Exhibitions can be highly profitable for organisations, provided you take a strategic approach. With over 55 years of experience, Nimlok has gained deep insights into maximising return on investment for your event. Below, we outline key steps to ensure your exhibition stand consistently delivers the best possible ROI. Think of your exhibition stand as a stage—it’s your team’s performance that will bring in the results.
1. Set Event Objectives
Setting clear objectives is the foundation for success. By defining what you want to achieve, you give yourself a measurable target to work towards and shape your stand’s design accordingly. Consider objectives such as:
- Brand Awareness
- Brand Education
- Lead Generation
- Brand or Product Launches
- Product Demos and Promotions
Feel free to have multiple objectives but keep them focused and concise. A well-defined goal ensures your stand, marketing materials, and staff work together effectively.
2. Exhibition Stand Design
Your stand’s design can make or break your event. In a crowded exhibition hall, it needs to stand out from every angle to attract visitors.
- Logo and Strapline Placement: Include your logo and strapline multiple times at different heights. A single low placement can easily be missed in a busy aisle.
- Engage Multiple Senses: Don’t just rely on visuals. Incorporate the other senses, too. For instance, a split-flap display (like a Vestaboard) combines sight and sound to draw attention as well as allow you to rotate messages throughout the day.
- Flow and Layout: Consider how visitors will move around your stand. Are there enough entry points, or any potential congestion spots? A well-thought-out layout helps create a welcoming environment for attendees.
By combining creativity with your objectives, you can design a space that not only looks impressive but also naturally guides people toward meaningful interactions with your brand. Professional stand designers can utilise your digital and physical assets, combine them with your event objectives, and create a stunning bespoke stand for your brand.
Look at our exhibition stand design tips, or the Nimlok portfolio for more exhibition stand inspiration.
3. Use Bespoke Hire to Reallocate Budget
For decades, exhibition stands followed a “build and burn” model where exhibitors created something new for each event and discarded it afterwards. That approach is both incredibly wasteful and expensive.
- Bespoke Hire Advantage: A “bespoke hire” model blends custom-designed elements with hired, reusable components. You still get the unique look and feel of a fully bespoke stand but at a fraction of the cost.
- Reusable Components: Aluminium framing and other structural parts can be stored by Nimlok, rented out to others between your events, and reused multiple times. This lowers overall costs for everyone.
By spending less on repeated stand builds you can redistribute the budget to high-impact areas like cutting-edge engagement tools or additional marketing collateral.
4. Invest in Engagement Tools
With digital technology on the rise, more companies are replacing traditional physical giveaways with interactive, trackable experiences.
- Traditional Giveaways: Branded pens or notebooks might spread your name around, but they offer no way to track recipients or follow up later.
- ‘Phygital’ Experiences: Combining physical and digital elements (Nimlok’s “phygital” engagement philosophy) lets you collect valuable data while keeping visitors entertained.
Top Engagement Tools to Boost Event ROI
- Smartphone-controlled multiplayer games
- RFID-based physical-digital interactions
- Spin-the-wheel prize games (physical or digital)
- Intelligent surveys for deeper attendee insights
- Touchscreen kiosks or interactive media stations
These engagement tools encourage longer interactions, make your exhibition stand more memorable, and provide data that your sales team can use to follow up effectively.
Nimlok prides itself on its innovative thinking and ability to constantly source new technology to create a variety of engagement tool solutions to suit your brand.
5. Invest in Staff Training
Even the most innovative stand design and flashy tech won’t yield results if your team isn’t prepared. Event staff may only exhibit a few times a year so specialised exhibition stand staff training can fast-track their effectiveness.
- Unified Approach: Train your staff to be consistent in how they greet visitors, collect leads, and demonstrate products.
- Tech Know-How: Ensure your team is comfortable using digital tools (like badge scanners or engagement software) to capture key data quickly and accurately.
Good training elevates your brand’s professionalism, improves visitor experiences, and gives your staff the confidence to build meaningful connections.
6. Monitor Your Event Progress with Stand Analytics
In digital marketing, analytics are standard practice. Your exhibition efforts shouldn’t be any different.
- Nimlok’s Stand Analytics: Use heatmaps to identify popular areas, measure dwell time, or track the most effective stand features. Passive mobile signal detection gives insights into visitor flow and average conversation times without intrusive methods.
- Benchmarking: Compare data from different events to see how stand layouts, team performance, and new engagement tools influence results.
Analysing performance takes the guesswork out of event marketing, allowing you to calculate an accurate ROI from multiple data points. With concrete data, you can pinpoint successes, identify challenges, and refine your approach over time.
Maximising Event ROI - A Multi-Faceted Approach
Maximising event ROI isn’t about one single solution; it’s about covering all bases, from clear objectives and striking stand design to smart budgeting, interactive engagement, skilled staffing, and strategic analytics. Each element works harmoniously to help you stand out in a crowded exhibition space and ensure that every pound of your investment truly pays off.