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Uncategorised
22nd September, 2025
“When you first start to look at exhibiting, it can seem overwhelming but the benefits are well worth the effort……”
When you first start to look at exhibiting, it can seem overwhelming with so many things to think about and plan even before you get to the day. And as costs can be high, particularly for some of the larger exhibitions, you might even start wondering if it’s worth it, especially if you’re on a budget. But here is why you should do it anyway:
While there might be upfront expenses, you do get to market to and network with a whole host of people all at once, saving you time and money, instead of cold calling or firing off individual pitches or letters of introduction. With exhibition footfall in the hundreds or even thousands, that’s a lot of potential clients you can meet all in one place.
You can build your brand awareness, with a coherent and consistent application of your brand across your stand and your marketing materials. Visitors to your stand can even take your branding home with them if you provide mugs, calendars, pens or other useful swag that they’re likely to keep.
You can rapidly build your email marketing list by offering competitions for people to enter, and even just by chatting to people on your stand and asking if they’d like to be added. Usually, you’ll also be sent a full list of all of the attendees and their email addresses by the organisers after the exhibition so you can continue marketing to them later.
Keep an eye on your competitors by checking out their stand design, and finding out how they are appealing to customers and getting them to stay on their stand.
Learn from any seminars and speakers that are going on to update your skills and take away new ideas, inspiration and best practices for your business.
Find new suppliers and build relationships with other businesses that you might be able to work with in the future. You might even find complementary businesses where you can refer clients to each other.
Get instant feedback from your clients and stand visitors to help guide your business development and make improvements.
You could also survey your stand visitors in exchange for being entered into a prize draw. You can get priceless insights from face to face interaction that you couldn’t get from an online survey.Get fresh ideas for improving your stand for next time by looking at how other businesses are presenting themselves and attracting customers.
While exhibiting can be quite an expense for a small business, you don’t have to start with the huge exhibitions from the get go. Take small steps and build up from smaller, more cost effective local exhibitions, and then as you grow both your business and your budget, you can start taking on the bigger exhibitions in your field, growing your reach and your audience as you go.
