to arrange for a coffee on your stand.  Exhibitions present a great opportunity to meet existing and new clients in a more informal setting and importantly within an environment of multiple, like-minded industry professionals and peers - compared to the conventional, across the desk meeting.  

Use social media in the build up to the event. Most events and trade shows will make a hashtag specifically for the upcoming show. For example you'll find Interpack using #Interpack2017 and because you included the show's hashtag, your message will show in their feed and be visible to anyone who looks at the page. The show will often re-tweet your message if you're using their hashtag thus further increasing your visibility. 

Look to see who the media partners are and if there are any opportunities to do some pre-show publicity.  Many of them will be looking for interview and photo/video opportunities at the events themselves so try and get some of these booked in advance if you've got something newsworthy to talk about.

Incentivise. Give people a reason to visit the stand, for example, a competition with an attractive prize, a new product launch or innovation.  You can really make yourself stand out with some careful thought here, linking prizes and competitions back to your products and services or a key current industry issue often works.

First impressions count, but you don't have to have the most expensive stand to stand out. Do the best with what you can afford - simple well done is better than extravagant done badly. Having the right people on the stand armed with the appropriate sales messages is essential, so you may want to consider doing some training beforehand. 

Look at ways that you can appeal to all the senses - have something interactive on the stand so that people have a reason to visit and aren't left standing around if you can't speak to them immediately.

John van Winden from Clever says: "Sometimes the simplest things leave the greatest impression, for example, one of the best giveways that I've seen at an exhibition was a personalised candy bag."

During the event

Make sure you've got a system in place for gathering contact details and potential leads whether that's the old fashioned method of writing it down or an electronic lead retrieval system, such as an app or a link to your CRM system. Make sure it's an easy process for everyone.

Take advantage of social media. As with events social media is real time so make the most out of it. Use the exhibition hashtags in your post and use it to engage with visitors tweeting at the event.

Maximise your investment. Exhibitions are not only about selling. They also offer an opportunity to gather market intelligence, build mailing lists for future marketing, find out what your competitors are doing, meet suppliers and build relationships with the media.

Martina Fidder, Sales Manager at Clondalkin Flexible Packaging Grootegast based in the Netherlands, attended Packaging Innovations in London for the first time last year and found it extremely beneficial as a way of introducing the company to the UK market. This year she'll be attending Packaging Innovations in Birmingham and London as well as Empack in The Netherlands. Her top three tips for a successful exhibition are to "Make sure people know what you do at a glance, be prepared for anything, and do plenty of pre-show marketing."

Post event

It's important not to overlook this stage. Make sure you follow up with all your contacts and add them to your mailing list so they receive regular communication from you.  Measure the success of the exhibition. Did you secure the number of leads that you wanted? Track your leads in sales figures in three, six and 12 months time as this will help you make decisions about future exhibitions and help you improve for next time.

Don't forget that you can create news stories to use for the next month from your experience at the event.  What seminars did you attend and find interesting?  What comments were made about your products by visitors to the stand and what will you be taking forward in terms of developments as a result of the meetings you had?

It is also well worth conducting a de-brief after the event. Make a note of what worked and what didn't work for your company as well as keeping notes on what you felt others did particularly well at the exhibition.  This is great information to have when it comes to planning the next event. 

If you're considering your approach for next year, then seeking out a speaking slot is a good strategy for raising your profile.  Speaking at a 'seminar ' or an 'open forum' session is a great opportunity to both share and sell the expertise of your business to industry peers. It is one of the best marketing opportunities that you can employ at an industry event. Speak to organisers of your chosen exhibition early on to ideally influence the theme of the talk you might want to lead on so it perfectly meets your objectives.

Company executives taking speaking slots are often seen as 'thought leaders' - adding their opinions to debates and helping to drive forward matters of interest to the wider industry.  By association, this helps the company's profile and fosters confidence with existing customers.  Additionally, it can help stimulate new customer enquiries and lead to fruitful new commercial relationships.