Plan the perfect exhibition stand in 5 steps

Mon, 22.08.2022, 08:00

Planning your own exhibition stand from scratch sounds complicated. But it doesn't have to be. Follow these five steps and put together your individual trade fair presentation in a completely flexible way.

Tip: Make sure you follow these five steps chronologically when planning your exhibition stand.

Planning an exhibition stand: Step-by-step instructions:

Step 1: Find the right advertising technology for your exhibition stand

Whether you are looking for prospective trainees at the next job fair, want to touch base with interested parties and potential partners at a trade fair, or want to win new customer groups at a consumer fair - when planning an exhibition stand, you should always start with the big picture. In the case of a trade fair presentation, with the advertising technology. The following components play an important role:


 

Exhibition walls and folding displays An exhibition wall or a large folding display forms the background for your stand. And this is more important than you might initially think. Imagine you are in the middle of a conversation with a potential customer. Their gaze wanders away from you and your other equipment for a brief moment and they see nothing but cables, bags and, in the worst case, even logos of other exhibitors. And before you know it, you have already lost the attention of the person you were talking to. Better: Set up individually printed and optionally illuminated exhibition walls in the background. This way you will catch the eyes of those you are talking to again and again - and thus also secure their undivided attention.	Exhibition walls from FLYERALARM
Trade fair counters Something to lean on during lengthy negotiations, a shelf for information materials and a natural customer stopper at the stand: trade fair counters are indispensable for every trade fair presentation. Anyone interested in your products, innovations or company in general will automatically head for the counter at your stand. And that’s only natural! From an early age, we’ve been used to getting something good there. What used to be a free slice of sausage at the butcher's is now valuable information. So make sure your trade fair counter is stable and printed with your company design. Wobbly folding tables, makeshift beer tent furniture covered by covers and other improvised solutions unnecessarily destroy your professional appearance.	Trade fair counters from FLYERALARM
Roll-ups, displays, flags and banners Lots of competition in the exhibition hall? Or do you have information that needs to be conveyed crisply and strikingly? Then you should include roll-ups, displays, flags and banners for your exhibition stand. With drop flags, square flags, window flags or table flags suitable for indoor use, you can attract attention from afar in the hall. Once you’ve attracted interested parties to your stand, then ideally large-scale roll-ups and displays will have the desired impact. Because even before talking to one of your employees, potential customers or partners get a more precise picture of your company - this saves time later during the conversation and makes it easier for your trade fair staff to start the conversation.	Roll-ups from FLYERALARM Flags and displays from FLYERALARM

Sustainable alternatives

By the way, many advertising technology products that you should consider when planning your exhibition stand are available in sustainable materials. Whether advertising banners, signs or roll-ups, thanks to the SEAQUAL® initiative, you can buy professional trade fair equipment and, at the same time, free the oceans and beaches from waste.

Step 2: Organise info materials, brochures and leaflets

Most visitors flock to trade fairs to discover offers, news or innovations - and of course to compare the many suppliers with each other. Your chance: with a professional trade fair presentation, you are one step ahead of your somewhat less well-equipped competitors. But appealing trade fair technology alone does not make a good presentation. Make sure you don’t just attract prospective customers to your stand, ensure they also remember your arguments, offers and successes afterwards.



So when you plan your stand, you should also lay out information material with a suitable look. Therefore, collect and structure facts and information clearly. The best way is to use compact flyers - they can be folded up nice and small and still offer enough space for informative texts, vivid graphics and appealing pictures thanks to a variety of folds.

Do you, however, want to provide those you are talking to with entire excerpts from your portfolio, a selection of top offers and insights into your production or organisational processes? Then you should have your own brochures or even catalogues printed. On the multi-page printed products you simply have much more scope to prepare accompanying material for your exhibition stand. Accompanying company or customer magazines for the trade fair also offer you a great opportunity to present your company in the right light by means of storytelling.

Step 3: Promote your trade fair presentation in advance

You have planned a perfectly designed exhibition stand. Your advertising technology is up to date, uniformly designed and already catches the eye from the other end of the exhibition hall. Your motivated staff are standing behind counters and have prepared convincing arguments as well as detailed information material and advertising brochures.

And yet there is a yawning void in front of your exhibition stand - how can that be?

The explanation: potential customers, interested parties and prospective employees know nothing about your trade fair presentation.
The solution: beat the advertising drum in advance.
There are many ways to do this. Send out invitation cards by post and offer appointments for personal meetings. Include business cards with the most important facts about your trade fair presentation in parcels and company mail. And when planning your exhibition stand, you should have advertising on social media in mind from the start. For example, you could have your information flyers prepared directly as a social media campaign. In fact, you can have your individual social media advertising campaign designed by our colleagues at FLYERALARM Digital. You determine the reach and target group yourself. FLYERALARM Digital provides all the technical know-how. You can then measure the success of the campaign yourself, thanks to transparent and easy-to-use tools (which are free of charge for you by the way).

Step 4: Equip yourself with promotional items and clothing

Hand on heart: everyone has felt exhausted at the end of a trade fair day, wandered between the stands and really just looked for a few free pens, lighters or other small useful items. Make sure that the exhausted trade fair visitors end up at your stand.

How? Simple. By not using run-of-the-mill promotional items, but by having the best lighters, high-quality ballpoint pens or printed powerbanks ready for the visitors' smartphones, which are as drained as they are. Print sustainable cotton bags or bags and backpacks made of washable paper, throw in the give-aways, add some info material and make sure that your logo is carried around hundreds of times all over the fairground.

Sustainable give-aways from FLYERALARM

Speaking of your company logo, it should, of course, not only be carried around the hall on give-aways by people you talk to, but also by your trade fair staff on their clothes. Because corporate fashion demonstrates unity and professionalism, strengthens team spirit and also ensures that your employees are always identifiable as such, even on confusing trade fair grounds.
Whether you opt for embroidered blouses and shirts, modified polo shirts or more casual sweatshirts is entirely down to your taste and how you address your customers.

Customisable trade fair clothing from FLYERALARM
 

Step 5: Organise snacks and drinks

Anyone suffering from hunger pangs will probably be impatient and quickly get grumpy. This is as true for your trade fair staff as it is for trade fair visitors. And because the nearest cafeteria is not always in sight, you should also think about snacks and drinks when planning your exhibition stand. The classics are, of course, printed fruit gums, a few nuts and water in 0.5 l PET bottles. There's nothing wrong with that. After all, you be able to put an end to thirst and small food cravings.

But there’s an even better way: you can be much more individual in your choice of small delicacies. Anyone who values a sporty, dynamic image, for example, could order pieces of apple, tins of mixed nuts or trail mix and have the packaging designed to match the entire trade fair presentation. On the other hand, those who like it sweeter, but not necessarily chocolaty, should go for lollipops, Mentos dragées or jelly beans.

Snacks from FLYERALARM

There are also individually printable drinks - both to quench thirst and to toast any contracts that are concluded. Invigorating energy drinks, sparkling water, sparkling wine, full-bodied beer, refreshing apple spritzers ... The selection of printable beverage cans and bottles offers you everything you can plan in terms of refreshments for your exhibition stand.

Drinks from FLYERALARM

 

Conclusion: planning an exhibition stand isn’t difficult

In summary, it remains to be said: Planning your own exhibition stand is not rocket science. Just follow these five steps, always make sure that the materials and products are of good quality, and keep an eye on the needs of your staff and your target group. Then nothing can really go wrong.

And as a reminder, here's a compact checklist you can download free of charge:

Additional Links

Download checklist free of charge (PDF)