Your Guide To Exhibiting

Transcription

1 Your Guide To Exhibiting 19th & 20th MAY 2019 NEC, BIRMINGHAM 28th & 29th APRIL 2019 SEC, GLASGOW Setting Objectives Promoting Your Presence On the Day Measuring Success How We Can Help Get in Touch

2 Your Guide To Exhibiting Whether you are a seasoned exhibitor or are interested in exhibiting at one of our shows, this guide has been created to aid you in having a successful event, from promoting your presence with our free and paid-for opportunities, to measuring your success. Exhibiting With Us Beauty UK, encompassing Hair UK, Barber UK and Holistic Health, is the largest exhibition of its kind outside of London, welcoming over 25,600 visitors from across the country. Scottish Hair & Beauty, encompassing Scottish Barber, is Scotland s only hair and beauty trade exhibition, attracting over 8,700 visitors from across the North. Over 25,600 visitors attended in % of visitors don t attend any other trade events Four shows under one roof Located at one of the UK s most accessible venues The NEC, Birmingham is in the middle of the UK s motorway network, is a five-minute walk away from Birmingham International railway station and over 120 coach services run daily across the UK to Birmingham Airport Accommodation agency, Event Express, negotiate discounted hotel prices at hotels around the NEC, Birmingham, exclusively for exhibitors Resorts World is perfectly situated for anyone coming from the NEC and is home to a broad range of places to eat and drink, making it an ideal place to take your team after the show Over 8,700 visitors attended in % of visitors don t attend any other trade events Three shows under one roof Located at one of Europe s most prestigious venues The Scottish Event Campus (SEC) is accessible by numerous transport options, including its own dedicated railway station, and is served by 3 airports. A bus also runs between Glasgow city Centre and the SEC every 30 minutes Accommodation agency, Event Express, negotiate discounted hotel prices at hotels around the SEC, Glasgow, exclusively for exhibitors

3 Setting Objectives Why are you exhibiting? Set clear objectives well in advance of the exhibition, ensuring that all pre-show marketing materials are directed towards these goals. Whether in relation to a product launch, brand awareness or sales leads, ensure that these objectives can be easily measured and assessed in relation to the show and your overall company strategy following the event. Outline a timetable to work towards in regard to all exhibition preparations. This should include the designing of your stand, preparing any marketing materials and the ordering of retail stock for your stand. Put a plan in place, and stick to it. Many exhibitors leave promoting their attendance to the last minute, so make sure you give yourself enough time to let people know that you are going to be there. Put together a calendar with deadlines, which can be printed out and put up in your office so that all of your staff know which jobs need to be done and by when. Promoting your Presence Creating a buzz leading up to the show will maximise traffic to your stand and keep relationships going after the event has finished. It s proven that exhibitors who ve rolled out a pre-show awareness campaign raise the quality of the audience they bring to their stand by 46%,* which is why we provide as much support as possible to our exhibitors on the run-up to the event. Create your special show offers and make sure everyone knows about them! These should reflect your company objectives for the show and could focus on specific products or your entire range if your aim is to promote overall brand awareness. If you are looking to expand your database, then why not offer a competition for people to leave their contact details with you, or if your aim is to generate sales, then you could offer free postage for people from the show who want to buy from you later online. Launching something new, whether a product or training programme, can also be an effective method of encouraging footfall to your stand, especially if the new product is only exclusively available for visitors at the show. Make sure to set up demonstrations of your new product in action so that everyone can see how amazing it is. Remember that this will be their first time hearing about it, so you need to catch their attention. Collaborate with an influencer or brand ambassador to entice more people to your stand. As influencer marketing is becoming an increasingly popular way for brands to get noticed by a wider audience, consider partnering up with an industry professional at the show. If it s a trade event, make sure that they are relevant to your audience and then let everyone know that they are going to be there. This will entice people to register for tickets to the show, so that they can meet the influencer on your stand. *Source: Study by Deloitte & Touche commissioned by CEIR (The Center for Exhibition Industry Research)

4 Ways to Promote your Presence: 1. Send invitations 2. Advertise in trade magazines 3. Use social media 4. Update your website 5. Write press releases 1. Send invitations to your clients After you have planned and outlined your objectives, you need to attract an audience by inviting them to the event. This is an important first step in promoting your presence, as you can t expect attendees to line up to visit your exhibit if you haven t made it known that you are going to be there. We can provide you with ticket invitations for you to pass on to clients, or include with their invoices in the lead-up to the show. 2. Advertise in trade magazines When advertising in trade magazines, add a stand flash to your advertisements to highlight your upcoming events to readers. If you are interested in advertising in our magazine, Guild News - the UK's leading professional beauty magazine - then this can be arranged with your Account Manager. Or, if you already advertise in the magazine, then our art team can add a stand flash to your adverts for you. 3. Social Media Social media is perhaps the greatest free tool for promoting your presence at the show. After attracting potential visitors with your invites and advert spots, it s time to engage with them using social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. In the run-up to the event, make sure that you are sharing your progress with your followers by uploading teaser images or letting everyone know what sort of things to expect at the show. It is also a good way to interact with people so that you can find out what they would like to hear about or see at the event. If you think that posting regular updates to social media will be too time-consuming, then consider scheduling your messages instead using a free online site, as this way it is all done in advance. Included in our Exhibitor Marketing Materials, we will provide you with social media squares which can be used to announce that you are at the exhibition. These can also be personalised with your stand number. As it gets closer to the show, it s a good idea to remind everyone that you are going to be there. Our social media squares can also be used as a countdown to the event to get any potential lastminute visitors to register.

5 Ways to Promote your Presence: 4. Updating your Website Let your web visitors know of your attendance by creating a page on your website to showcase your special offers and launches at the show, or by writing blog posts or news stories in the lead-up to the event. Make sure that you keep your online presence updated, as this is where buyers might be checking you out prior to the event. Also, not all of your web visitors may follow you on social media, so this is a great way of reaching more of your customers prior to the event and attracting new potential visitors as well. Plus, it gives you additional content to share on your social media sites during your pre-show marketing campaign. Attach a web banner to your website using the image we provide so that visitors can be made aware of your presence at the show as soon as they click onto the page. 5. Write press releases Finally, send press releases out to relevant sources. Have something newsworthy to announce? Press releases are a great way to let people know more about you and your brand, plus anything that you are up to. If you are announcing a new product or an exciting collaboration, you can let other trade publications know by sending them a press release to announce to their readers. These can also be uploaded onto your website so that anyone visiting can be kept up-to-date with your brand.

6 On the Day Make your stand welcoming and attractive to visitors, and not just physically. Whilst innovative technology and expensive signage can help to draw in the visitors, knowledgeable, friendly and approachable staff can be just as important for gaining new business. Ensure that your team have been fully briefed on your objectives for the show and know how you wish them to present themselves and your brand. An often discussed tactic for attracting footfall is that of freebies. Whilst offering free gifts or samples can be successful at drawing in the crowds, particularly at consumer shows, it may not be the right tactic for your brand and objectives. An alternative idea could be to create a limitededition item or range only available to customers and prospects at the show. Monitor your social media platforms throughout the show to continue promoting your presence, answer any questions from visitors trying to find you and remind followers of your special offers. If you tag us in your posts, we will keep sharing on our social media pages throughout the event. Make use of our Exhibitor Lounge, where you can arrange more private, off-stand meetings with clients, network with colleagues or relax and take a break from your stand. Post Event Measuring Success After attending the show, it is time to analyse how successful it has been. Refer back to your original objectives for the show. If these were easily measured, such as number of leads, retail stock sold etc, then these can be easily compared. Remember to consider your leads from the event. Many customers will not only order whilst at the show, but also go back to brands they met in the weeks and months following the event. Whilst the initial investment of exhibiting may seem costly, the long-term results of exhibiting at trade events can be extremely beneficial for your company. Maintain the buzz on social media. Thank the customers who attended the show by reaching out to them on social media and collect feedback on what they thought about the event. We will continue to share messages relating to the show in the weeks and months afterwards. Plus, once confirmation of bookings for the following year begins, the promotion cycle starts once again. Keep the conversation going, interact with potential leads on social media, write follow-up blog posts about your experience of the event, or update your website s blog or FAQs page to answer some of the queries brought up by visitors at the show. Consider reaching out to all show attendees post-event using marketing. Contact our Sales Account Managers for rates and options.

7 How we can help 1. The Personal Touch To us, customer care is everything; you will receive a dedicated Account Manager who can assist you with your show planning. 2. Pre-Show Marketing Assistance Exhibitor Marketing Materials Let us help you to bring customers to your stand. We provide you with a pack containing social media images, an signature / web banner, a jpeg and a printable A5 flyer, for you to advertise your attendance at the show to existing customers and future leads. Industry Profiling We will be running a series of targeted pre-show e-shots to our database in which we can showcase your stand number and special offers to further increase the success of your show. 3. Show App Submit your Exhibitor Profile either online or using the form provided, and you will be able to feature on the Show Website and in the Show App. A NEW addition to the exhibitions for 2019, the Show App will be where visitors can find out more information about your company, including the show offers that you are promoting. There will be paid-for opportunities available for those that want an enhanced listing on the app; get in touch with our Account Managers for more information. 4. An Intensive Marketing Plan We promise to run an intensive, well-structured marketing plan, including ticket invitations, a comprehensive marketing campaign to our database, personal telephone invitations and targeted social media campaigns. 5. Improved Exhibitor Areas We ensure there are dedicated areas for exhibitors to conduct business meetings and also to create great networking opportunities for future business. 6. Versatile and Effective Sponsorship Opportunities Maximise your brand s exposure and give your company the competitive advantage by becoming a show sponsor. There are varying levels of sponsorship to suit all budgets, and our opportunities have been carefully designed to give you maximum profiling pre-show, at the show and post-show. 7. Free Ticket Invites for Your Customers We can supply you with an unlimited amount of show tickets to send to your customers and promote your presence. These will be posted to you free of charge.

8 Get in Touch Nicky Burgess Shaun Peaty Edward Kemplen Katharine West