How Business Expos and Trade Fairs Can Benefit Your Small Business

When you run a business, you have a lot to deal with. It might seem as though you simply don’t have the time or resources to consider things like business expos and trade fairs, especially because your focus is elsewhere. However, you could be missing out on some fantastic opportunities.

Image Credit.

Networking and Making Connections

While running a business is competitive, this isn’t to say that there aren’t other relationships that you can form with different companies. An expo or market fair is a fantastic opportunity to look at the market around you.

As well as engaging in market research and seeing other local businesses in your industry and similar industries, you can also make some potential connections. Talk to the business owners nearby, especially if they have complementary rather than competitive products or services. What does this mean?

Let’s look at the wedding industry for example. It’s one industry, with lots of different complementary niches. When someone is planning a wedding, they might look at getting a wedding planner, but they also need to buy clothes, get a cake, get flowers, and so much more.

All of these different businesses can work together to help everyone to profit. If you sell wedding cakes and, while you’re at an expo or setting up market stalls at a trade fair you see a florist nearby, you can get in contact with them. You could share customers rather than having to fight over them, essentially doubling your reach.

While the main focus of these expos isn’t to link up with other businesses, it’s still worth getting in touch with them. You can also help each other set up, especially if you develop a rapport. Later on, you can consider networking with LinkedIn to continue your collaboration.

As well as linking up with businesses to collaborate with, it’s also good to look for B2B (business to business) opportunities, as you can either find new clients or potential vendors to help you progress. 

It is always important to look for better deals when you’re getting vendors. Even better, most potential vendors at a trade show or expo will be local to your business, meaning that you can find materials that don’t have to travel as far. If you can keep your logistics as short and simple as possible, you will save a lot more money.

So, talk to other business owners. While there will be rivals and competitors there, there’s no point trying to make everyone your enemy. Find ways to learn from everyone, including your rivals. As the day goes on, see what they do and try to learn what works and what doesn’t. 

Standing Out From Other Businesses

So, we know how to link up and collaborate with other businesses, but that isn’t the main point of a business expo and definitely not a trade fair. The idea is to stand out to customers and make them notice your business.

These expos are amazing marketing tools and they can help you to get a great sales boost. A successful trade fair ends with a significant profit and hopefully more interested customers, but how can you reach this point?

The most important thing is to make sure that you stand out from the crowd. Every other business is there with the same goal, which is to reach as many customers as possible. Depending on your niche, you might have a limited selection of stock to play with.

Pick the items that you know will sell the best. A trade fair isn’t the time to experiment and take risks, it’s the time to reach as many people as possible. Choose your best selling items and the products that you’re most proud of.

Consider special offers, especially if people buy multiple items. You can also encourage people to sign up for better deals in the future. All of this makes people more likely to buy. You should also think about how the products look. Part of the advertising of a trade fair comes down to other people seeing your customers with your products and wanting them. 

Another incredibly important thing to consider is your location. Selling at a fair means trying to shout louder and look brighter than everyone else. Get to the fair as early as possible and try to secure a spot that will get a lot of foot traffic. This means you’re more likely to get noticed. Get a few people to man the stall if possible, so they can take turns and breaks, while also wandering around and trying to attract people to your stall.

Image Credit.

Expanding Your Marketing Strategy

As well as making sales on the day and hopefully making a healthy profit, the best thing about business expos and trade fairs is the marketing potential. This starts with the expo itself. Make sure that you get good banner printing services so that your stall stands out as much as possible and reflects your brand. A good banner should be eye catching but simple enough that people can tell what you sell at a glance. You don’t want people to not be able to understand the banner, as their attention will fade very quickly.

You can also start marketing before the expo or trade show itself. If you have a social media account, this is one of the best ways to use it. Talk about the trade show, talk about your business being there, and talk about the opportunities it could present for your customers. You could offer deals for people who follow your social media account, for example, encouraging them to attend.

After the event, make sure to also link your business social media account to the account of the event organizers. Take plenty of photos of your stall and the expo itself so people can link you to the event. Even if they didn’t attend, people like companies that get involved in the community.

As well as marketing to people at the event itself, try to expand even further. Marketing is all about making your brand as visible as possible. People can’t buy a product from a company that they’ve never heard of before. But if they attend the event, ideally with the intention of discovering new products, they will be exposed to your product and your brand as a whole.

But these market days tend to spill over. As mentioned before, as well as having someone manning the stall at all times, consider other marketing strategies like newspaper adverts and posters around the area. Make sure people know you will be at the event and even during the event, hand out flyers and leaflets advertising your company.

As you might expect, this all takes planning. Most trade fairs and business expos are planned months in advance of happening. Make sure that you keep an eye out for any upcoming shows and events so that you can not only secure a spot, but also start preparing your marketing strategy and your business in advance.

Making More Sales Over Time

A trade show is great for initial sales, but it’s even better for sales over time. Ideally, you want your customers to come back looking for more, and the trade fair is really just a first taste. 

So, find ways to incentivise customers to return. One great way to do this is by using loyalty schemes to reward customers for buying more than once. The simplest way to do this is with a loyalty card. A physical loyalty card allows you to stamp it a number of times and, once the card is filled up, the customer gets a discount or a free item. 

You can still use a traditional loyalty card or an app, but the principle is the same. In reality, people are only getting a 10% discount if it’s a free item every tenth purchase, but they like the idea of earning this reward. Even better, they’ve bought a product an extra nine times, which encourages them to build a habit.

This is just one example of a loyalty scheme, but it’s proven to work. People love building up rewards over time and it keeps them coming back for more.

You can also encourage people to join your social media or to provide their email address for marketing purposes. Why would anyone do this?

Well, if you offer potential discounts in the future, people will be interested in finding out about them. Even better, if you sell online, you can turn a one-time customer into a loyal returning customer.

Image Credit.

Of course, none of this works if people aren’t impressed with your product and customer service in the first place. If you want future sales, you need to nail the initial sale. So make sure that the stall is well stocked so you can sell as much as possible and reach more customers, and make sure that your products are amazing.