The CEIR Index recently released results revealing that the business-to-business exhibitions channel continues to grow incrementally, and growth in the near-term future is anticipated to accelerate. Additional information provided in this article: CEIR reports Exhibition Industry growth elevation in 2013.
Marketing experts all over the globe agree that people buy from people. In the digital world we now live in, exhibitions provide businesses with a unique marketing advantage: the opportunity to meet, connect and build rapport with current and prospective customers, creating experiences and relationships that are much more than just “business”. The ‘secret’ is in delivering the right mix of content and people for both exhibitors and attendees so they can both achieve their objectives for investing their organizations’ money and time to be there. In simpler terms, it’s in delivering ROI.
1. Quality of attendance
For exhibitors, this means delivering the right mix of the brand marketer’s target audience to an exhibition that enables the company to kill two birds with just one stone, by meeting multiple marketing and sales objectives with both existing and prospective clients. It is always first and foremost about the quality of attendance.
2. Shopping and Learning objectives
For attendees, this means understanding and carrying through set objectives that are to be fulfilled through attending a selected exhibition show: shopping and learning. Firstly, shopping is the primary focus, including interest in seeing new product technology, interacting with new products and having a chance to explore the people behind the products. Attendees also aim to achieve multiple learning objectives, both in accessing learning opportunities made available by an event or on an exhibition stand, but also from their peers through networking. Exhibitions that are known to deliver the industry “under one roof” offer the most compelling value proposition.
Exhibitions can be seen as a large investment, particularly by small and medium-sized businesses, but by investing in the short term, you can reap the benefits in the long term, turning the leads collected at an exhibition into loyal customers. Organisations that visualise long-term results understand the importance of exhibitions, and this is why they take the time to strategise and identify key exhibitions to participate in. Remember: be seen at the right one.
Information retrieved from the following sources:
– “How to make business exhibitions work for you” – The Marketing Donut
– “What’s in the Secret Sauce that Makes Exhibitions Resilient?” – CEIR Blog
This article was supplied by SSQ Exhibitions
