Event Management

Top Tips For Exhibiting At A Business Show

Shot from above showing a business trade show with blue exhibit colours

Business shows are a tried and tested way of gaining exposure for your business. They also provide a unique opportunity for networking and strengthening connections. But, whether it’s your first time or you’re a returning business, it’s important to attend the exhibition feeling prepared and confident.

Over the years, we have attended our fair share of business exhibitions and managed to acquire some first-hand insights too. As proud media sponsors of this year’s Better Business Show (hosted by Worthing and Adur Chamber Of Commerce), it’s safe to say we know a thing or two about making your business stand out. Here’s our top tips for exhibiting at a business show:

Set a clear goal

What do you hope to achieve? Do you want to show off a new product? Maybe you’d like to strengthen business connections, or make new ones? Tailoring your strategy around one of these goals will ensure that your exhibit has a tight focus, which makes it easier to budget for and appeal to the right audience. Ultimately, having clear goals and expectations in mind will help you to feel confident while executing your plan – making sure you achieve your desired results.

Plan your budget

Once again it is important to prepare in advance. With your goal decided for the exhibition, you can then focus on the budget. Lots of different elements go into an exhibit, and small things add up. Set a budget for travel, hotels, and renting the exhibit space. Be mindful of how many members of staff you are going to bring, as this can make costs spiral quickly.  Be responsible, always prioritise the essentials and avoid last minute spending to evade potential late notice fees.

Create an inviting space

Give the crowd a reason to stop by – make your stand exciting, unique, and inviting. Consider offering simple refreshments or temporary seating, which will reinforce positive associations with your business. Remember that people are naturally drawn to visually pleasing spaces, so keep it on brand, organised and tidy. Avoid cluttering your stand and create a strong focal point at the exhibit. Eye catching graphics or company slogans can go a long way in conveying the overall message and values of your business, while bright primary colours – such as red – naturally help to draw in crowd attention (bonus points if they’re your brand colours).

Maximise engagement and interactivity

Boost your stand interest through interactive demos and engaging tasters. Create memorable opportunities for audience involvement and physical participation, allowing your prospects to better understand your services. For example, if you’re promoting a physical product, do a live demonstration of the goods in action. This will help the audience to better visualise the effectiveness of your product as well as providing them with a real time opportunity to ask questions and receive a response. You may also want to consider contests or giveaways, which are both effective techniques for creating interest and buzz around your services. Proving beneficial both prior and during the exhibit, these engagement strategies are a great way of securing a new customer base as well as encouraging social sharing.

Promote and follow-up

Hone your communication skills and make the most of the business show by promoting your attendance. Spread the word through your website and active social media platforms by incorporating exhibit teasers into your weekly content. It’s a great tactic for building up momentum and excitement ahead of the show. A good way to do this is through sneak-peaks, promotional posts, and event countdowns. During the show, utilise every minute with your prospects. Have all relevant documents at hand and make future communication smooth and effortless. Create easy access to sign up sheets, business cards and samples, showcasing your business efficiency from the get-go. Most importantly, always follow up with new connections and prospective customers!

We hope you’ve found this read insightful! Let us know if we’ve missed anything and catch us at the upcoming Better Business Show. If you’d like to find out more or require any additional business support, get in touch:

E: makeithappen@mbsmih.com   T: 01903 688789

Passing The Baton – 45 Tasks You Could Outsource

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When you pass tasks that you are finding time consuming on to your virtual assistant, it leaves time and space for your company to grow. Your focus can return to what you do best – running your business. You may not have been aware of the incredible number of tasks that you could outsource, so here are just some of them that we offer to give you an idea…

VOICEMAIL CHECKING – Does your phone get full of voicemails? We can keep you up to date.

APPOINTMENT MAKING – Conducting calls to existing and prospective clients to make appointments.

DIARY MANAGEMENT – Keeping you and your diary up to date.

EMAIL MANAGEMENT – Sorting, cleansing and replying on your behalf.

DATA INPUTTING – We can help you keep your business records up to date and accurate.

SERVER AND ONLINE FILING – It’s easy for your server and online files to get out of hand. We can make sure that they stay clear and consistent throughout.

PREPARE TRAINING MATERIALS – Running training events or meetings can be time consuming with the amount you have to prepare. Whether that’s PowerPoint presentations or questionnaires, we can help.

COMPILING MEETING MINUTES – Attending meetings can take huge chunks of time out of your day, so the last thing you want to be doing is compiling meeting minutes, which can take up even more of your time. We can compile meeting minutes for you.

LEGAL FORM COMPLETION – We can take the process of completing necessary legal forms away from you by taking care of this remotely. One less thing for you to worry about.

FORM CREATION – Forms can be useful tools to gather information. We can help create these for you.

PREPARING PRESENTATIONS – Preparing an engaging, well laid out presentation can take time. Our malicious attention to detail and keen eye for design can take care of this for you.

DATABASE CLEANSING – Keep your database free of irrelevant documents with our database cleansing service.

EXCEL DATABASE CREATION – We love a good spreadsheet! If you need one created, look no further than MOMENTUM.

REPORT CREATION – Need daily, weekly or monthly reports but don’t have the time in your day to create them? Pass the task on to us.

 DOCUMENT CREATION – Need a specific type of document created, but not sure how to do it, or simply don’t have the time? Let us help you out.

ONLINE RESEARCH – Collecting data via the internet.

CUSTOMER RESEARCH – Gathering information about your customers’ needs and preferences.

KEYWORD RESEARCH – Research into keywords that people enter into search engines relating to your business.

COMPETITOR ANALYSIS – An assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of current and potential competitors. 

TWITTER SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT – We are experts in the ‘twittersphere’. We’ll help you stay connected sharing relevant, frequent and direct messages to your followers. We help clients in a number of industries reach their target market in 280 characters or less!

FACEBOOK SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT – Our skilful social media gurus can help you gain organic page likes on this popular social networking site, making sure details of your offerings and expertise reach prospects and existing customers.

LINKEDIN SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT – We can help you reach even more businesses and contacts. Let us start building your business presence on LinkedIn by creating your Company Page, attracting followers, and posting regular updates to drive engagement.

PINTEREST SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT – Pinterest is a great social network for sharing details of your images and videos – including links, making this the perfect platform for us to promote and visualise your products and services.

BLOG CREATION – Helping you to get regular messages and insightful content to your online audiences.

PROOF READING – We can read over everything you’ve written, checking for errors and ensuring your grammar and tone are consistent.

COPYWRITING – If you’re creating or updating a website, we can help by creating bespoke keyword focussed copy.

EMAIL CAMPAIGNS – Targeted messaging, monthly updates, one off communication and much more.

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION – We can help you to achieve high ranking search results.

CONTACT DATA – Turning your business cards and other contacts lists into functional databases.

NEWSLETTERS – Regular digital communications providing key updates and marketing opportunities.

BUSINESS LISTINGS – Getting your business noticed and supporting your SEO strategy.


CREDIT CONTROL – Building relationships with your customers to improve your cashflow.

REDUNDANCY AND TUPE – We can provide specialist employer advice on making employees redundant, dealing with business transfers, or changes to service provisions within your business.

DISCIPLINARY AND GRIEVANCE – We can support you with developing a disciplinary or grievance procedure, or to provide advice and support when managing an employee disciplinary or grievance case.

CHANGE MANAGEMENT – We can support you throughout your organisational changes to allow you to focus on your day to day business.

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT – We can provide you with specialist advice or training on managing performance, and we can support you with developing an effective performance appraisal system.

RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION – We can help you with writing job specifications, job descriptions, recruitment selection frameworks and support you through the selection procedure. We can provide job offer paperwork and contracts of employment, and even support you on your induction procedure.

CONTRACTS AND EMPLOYEE HANDBOOKS – We can review your existing contracts, policies and procedures to ensure they are up to date with current legislation requirements. We can also tailor our templated frameworks and policies to suit and protect your business.

HEALTH AND SAFETY POLICIES – We can review your existing policies and procedure to ensure they are up to date with current legislation. We can also tailor our templated frameworks and policies to suit and protect your business.

INVOICE CREATION – Creating and generating your invoices for your customers and clients.

SENDING INVOICES – Ensuring your invoices are sent regularly and on time.

CASHFLOW FORECASTING – Ongoing predictions based on historical data.

 PROJECT MANAGEMENT – Planning, organising, staffing, leading or directing and controlling your project.

 PROJECT SUPPORT – Assisting with any aspect of your projects, and supporting managers.

 EVENT MANAGEMENT – Contacting and liaising with suppliers, gathering information needed for the events and finding the best prices. Planning, organising and managing your events – what, when, where, how, who. Researching venues and suppliers, finding the best venues and suppliers to fit with your event and budget.

We pride ourselves on adding value to every single task that we undertake. Whether you need your admin organised and taken off your hands, a virtual PA to keep you and your business on track or more substantial support with your HR, projects or events, we are here to make sure you can make it happen..

E: makeithappen@mbsmih.com  /  T: 01903 688789.

7 Steps To Hosting An Unforgettable Business Event

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You may have been thinking about holding an event for your business for some time, and wondering whether you can pull it off or if it would be worth the effort.

Events are fantastic for engagement & networking and can be a very successful way of marketing, if done right. We have gathered some of our top tips to help you make the strongest impact in getting your message over to the right audience for you & your business.

  1. Appealing to your customer/ target client – Keep your customer at the forefront of your mind when deciding what type of event to host, and think about how you’re going to appeal to them. Things to consider are lifestyle, interests and daily challenges that your customer base might face. It’s also a good opportunity to appeal to a new demographic and work on ideas to bring them in.
  1. Getting the date right – It’s a good idea to try and host an event on a typically slow day for your business, as it could help bring in additional revenue during a slow period. Hosting it in busy times will deflect attention and time from your regular customers and you don’t want to tarnish their experience. Another thing to consider is your target audience and selecting days & times for their convenience.

 

  1. The logistics – Think about any extras you might need such as chairs for a sit-down meal, portable loos for an outside event if there are no convenient rest rooms, decorations to fit the event theme etc… It’s important to be organised with these things early on as you don’t want to stress about it closer to the time and take your attention away from the event itself.

 

  1. Budget and additional fees – Set a clear budget for your event and don’t forget to include additional fees such as portable toilets (as mentioned above) or hotel rooms should they be required. Gauge whether there is any wiggle room when meeting with suppliers and try for the best price you can get. The worst that can happen is they say no and if you don’t try you don’t get.

 

  1. Customer service – Make sure customer service is top notch always and effectively showcase your products and or services. It will give attendees a taste of what you offer without feeling pressured by a hard sell. Be sure to have enough staff working so your customers each get the time and attention they deserve.

 

  1. Contacts & follow ups – Gather as much contact information from attendees as you can during the event and follow up/ keep in touch after. You could follow them on social media or add them to your newsletter mailing list and keep them updated with special offers and promotions. Take care not to overdo it as you don’t want to turn people off buy spamming them.

 

  1. Stats and goals – Keep in mind the importance of tracking the attendees turned clients to measure the success of the event, and decide whether it added the value and impact you wanted. You could send a survey out afterwards for feedback or give the attendees vouchers and track how many are redeemed. Don’t be disheartened if you don’t see instant results. It can take a while for prospect customers to decide especially when they’re busy with the day to day running of their own business.

If you’re thinking about hosting an event but are not sure where to start or how you’re going to pull it together, get in touch. Our friendly team are always on hand and happy to help. We can do as much or as little as you like in helping you pull off an unforgettable business event.

makeithappen@mbsmih.com or telephone: 01903 688789

5 Reasons You Need to Host An Event

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Exposure

Events enable your business to gain brand awareness and exposure by getting your name out there. People will hear about the event which means they will hear about your business. The more interesting the event, the more your company will be recognised.

It can also be an opportunity to get the media involved by getting a mention in the local newspaper, magazine or radio. Promoting your event in the media will ensure you have been seen, heard and noticed in the community – Don’t forget, you can splash it out all over your own Social Media too!

Promotion

What’s a better way of promoting your products/services than at an event! Make it fun, eye-catching and engaging. Everyone always loves a freebie or great offers. Or change it up and do some demonstrations of your products or services; and if you can’t do this with your particular products/services, find different, fun ways to promote what you do and draw people in.

Building Relationships

When holding an event, it’s more fun and engaging (rather than a usual day in the office); which allows your existing and potential customers to interact and engage with your business on a more personal level.

It can also be a chance to make a good impression on potential customers and ensure your business is memorable – make sure they don’t forget you!

Contacts

Events give you the opportunity to increase your network of people; and what’s better than increasing this network than at your own event! Everyone there will be relevant to your business and the industry which will build a stronger and more useful network of people.

Knowing lots of people will come in handy at some point. This is also an opportunity to grow your list of contacts if you have a newsletter or use Social Media – get more followers!

Giving Back

Events can be a nice way to thank your existing customers and supporters for their help and business. Giving away freebies, offers, holding competitions and making it a great event is an easy way to show your gratitude and make your customers and supporters feel appreciated.

Another great idea would be to raise money and awareness for a local charity. You could do something simple like a raffle and ask people to donate items for it. This brings people together and creates a positive image for your company.

Looking for ideas or need support with your event? Send us an email makeithappen@mbsmih.com, we’d love to help.