5 last-minute tips for #DMEXCO24 exhibitors

A guest post from Daniel Gundelach, founder and Managing Director of meety

Trade fairs offer companies enormous potential from a marketing perspective. They boost visibility and brand awareness, facilitate direct customer engagement, and generate insights. Above all, they’re a great networking opportunity and memorable experience. But the success of exhibiting at events like these depends on a range of factors. Although proper planning and a thoughtfully considered strategy are obviously key, there are also some last-minute steps you can take to make the most of your appearance.

5 last-minute tips to maximize your impact at DMEXCO

You need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve at the trade fair. Although most exhibitors ask themselves this question, answering it is often another story. With that in mind, make sure you define exactly what you want to gain from the trade fair. That goes beyond attracting new customers; you also need to leverage everything else that the trade fair has to offer you from a marketing perspective. So ask yourself: What stakeholders do you want to reach? What key messages do you want to communicate? How do you want your target groups to perceive your brand, and how can you put visitors at the heart of your communications?

Set specific, measurable goals so that everyone is aware of them and understands them – and can ultimately play their part in achieving them.

It goes without saying that you want to show your best side at the trade fair, but you need to lay the groundwork first. That means putting yourself on your target groups’ radar now to ensure you get lots of visitors in September. You already have the channels and insights you need to do that, so put them to work! You don’t need to give away every detail, but building a bit of suspense, offering glimpses behind the scenes, and revealing what you have planned will create valuable touchpoints before DMEXCO opens its doors and encourage people to stop by your booth or arrange a meeting with you.

Your booth is your stage, and your team should be at the center of it. After all, they’re representing your company at the trade fair and are the key to your success here. The problem, though, is that not every team member knows what they need to do, what messages they should be communicating, or how to clearly convey your corporate values to visitors in order to bring your brand to life. Challenging conversations are sometimes unavoidable, so you need to prepare your team for whatever comes their way. Give them a communication toolbox that will allow them to make a positive impression.

Trade fairs are always buzzing with innovation and trends – and DMEXCO is no exception, with its extensive program. It would be a shame to just focus on your own booth and not make the most of this intelligence platform for your company’s growth and evolution. Use the event to get up to speed on hot topics and recent developments in your industry – whether on one of the conference stages, at your competitors’ booths, or during thought leadership talks, panels, or other sessions. Block out some time for these activities and decide which members of your team will attend what and when – and also how they’ll share what they’ve learned with the rest of the company afterward.

What you do after the trade fair is just as important as what you do in the run-up to it. Preparation is key to following up quickly and effectively after the buzz of the event. Visitors appreciate it if you check in with them not long after. To speed things up, make sure you have some content ready ahead of the trade fair, like personalized follow-up messages thanking people for their visit and providing them with more information. Define specific goals beforehand in terms of how quickly and in what format you want to contact your target groups afterward.

Of course, now’s also the time to ask the big question: How have you benefited from the trade fair? To answer that, you need to pool together all the data you’ve gathered, ask your team and visitors for their feedback right after the event, evaluate the KPIs you identified beforehand from your trade fair goals, and then pinpoint the key takeaways.

About the author

Daniel Gundelach is the founder and Managing Director of meety, which helps exhibitors, organizers, and service providers achieve trade fair success by offering related training and development as well as consultancy services.
He has been active in the trade fair industry for almost 25 years and knows the enormous potential that trade fairs offer companies. His mission: more trade fair success.