Thanks to the digital age, there are loads of interesting marketing formats and platforms available to businesses. With so many options, it can be easy to forget about the huge opportunities face-to-face marketing presents, especially at exhibitions. Here is how you can utilise exhibition marketing to transform your interactions into sales.

1.    Creating a buzz

Don’t wait until the day of the exhibition to start generating a buzz. Start early to nurture your new leads even before you meet people at the exhibition. You can create a buzz by promoting your exhibition presence via social media, blogging about it, distributing press releases, and even hosting a podcast or webinar.

2.    Be a speaker.

If you want to turn interactions into sales and ensure your brand stands out at your next exhibition, why not be a guest speaker at the event? Coming across as an expert in your field and getting to mention your booth can seriously boost interaction and therefore your bottom line. Once your drive feet to your booth, you can talk to visitors about your speech, and even use a slide deck for both your talk and at your stand. Aspect Exhibitions are UK based exhibition stand contractors with a 26 year history who can set up your stand and give you the “wow” factor to ensure you stay top of mind in attendee’s thoughts!

3.    Concentrate on the interactions.

Social media allows brands to passively market to their potential customers. But, at exhibitions and other types of in-person events, the real value lies in the interactions. At your next event, take steps to ensure that as many people as possible visit and engage with your stand. Encourage employees to truly connect with attendees, and use loads of demonstrations and graphics to draw plenty of interest.

Interestingly, the majority of live event attendees report that live demonstrations along with free samples tend to significantly define their purchasing decision. You may also want to consider holding giveaways and contests to encourage even greater interaction. Great examples include:

• A prize wheel
• Industry trivia
• A game of “guess how many”
• A photo competition
• A game of “spot the difference”

It’s also a good idea to post frequent live social media updates and use the event hashtag along with images of your stand. All the other attendees following the event feed could then be drawn to your display thanks to your engaging posts.

4.    Follow up after the event.

Many of the leads that you will gather at exhibitions will be right at the top of your sales funnel, which means they need a little more convincing after the event in order to convert. Once you have made that memorable in-person impression at the exhibition, you need to do a follow up. Try sending out a message to your new email signups to thank them for visiting your booth.

Hopefully you have already designed a targeted email marketing strategy that will help to move the leads down your sales funnel.