Exhibition Planning: Secrets To Success From Industry Experts

In the ever-evolving world of marketing and networking, exhibitions remain an excellent way to showcase your brand, connect with a decision-ready target audience, and demonstrate to the competition why you’re the best! But planning a successful exhibition requires time and focus, so what are the most effective tips to help you navigate the complexities of planning and executing a memorable and purposeful event?

This in-depth blog offers you a professional guide, complete with practical advice and strategic insights, designed to elevate your next event from good to exceptional.

The Foundation Of Exhibition Planning: A Strategic Approach

Exhibition planning is a journey rather than a sprint, so make sure you give time to developing the right strategy to give you a solid foundation for your exhibition success. Understanding your goals, your target audience and the type of brand experience you want to offer will all help you set the stage for a well-orchestrated event that delivers commercially as well as experientially.

Our Top Tips & Advice:

• Effective planning hinges on clarity of purpose and understanding your audience, so internal workshops with key stakeholders can be a great way to tease out what’s important for your exhibition to deliver.
• Event objectives and audience segmentation can help you really target the focus of your event, from the size of exhibition space to the brand messaging.
• Co-creating an exhibition vision with those who are involved ensures everyone is clear about the impact your exhibition needs to have and will help create a sense of team when it comes to delivering the live event.

Mastering Logistics In Exhibition Planning

While exhibition logistics may seem like one of the more unglamorous aspects of delivering a successful exhibition, they are one of the most important. From understanding exhibition floor plans to ensuring you select a high traffic stand space that will deliver maximum footfall, to having the right contractors in place to set up, and break down your physical exhibition stand, there’s a lot of your exhibition planning that sits in this category.

Our Top Tips & Advice:

• Focus on detailed logistics planning to ensure a smooth flow before, during, and after the exhibition; this process will also highlight any activities that need additional attention or steps that may potentially be missed.

• Consider working with an exhibition stand contractor who can manage the logistics planning on your behalf; not only will you benefit from their extensive expertise of what works but it will also free up your own time to focus on aspects where you can add real value.
• Coordinating aspects such as arrival times, setup needs, and technology requirements in advance prevent last-minute hiccups and ensure a seamless experience for all participants.

Crafting A Compelling Exhibition Marketing Plan

Your exhibition marketing plan is where your brand voice comes to life; it’s how you attract your target audience to your stand as well as how you engage them pre- and post-exhibition. Creating a comprehensive exhibition narrative and key messages alongside your audience segmentation will help you deliver a targeted, impactful exhibition campaign that will have your prospects and customers talking about you long after the exhibition has closed its doors.

Our Top Tips & Advice:

• A dynamic marketing strategy is critical for drawing in the right crowd. Make sure you plan how to best engage each of your target audience segments and aim to create a compelling reason for them to come and see you at your exhibition stand.
• Effective marketing ensures your event resonates with the desired audience, maximising engagement and ROI, so make sure it has the necessary budget and planning allocated to this activity.
• Leveraging social media, email campaigns, and industry partnerships can create buzz and drive attendance so plan your campaign across a range of platforms and channels.

Designing Your Exhibition Plan With Impact

When it comes to your exhibition presence, the decisions you have made about your exhibition stand design will become a reality. Not just a direct reflection of your brand, your design should also show purpose, give your audience a reason to seek you out and importantly, create a lasting impact that lasts well beyond the exhibition.  There are lots of different aspects to think about when it comes to design, from how to best utilise the space you have with partitions, furniture and technology through to the materials, lighting and colour scheme. Get it right, and you’ll already stand out from the crowd!

Our Top Tips & Advice:

• A thoughtfully designed stand is a powerful marketing tool; be creative to showcase your brand, key messaging and even the team you stand up to support you at the exhibition.

• Thoughtful messaging and imagery as part of your exhibition stand design can be a great way to kickstart conversations with your audience; think about how you can use this to your advantage.
• There are technology and gamification options to suit every budget and style and given these can significantly enhance your audience engagement, it’s worth considering how you can incorporate this in a meaningful way within your stand design.

Budgeting Wisely In Exhibition Planning

Your budget is the foundation of your exhibition project, but it’s closely connected to the other most important set of numbers you need to consider – the KPIs that will help you understand whether your exhibition has been a success.

With regard to event budget, there are lots of elements to include. The total cost will most likely vary depending on the size and scale of the exhibition, location and why you’re there.

To build your high-level exhibition budget plan, think about:

• The cost of the exhibition space
• Whether you are using a modular or custom exhibition stand and if you need to commission new components
• Additional stand furniture such as a tables, chairs and cupboard space
• Tech, IT and connectivity
• Promotional items
• Refreshments and catering
• Staffing and any associated travel/accommodation costs
• Logistics and delivery costs

Depending on the above, it’s not unusual for a total event budget to sit within the £50,000 – £150,000 bracket. This is where the second set of numbers come in as you should be able to demonstrate through measurement and KPIs that for the event investment of x, the return is expected to be y, generated through increased lead generation, sales or even brand perception.

At Aboveline, we can work with you to develop an event budget that captures all of your essential requirements as well as a bespoke exhibition stand to ensure you stand out for all the right reasons whilst you’re deploying your event strategy.

Evaluating Success: The Final Step In Exhibition Planning

Post-event evaluation is crucial for understanding the successes and learning from the challenges of your exhibition. This insight can help you make decisions about future exhibition strategies, for example capturing the aspects of your stand design that were most engaged in, whilst understanding which of your key messages resonated well will give you a platform for your post-exhibition engagement campaign.

Our Top Tips & Advice:

• Surveying attendees, either during or post event, provides direct feedback on their experience whilst it is still fresh in their minds, which can be invaluable for enhancing future exhibitions.
• Don’t forget to speak to the stakeholders involved in your exhibition strategy and your on-the-day event team as they will have a fresh perspective on the success of the exhibition that should also influence your plans for future exhibitions.
• Be sure to speak to the exhibition organiser as it’s likely they will have data about the whole experience that you can use as part of your own organisational analysis, especially when it comes to ROI and potential audience reach.

Exhibition planning is both an art and a science. It needs attention to detail, strategic input and creative flair to deliver something outstanding. Applying a logical and planned approach to your exhibition planning will stand you in good stead, but being able to articulate your brand’s passion and vision into the event is the real magic.

At Aboveline we live and breathe exhibitions and would love to chat with you about creating a memorable brand experience for your upcoming exhibitions. Get in touch with our team by calling 01270 848 650, emailing here, or filling in our contact form here.