Leaving professional matters to professional organizations can improve the efficiency of enterprises’ exhibitions. At present, many large enterprises have professional marketing departments responsible for overseas exhibitions, with rich exhibition experience, and the exhibition preparation work is well organized and very professional. However, there are still many small and medium-sized enterprises that do not have dedicated marketing department personnel. Fortunately, after decades of development, China’s exhibition industry has a complete service system, covering all aspects of services from exhibition registration, personnel itinerary, exhibit transportation, booth construction, public relations activities, subsidy application, etc.
Most organizers will recommend professional and reliable service organizations to assist exhibitors in preparing for the entire overseas exhibition. Exhibitors with insufficient experience can improve their exhibition efficiency as long as they consult with the organizers more and leave professional work to professional organizations. The focus of exhibitors themselves and cannot be replaced by service organizations is to prepare exhibits and promotional materials for the exhibition, cooperate with the organizers in providing various promotional materials such as conference brochures in a timely manner, fully carry out pre-exhibition customer invitation work, and welcome guests from all directions with a full and professional spirit during the exhibition. If exhibitors can grasp the key points in preparation, they will definitely gain a lot.
1) Clarify the exhibition goals: whether it is to promote the company’s brand, maintain old customer relationships, or understand new markets and seek new cooperation opportunities, when the goals are clear enough, it will be more efficient for enterprises to participate in the exhibition.
2) Make sufficient preparations before the exhibition:
Collect well-known exhibitions related to the industry, and select exhibitions with high professionalism and precise product positioning;
Prepare representative and competitive products to participate in the exhibition in advance. The effect of carrying physical objects to participate in the exhibition will far exceed that of carrying only posters or pictures;
Choose suitable foreign trade personnel or sales personnel to participate in the exhibition abroad. It is recommended that the company’s decision-makers can go to the exhibition in person;
Investigate target customers and make audience invitations in advance. You can arrange a meeting time with target customers in advance by email or phone to improve communication efficiency.
3) Make full use of every minute on site: It is recommended that exhibitors focus on actively communicating with visiting audiences at or near the booth a few days before the exhibition, and seize any possible opportunities to showcase products and companies. On the last day of the exhibition, the number of visitors usually decreases. It is recommended to make good use of the last day to conduct research on the exhibition hall, facilities and visitor flow, so as to communicate with the organizer about the demands for the next exhibition booth based on the characteristics of their own products and on-site research.
4) Follow up with potential customers in a timely manner after the exhibition: For the visiting customer business cards and related information collected on site, they should be sorted and classified as soon as possible during the exhibition or after the exhibition, and arranged to contact and follow up as soon as possible. For potential customers, they should be contacted as soon as possible after the exhibition to awaken the other party’s memory as quickly as possible and increase the possibility of cooperation.
5) Choose the official exhibition channel: In order to improve the efficiency of the exhibition and protect the interests of the enterprise, it is recommended that exhibitors choose the organizer or the official agent authorized by the organizer to apply for the booth or seek exhibition services.
At the same time, the organizer and the official agent will provide more on-site consultation and concurrent event information in addition to the booth. These are conducive to enterprises to gain more industry trends and market dynamics outside the booth.
6) Necessity of continuous exhibition: It is recommended that enterprises maintain continuous exhibition for two to three years or more. Continuous appearance at the exhibition site will leave an impression on the visitors who continue to visit, eliminate or reduce the visitors’ sense of unfamiliarity and uncertainty, and increase the possibility of cooperation.