How SMEs can use the Exhibition season to expand their brands

As the dark evenings draw in, and the summer becomes a distant memory, attention begins to turn towards the exhibition season.

Exhibitions

From recognised venues such as the NEC or Olympia, through to smaller venues, tens of thousands of visitors are planning to desend on exhibitors in the forthcoming weeks.

As a small business, exhibitions provide a fantastic opportunity to grow your customer base, either through your existing bricks-and-mortar estate or as a toe in the water exercise to test out customer responses to new product ranges. It is pivitol to ensure you have made careful preparation to ensure the exhibition season is beneficial and profitable.

It’s not just endorphins and enthusiasm that will be in full flow at these events, the amount being spent at consumer shows is continuing to rise in comparison to 2015.

One thing small business owners need to realise from the outset that attending an exhibition or having some stand space isn’t going to be cheap. However, with a captive audience on-site for several days (or weeks in some cases), the right strategy can make sure you receive a profitable return on your outlay.

Apart from the odd last minute opportunity, exhibition stands are booked several months in advance, so it’s wise to start planning for the season well in advance. This provides the business with plenty of time to decide what product range to take with them, planning marketing logistics and to ensure sufficient stock requirements.

When making decisions about what products or services to sell or promote, it’s imperative to research the demographic of each exhibition of fair, and merchandise around the consumer needs. Companies selling food and drink might have a universal appeal, but other items have have a stronger need amongst a more specialised audience, so think logically.

Factoring all this together, small businesses are well advised to spend an element of their funds attending an exhibition or two that fit the bill of your target audience, rather than investing in a stand at an event or show where the audience is unlikely to be interested in your products.

Speak to previous exhibitiors on social media to get feedback on previous events, and to get direct feedback on their experience. Once you’ve decided which show or fairs to attend, the next task is to make sure all licensing and official documentation is completed and your stand has been designed and ordered with the event sales team.

With everything else in place, there’s just one thing left to think about – contactless card payments! Long gone are the days when exhibitions were cash only – from drinks to clothes, today’s visitors expect to have the option to pay by contactless card payments for their event purchases. The general consensus is that most visitors prefer the contactless card experience and it is safer than carrying around extensive change or large amounts of cash.

Enhancements in card payment technology means this Autumn, it is now safer and more reliable to accept contactless card payments in non-traditional environments than ever before, and in turn allows companies to utilise every sales opportunity.

Using mobile, countertop, bluetooth or Wi-Fi card machines exhibitors have countless oppotunitiees to process payments at their disposal allowing them to process card payments wherever they are trading.

If your business is booked to attend an exhibition or show this Autumn, get in touch with the events team at Wireless Terminal Solutions to learn about how our short term hire Chip & PIN credit card machines can help benefit your exhibition. With the quickest turn around in the industry, your card terminal hire for your next event is only a phone call away.