Is increased brand awareness your trade show goal?

In the wonderful world of exhibitions brand awareness is a goal many people pop at the top of their design briefs. We all want to win the hearts of our customers so when it comes time for them to purchase, they think of us. However, as an exhibition goal, it is a little slippery. Here’s why…

There’s one huge problem with this as a goal. It’s not quantifiable. Make this one change to your brief and I promise you, everything important falls into place.

You can pretty much stop reading this blog post now and if you walk away knowing that key take away, my job is done (queue mic drop).

Why I struggle with brand awareness as a goal

If brand awareness is your primary trade show goal, your team might be sharing your point of difference with anyone who will listen to them. It might feel good at the time and they get the warm and fuzzies chatting away to people. They might even have a busy stand full of rainbows and coffees galore.

You might have a beautiful exhibition stand design that is in your company colours, but if you’re approaching the whole event just wanting brand awareness you’re kind of running on hope. It isn’t likely you’ll deliver results.

Months down the track when they assess the true conversion rate, people often dismiss shows as a “flag waving” exercise and the true cost is huge. Especially when you factor in the missed opportunities.

How a measurable goal focuses your actions

The super cool thing about setting quantifiable trade show goals, is that when you target something specific that you can measure, like … getting 50 quality leads … or… booking 10 appointments with C-Level executives, you will be focusing your efforts on the right actions to achieve those desired results and often brand awareness is a beautiful bi-product of your work. – Isn’t that awesome?!

You and your team will actively look for ways to nail your goal. It’s literally like seeing the Matrix.

When you narrow your focus on a key goal, it impacts everything positively. What pre-show marketing you release, how you design your exhibition stand, what messaging you choose to display and the decisions you make on the stand – i.e. not wasting your time talking to the wrong people.

When communications are niche focused, they mean more to the people that matter.

The knock-on effect is incredible. You get better traction with qualified people, which means to more quality leads and better results. (Isn’t this what we truly want?)

In our business we know that collaborating with our clients to nail their exhibit strategy before doing any design work is key to delivering a campaign that actually works. If they just want to increase brand awareness, they don’t have a clear path to follow so my job is to support them in crafting something that is memorable and actionable.

When we help clients focus on the quality of the leads, instead of solely brand awareness, we can see them thrive as a team because they guarantee to focus their efforts on the high ticket aspects first.

As a team, we are so lucky to see what unfolds when the plan is right from the start.

If you would like help producing a winning strategy for your next exhibition, reach out for an obligation-free call.

Yours in Exhibiting,
Jess