Originally posted June 16th 2014
As mentioned I did my first event as a vendor a few months back. Here are 6 tips if you are thinking about being a vendor/exhibitor at any event.
1. Research the event.
If it is a reoccurring event, look at photos from the event to see what type of people will be there, the other vendors, etc. Also look at the layout. The more you know the more you can tailor your presentation to the market of people that will be there. It is also likely that the more research you do, the more you will be able to tell if there will be a return on investment.
2. Plan ahead and give yourself ample time to put everything together.
Sometimes when I get an idea in my head, I just go for it. Which is the case for this event. I signed up about a week in advance. I didn’t get a lot of sleep that week and I had a lot to prepare, but I’m glad I did it. I had thought about being a vendor at several events and this was a good introduction.
I also had to scale down some of my ideas, but I had a plan that I pulled out of my business ideas folder. I had made the plan months before and forgotten about it, but knew when I signed up that everything I wanted to do was on that piece of paper. So I got it out and everything was laid out from a table arrangement to all the things I needed to get.
Make sure to keep a list of all the items you purchase for the event, so you can see how you did with sales vs. cost at the end.
3. Make sure everything on your table lends itself to your brand.
I spent a lot of time making sure all the things that would be on the table suited the aesthetics of my brand. A lot of black and clear acrylic goods to display postcards, an Ipad and wall displays.
4 .Bring more samples/ business cards than you think you’ll need.
I was running low on business cards, so I had some “emergency” ones made up in a few days. I also had other materials with me that people could take such as postcards, but most people took the business cards. Probably because they are small and go along with all the other business cards given out at networking events. I almost ran out of the emergency business cards I had made up. So have well designed business cards and have plenty of them!
5. Have an email sign up list or way to follow up with potential clients.
I had an email sign up list with me for people to sign. I was glad I did, because when I researched a lot of programs that make newsletter forms, I found that if you need either a list that people signed themselves or an I.P. address where they sign up for themselves. You could run into trouble if anyone ever marks your newsletter as unwanted and you don’t have a physical list where people explicitly gave their permission to be added to your newsletter list.
It also gives you a way to follow up multiple times with people and show the new projects you are working on.
6. Learn from your mistakes
When I was speaking to people about the give away I was doing, the feedback I got was that the prize I was offering was too large a print for the market that was there. So next time I will adjust my give away from the feedback I received.