Best practice for getting qualified leads/customers to your exhibition stand

1. Agree who exactly is your target audience
   
   
   • Prospects
   • Existing Clients
   • Previous Clients
   • Press contacts
   • Suppliers
   • Your own staff.
     
     
2. Do your research
   
   
   • What is their biggest fear at the moment? How can you product/service help to solve this?
   • Once you know this, make it the focus of your stand/your seminar.
   • Sell the end result. The solution to their problem. The answer to their need.
   • Make them feel that they’ll be missing out if they don’t attend.
     
     
3. Answer the question they’ll be asking: ‘What’s in it for me?

   These are busy people. Time out of the office must pay back/generate a return for the Company.
   
   

   They’ll want to make a well informed decision. Use bullet points with tested phrases such as:

   • You’ll learn/discover…
   • We’ll reveal…
   • You’ll take away an exclusive…
   • Proven techniques for…
   • Secrets of…
     
     
4. Avoid inviting them to attend on Monday mornings or Friday afternoons when your prospects are likely to be at their busiest in their office.
   
   
5. Decide what else should go on the invitation. Consider including:
   
   
   • A map showing the exhibition’s location
   • The stand’s position
   • Exhibition title
   • Day, date, month, year
   • Opening/closing times
   • Ticket cost (or the fact that you’ll get them a complimentary ticket)
   • How to register
   • The exhibition website address, for additional information
     
     
6. Include a specific call-to-action
   
   
   • Tell them precisely what to do.
   • Give them a reason to act now.
     
     
7. Repeat the message
   
   
   • As long as the message is relevant to their needs they won’t get ‘mailing fatigue’.
   • Contact them early so that they can allocate time in their diary.
   • Closer to the event contact them again with specific highlights of the Exhibition/Event, and the benefits to them to attend.
   • In the final couple of weeks focus your message on the pre-registration call to action.
   • In the final few days send a ‘see you at the event’ email.
   • Follow up key prospects on the telephone (if your budget allows).
     
     
8. Design the invitation to be visually consistent with the stand design (and of course the brand).

   Don’t use ‘wedding-type’ or formal invitations and postcards. Experience shows that they deliver poor response because there isn’t enough room to list all the details and benefits of attending.