While your exhibitors are thinking about travel plans and booth design, they should also be focusing on marketing their presence at the event. Help them by sharing marketing materials such as:
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Email signatures
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Web banners
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Exhibitor badge for their website
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Email invites
1. Booth Selection
Booth location is critical to ROI, your exhibitors want to get as much traffic as possible. Collect data from past conferences and find where the most traffic flowed. If you have a large venue, ensure that you space out your stages or seminar rooms, this encourages attendees to see as many exhibitors as possible.
Use an event management system that allows them to make those selections online in real-time. Some allow for wait lists for spots as well. Use pin-dropping on your event app so that attendees can easily find the exhibitors they want to see.
2. Exhibitors Meetings
After the marketing toolkit, suggest that they begin inviting attendees to meet with them at your event. Make sure they don’t expect that attendees will just drop by. Some of them will, but they should do everything they can to ensure the ones they want to see get seen.
A hosted buyer system is great for encouraging meetings. Cover the costs of some of the more influential attendees at your event, in exchange for them booking 5 meetings each (for example).
Give your exhibitors the technology to make scheduling these meetings easy. Use an event app to allow attendees to build their own personal schedules and organise their appointments.
3. Exhibitor Webinar
There are always event specifics that must be explained and best practices that exhibitors may not know. Host a webinar to ensure your they have the information they need to be successful.
Add value for your them by including tips for a successful booth or cutting costs at events. Don’t expect that their company has shared the secrets to event ROI. Instead, help your exhibitors discover them, it will benefit you in the long term.
