There are many exhibitions and trade shows around the world that showcase the latest innovations in technology and products. These events will attract new and relevant customers who will be looking at which products they will want to use or sell to their customers.

By presenting at these exhibitions and trade shows, you will be placing your products and systems in front of this audience and hopefully helping people make informed decisions and improving your conversion rates.

These events are an ideal way to improve your exposure to new companies while also analysing the traffic you receive to help make better decisions going forward.

Together with encouraging new customers, you can also continue to build your relationships with existing customers. This will help to improve your marketing effectiveness by increasing your product exposure and hitting your target audience.

By talking with people who already use your products, you can get powerful insights into customer satisfaction, and also monitor the level of interest in your new products. Customers who may have just started using your products can be encouraged to use other things that your company offers. You can also have a dedicated customer success manager on hand to answer any questions and offer support.

Many companies that present at events and trade shows are using technology to analyse foot traffic trends and use experiential marketing to help engage with customers to improve their experience.

Understanding how you perform at events and exhibitions is vital to making the event as successful as possible. Exposure Analytics has a variety of tools that can help you collect important data and use it to measure your performance throughout the event. This data will enable your company to target areas for improvement going forward, and increase those areas which worked well.

So, without further ado, here are a few ways in which a people counter can help to improve performance.

Understand What Your Customers Want to See

To attract visitors to your presentation area, you need to understand what your customers want to see. Some of this data can come from market research and previous events, but creating accurate visitor counting and foot traffic trends will help you improve further.

There are several ways that you can collect data on the number of visitors you see at your presentation. However, it is worth noting that not all of them are accurate enough to give you the data you need. Nevertheless, you can find some of the most common methods below:

• Mechanical counters are used to see how many people enter and leave an area. However, these can not show how long people spent in a certain area or where they went.
• Digital counters can include beam counters that work in a similar way to mechanical versions. However, you would need a number of these to see where visitors were going within your presentation accurately.
• A manual counter can be effective, but this type of person counter will require additional staff who will need to dedicate time to this specific role. This can also be hard if there is a full arena with many people.
• Thermal counters are a good way to see many people at once and where they are moving. They can sometimes be less than accurate if they are only spotting hot areas instead of individuals.

At Exposure Analytics, we offer a range of people counters that are highly accurate and can give you the range of data that you need to make informed choices about your presentation. With products such as the Ex Sensor (which detects the smart devices people carry) and the sensor-based Apex, we can provide up-to-date data using advanced machine-learning algorithms and a variety of thermal sensors and people-tracking technology.

Create More Memorable Experiences

To engage with your visitors and have them stay longer at your presentation area, you need to create a memorable experience. These experiences need to cater to the type of audience you are looking to attract.

Using people counter data, you can see how many people visit your area and where they go. This can give you access insights into actual traffic numbers – and, with battery-operated sensors around your presentation area, you can see what piques their interest.

A younger audience, for example, will want a more interactive experience that will capture their imagination and offer entertainment. However, with an older audience, too much technology might make them feel overwhelmed and lose interest.

This is a fine balancing act that requires trial and error. This can be minimised by using data to check for throughput rate, any drops in conversion rate, and the flow of traffic. You can also analyse the average visitor time at your presentation to see how engaging your area is.

Optimise Your Offering For Future Shows

If this is the first time that you have used advanced people counter technology, then it will take time to collect the data you need to improve your foot traffic. However, once the event is over, you can start to look at what worked well, and what may need some improvement, by using the following steps.

• Look at the number of people visiting your presentation and how long they typically stayed. This can give you a good idea of how engaging your presentation was.
• If you had a number of elements to your presentation, look at where people gravitated to the most. This will show you which areas you need to use again.
• Try new things with each presentation to see what works and what doesn’t. It may take a few events to get the balance right – but, with the right data, this will happen a lot quicker, and have a bigger impact on the people coming to your presentations.

Finding an insight beyond people counting can help you use all the available data to maximise your visitors’ experience and give you the edge over your competitors.

Improve Your ROI

As a growing company, you will always be looking at your ROI (Return on Investment) and how you can make this better. Part of this will be how much you are spending on your presentations at exhibitions and events.

The overall cost will be affected by how much each presentation costs to run, against any increase in customers, sales, and annual growth rate. To achieve the best balance, you want to have people engage with your presentation and either complete sales or have leads that you can nurture.

The more business you can generate from these presentations, the more cost-effective they will become. This could mean that you then have the budget to attend more events. This greater exposure will help you to get your brand in front of more people and make your company a bigger player in the market.

With the money you save with this type of data collection, you can shift resources into other areas of your business to help your company expand and grow. This could include new products, expansion, wider advertising avenues, and greater profits.

With companies trying to compete in an ever-growing market, you need to have an edge that you can use over your competitors. Analytics can be the solution to having a better marketing plan, and a greater understanding of your target audience.

Using tools such as those provided by Exposure Analytics, your business can become more in tune with the needs of your customers, and learn to anticipate what they want in the future. You can also grow your brand into one that understands its customers and knows what values matter most to them.

Attending events and exhibitions gives you a hands-on approach to your customers. You will be able to interact with them and see what they want from your products. You can also get valuable data about your competitors and how they attract customers.

The data you collect will benefit every area of your company – from marketing to research and development. This will give you the ability to tailor your approach and fine-tune your processes to get the best return on your investment.

As your company grows, this data will help you move into areas you know will be profitable, while helping you to secure funding for growth.

While technology can seem daunting to some, it can revolutionise the way you do business. It is important to embrace the tools available to you and use them and the data they collect to maximise your productivity.

For more information about how Exposure Analytics can help take your exhibitions to the next level, get in touch today.