Generate more leads with the right flow

The right routing or visitor flow at a B2B fair ensures that you attract visitors, keep their attention and then bring them into your sales funnel. But how do you create such an ideal visitor flow?

To help you with this, we are happy to share our insights so that you can achieve the goals you have in mind.

What is a visitor flow and why is it important?

You could see an exhibition stand as a marketing funnel: you attract visitors, arouse their interest, make them think about your product or service as a solution to their problem, and then you have to convince them to take action: the conversion.

The visitors move through the fair in a certain way (the visitor flow), and the question is at what time and where you lead them to the next step. You have to grab their attention and lead them to where you want them to make a conversion. What information do you provide at what time, and when is the right time for an account manager or salesperson to approach the visitor? When you have thought this out in the form of a walking route for the visitor, you can decide much better how to use the space of the exhibition stand, what resources you need and how you are going to shape your exhibition strategy to lead to maximum conversions.

The optimal exhibition flow starts with your objectives

Online marketing is becoming increasingly important in the B2B market. But as we also know, not all marketing and sales activities can take place online. That is why it is important to set up KPIs and goals specific to the fair, which ultimately contribute to the objectives of your overall marketing strategy. Ask yourself the questions: Why do we need a fair? How does this fair play a role in the whole? Which company-wide KPIs do we want this fair to contribute to, and how? Once you have determined these objectives, make sure that you make the relevant data measurable. Based on the collected data, you can determine to what extent the fair has really contributed to achieving those objectives and what you can improve on next time.

Attracting visitors

In the first instance, visitors should come to your fair. That doesn't just start with the fair itself: in the overall marketing strategy for your company, the fair is a means to achieve conversions, and not an end in itself. So with marketing activities, make sure that you reach a group of potential customers well before the fair starts and that you get their details. For example, when you want to put a new product or service on the market, you launch a campaign in which you show the right stimulating content to potential customers in advance. They get excited to learn more about the solution you offer and sign up for the launch at the trade show or for a 1-on-1 meeting with a specialist using a short form.

The information they have entered in the form removes them from anonymity: the more you know about the visitors in advance, the better you can prepare the stand. Such as for what purpose they come to the fair. Secondly, you have to take the location into account: where or in which hall are you standing? What does the hall look like and where are the main hiking trails? Among which other exhibitors are you standing? In addition, you have to visually stand out by creating the WOW factor. Look for something unique, every year.

Make sure that you present yourself as a recognizable brand by incorporating your house style into it properly. Because the fair is part of one or more campaigns, it is important that you match the expectations you have in the campaign in advance with what you realize in the fair and what you give in the follow-up of the leads. The best thing is if you can exceed the visitor's expectations.

Make optimal use of the space you have

The visitor flow in your exhibition stand does not only depend on where you have which information and how you guide visitors through the exhibition. For example, you can show visitors the way through digital signing such as LED strips, so that they subconsciously get the feeling that they have to walk past something. Another nice option to create dynamism in your space is to build in an interconnected touch display that allows you to direct the entire exhibition decoration – such as the lights or certain projections – based on theme, such as sustainability or innovation or in a specific area of the exhibition stand. gives a customer-specific presentation.

This way you can quickly transform space into a completely different look. Then we come to the next point: where do you place the product or service presentations? If you have more than one, it can be difficult to determine which place on the stand should be what. Many companies tend to only give a select number of products and services a prominent place, but how do you also give attention to the rest of the portfolio? And how do you then build a flow around the products or presentations to achieve a conversion? We know of a number of solutions for that.

Leave a lasting impression with your visuals

Impressive, interactive visual experiences are a great addition for attracting and retaining attention and generating conversions without necessarily requiring an account manager. And if there's one thing that makes you leave a lasting impression, it's evoking positive emotions such as wonder and recognition of the challenge they face. You have to be able to empathize with this: what really appeals to your potential customer? How can he identify with someone who needs your product or service? Videos, animations or interactive presentations on touch displays are good examples of applications that allow you to respond to the emotion and situation of the customer. But if you sell technical products such as machines, in many cases you remove the machine from the production environment in which it offers the solution. Often machines are too big and heavy to carry around, or are part of a system, so how do you handle that smartly? How do you show which solution the product offers? You can show products or services in many ways without taking them to the fair: with a video, digital display, VR or AR technology, a projection on 3D printed objects , holograms or a virtual showroom. With this you can also - for the techies among us - show cross-sections, swipe through the product portfolio and show additional information. Especially with interactive visualizations such as a virtual showroom, viewers can click on what they want to see. It also allows you to place the products and services in the right application environment, which an account manager at the fair can hardly explain in

A physical, hybrid or online fair?

This is how you can let more people partake and reuse content online.
Lees hier onze blog over de verschillende soorten beurzen.

From making an impression to conversion

If you approach it smartly, you ensure that you do not get the contact details of a visitor in one way, but you have multiple presentation elements in your exhibition, all of which contribute to converting your leads. With every conversion, make it clear what people will get from you as soon as they leave their contact details. For example, you can show an interactive animation video about a product or service on an interactive screen, after which the visitors can click through to receive a white paper or brochure with their details have to leave behind. At a different location – for example more at the front of the stand – they can, for example, register for a knowledge webinar on a topic that is very relevant to their situation. So think primarily from your overall marketing strategy and talk to your (potential) customers: what do they need, what do they find interesting, and how can you best interest them with what information and at what time? In short; apply demand marketing and play with the different content elements and determine where to position them in different places in the customer journey. Such as using a promotional video for a new product or service launch, which you use both in the campaign before and at the fair itself and afterwards.

How should the customer flow strategically work?

Hopefully, these insights will go a long way to better prepare your visitor routing and the experience at the fair. Nevertheless, we can imagine that you now have the feeling that there is a lot of work to be done to get the most out of it and that you do not yet know how to properly think out and implement certain elements. C4Real can help you set up physical, hybrid and online events by devising a strategy on how best to position your company on the stock exchange. What the stand should look like in order to inform visitors as well as possible and to create an experience that they will not forget. This gives you control over the optimal exchange flow.

We help you prepare a plan for the stand builders, and we provide visual experiences such as videos and animations to not only provide the fair with cool content, but also to help set up the surrounding campaign. This way you can achieve the maximum number of conversions on the fair to not only exceed the expectations of the visitors, but also your own.