12 Tips for Holistic Expo Success

Holistic practitioners: Use these 12 tips to create a crowd pleasing expo display!

1. Attract the attention of your ideal client. Don’t make passers-by wonder what your service or product is! SHOW them with appropriate props and by use of clear, enticing language. DRAW people to your exhibit!

2. Gather contact information. Offer some incentive for visitors to give you their contact information. (A five-minute session with you, a raffle, a sample of your product, information that solves their problem.) Whet their appetite so they want to stay connected!

3. Accept that the sale may come later. Relax, and focus on establishing a long-term relationship that keeps you in touch with potential clients. Attendees are already interested in holistic services; your goal is to maintain that interest over time.

4. Provide excellent educational materials that visitors can take with them and review at their leisure. This also increases your “Expert” status in their eyes.

5. Develop a funnel of products to allow customers who are not yet ready to purchase your high-end services to deal with you in increments. (i.e. an e-book, leads to a one-time seminar, leads to recurring monthly appointments.)

6. Follow up with everyone who gave you his or her contact information, 1 to 2 days after the expo. If you have both phone and e-mail, contact them using each method.

7. Never send e-mail without permission! Even if a visitor has given you their e-mail address, first send them an opt-in letter or e-mail, asking if they would like to receive articles or information from you. Spam is illegal, and annoying!

8. Go where your ideal clients are. You can have the best display, samples, and attitude, yet if your ideal clients do not surround you, all is for naught. If, for instance, your holistic service provides pain relief and enhanced physical mobility, yet you are exhibiting to teens and young adults, you won't attract many visitors. Switch to an AARP Expo or Alternative Health for Seniors, and you’ll be swamped!

9. See what other exhibitors are doing well. Ask them what they do to move their merchandise or entice visitors to sample their services. If it fits, then tweak their ideas to enhance your exhibit.

10. Set specific goals ahead of time and then plan your display to meet those goals. For me it is (a) attracting 10 potential ideal clients and signing them up for sample coaching sessions, (b) adding 20 new subscribers to my e-zine, and (c) filling all eight, 20-minute consult appointments I offer during an Expo. Everything in my display points toward these goals, and I normally meet or exceed all three.

11. Put yourself in the shoes of those who walk by your exhibit. What do they see? Have you clearly identified whom you serve and what benefit you provide? If not, expect the vast majority of visitors to "keep on walking." You’ve given them no reason to stop and talk.

12. Set up your exhibition space energetically. Fortunately, as holistic entrepreneurs we are pretty good at this. A lovely process for energetic set-up comes from good friends,
Tom and Katie Hirt, of Angelic Connections:

“Set up your space energetically as you set up your space physically. On the morning of the expo, visualize participants who would best benefit from your services being drawn to your booth and asking for information or a session. Send out an energetically glowing or vibrating line of attraction that guides people to you, similar to the lights on a movie theater floor that help you navigate the aisle. Extend the line of attraction out of the building to the nearest highways and beyond to attract the best clients to you. Ask the Angels to guide to your booth folks who are good for you and you for them, and then sit back and watch what happens!”