London Trade Shows, Why Exhibiting is Essential, How to Get Ready and Be Noticed Among Your Competitors.

Exhibiting at B2B London Trade Shows is the Best Investment for Your Business.

99% of exhibitors find a unique offer in B2B exhibitions and trade shows that is not available from any other marketing channel.

Even in a wholly digital era, also if COVID-19 made the event industry tremble, taking part to trade shows and exhibitions is still a powerful marketing tool, extremely efficient to promote your services, products and a unique way to network. It has to be safe first of all, that’s why it’s fundamental to work only with COVID-19 trained event staff.

We already discussed in depth why 72% of event attendees PREFER in-person and face-to-face events over virtual ones.

Exhibiting at a trade show in London means listening to your clients, exploring your industry and observing your competitors, globally offering your services, interacting with the public and getting closer to your clients. Exhibiting at a B2B trade show in London provides you with an extensive network as an exhibitor: it’s a channel to interact within your industry, a display to promote your offer and image and so much more.

Based on research from CEIR (Centre for Exhibition Industry Research), conducted in 2018, 99% of exhibitors find a unique offer in B2B exhibitions and trade shows that no other marketing channel can offer. In particular, the study found out that 60% of exhibitors value the chance to meet many of their prospects and clients in one place and time. 51% of exhibitors said they value face-to-face meetings with prospects and customers. 47% said they appreciate the ability to meet with a variety of players face to face, such as customers, suppliers, resellers, etcetera.

Source: CEIR

B2B London trade shows allow exhibitors and attendees to meet face-to-face; a ‘luxury’ that is not so grant given in the email, video calls and text communication era we are living, especially considering the past few pandemic months. This networking tool brings more conversions, more lead generation and more sales compared to other marketing tools. That’s why even post-COVID exhibitions will start trading again. This business tool is way too significant. In fact, the UK Government just approved its guidance for the reopening of exhibitions, trade fairs, conferences and consumer shows on 1 October.

To make trade shows COVID-19 safe, you should only work with COVID-19 trained event staff.

Based on CEIR’s study, many statistics can help companies take part in London trade shows and get ready to make the best out of them.

Here’s our video summary, in case you don’t feel like reading today:

Why should I exhibit at a London Trade Show?

 

Brand awareness

88% of interviewed companies attend trade shows to grow or maintain brand awareness. London Trade shows and exhibitions represent an excellent way to make your company known, and they allow your niche public to get to know your brand.

Besides, exhibiting at trade shows in London offers you the chance to give a ‘human face’ to your brand. The best way to do this is by hiring someone experienced in trade shows, selected through his or her passions in matching your brand, company and identity. You can find COVID-19 trained event staff through an Event Staffing Agency.

Again, if we want corporate events, trade shows, exhibitions and B2B meetings to start happening again, we can’t stress enough how important it is to ONLY work with COVID-19 trained event staff.

Meeting face-to-face and looking at each other in the eyes is a perfect opportunity to understand better the best interactions, clients’ relationships and how our competitors and sales team are trading.

 

Lead Generation

72% of companies take part in exhibitions and trade shows to data capture and generate leads from new and potential customers. A few weeks ago, we mentioned the best lead generation strategies when exhibiting at trade shows, which you can find in the following video:

When exhibiting at a trade show in London, every exhibitor’s expectation is that of meeting new clients and obtaining new contracts. The choice of having a stand at a B2B exhibition allows you to establish strategic contact to grow your business and access new trading opportunities. Meeting with your suppliers, a potential client or a business partner at a trade show in London allows you to solidify that relationship. Obviously, after this first meeting, it’s necessary to follow up, bringing in new contracts or converting leads captured during the show.

 

Chance of meeting with clients

65% of interviewed companies exhibit at trade shows to meet regular clients. It may seem insignificant; however, in times so quick and technological, it’s more and more challenging to interact in-person with clients. Busy weeks and rushing to a new potential lead make clients meetings ever more challenging. Exhibiting at a trade show in London allows you to group all those meetings in a few days in one place. It would be otherwise too difficult to meet everyone outside your chosen trade show in London.

 

The best price-quality matrix for leads

If the first three reasons above link to relationship management and human interaction, it’s just as much essential to analyse the economical impact of attending a London trade show as an exhibitor. Based on CEIR’s study, the cost of a face-to-face meeting with a potential client during a trade show is that of $142 approx. At the same time, the price of a face-to-face meeting with a prospective client at an office is $259. You could save up to $100 per qualified lead – let’s not forget we are talking about B2B – making your exhibition stand the cheapest way to have face-to-face meetings with potential clients.

A display for new products and offers

92% of exhibitions attendees, participate in trading shows to see and learn about new products and services or new technological offers. An efficient exhibitor’s attendance should be planned in advance and not improvised; it should be strategic, sharing the right message and image. Create visitors expectations sharing your message in advance about the news you will introduce during a specific trade show in London. These simple tricks could represent the ultimate factor that will make you different from your competitors, and therefore get noticed.

Being among London trade show exhibitors inevitably creates new opportunities in business; however, how can you make the best out of it?

How to get ready for an exhibition

45% of trade show attendees visit exhibitions only once a year. This percentage means that for many visitors, your company only has one chance a year to be known. Therefore, it is vital to make the best out of this chance and not throw it away. Attending an exhibition meaning listening to clients, observing the industry and competitors, expressing your global offer, interacting with the public, getting closer to your customers.

Exhibiting at a trade show in London should have a clear motivation and benefits, which is not something automatic and to give for granted. Having a detailed strategy allows you to make the best out of it, taking all opportunities and justifying ROI.

You could exhibit at London trade shows to sell too – or to put it even better, to set future sales. The truth is, motivations can be many, from brand awareness to customer service, from sales networking to qualitative data capture and lead generation on the industry and products. Efficiently exhibiting to a trade show in London is built step by step, which stands for all kinds of well-thought business investments.

 

Tips on how to get ready to exhibit at a trade show in London

When getting ready to exhibit at a trade show in London, you should ask yourself questions like:

• What is your target?
• What do you want to communicate?
• What are your commercial/marketing goals?
• What’s your budget? This Event Budget Template may be helpful for that. 
• To which other strategies can you link the show?
• Are you hiring COVID-19 trained Event Staff?

The answers to the above questions are the first starting point to better plan your attendance and exhibiting at London trade shows, in obtaining the best ROI.

 

IN CONCLUSION

Rox Event Staff Agency in London is the only UK event staffing agency that provides COVID-19 trained Event Staff, Event Hosts and Event Hostesses.

We operate nationwide with over 2,000 dynamic COVID-19 trained event staff on our growing roster. We have dedicated account management, event marketers, event graphic design, staff’s right-to-work checks, training and skills tests on all workers, taking care of payroll too. All this leaves you free to focus on your business!

For more information, please contact Federica, Rox Event Staff’s Managing Director at info@roxeventstaff.com.