Looking to connect with local businesses and work with your community on the Post-COVID Economic Recovery?

The Brisbane Jobs and Business Expo is a perfect opportunity to connect with your community, find new markets, and find potential employees too!

Here are some tips for how to make the most of your time at the Expo!

1. Understand Your Audience and Environment

In the wake of border shutdowns and restrictions on business operations, business-owners and consumers have been forced to tighten their belts. This means your audience will be more reluctant than usual to spend money on non-essentials.

However, audiences (specifically those who still have secure income) are now more interested in shopping local, and learning about new industries and services in their backyard. Public attitudes are now about supporting local businesses, to support the domestic economy.

The Brisbane Jobs and Business Expo is also designed to help the employment prospects of the community too, so don’t be surprised if you receive a few resumes at this expo!

2. Make Your Audience Want to Visit your Business

Many businesses make a mistake of spending most of their resources into brand awareness, but struggle to convert into sales. Consider how many pens from organisations you may have, compared to whether or not you feel any loyalty to that organisation.

When preparing for an expo, decide what products or services you could offer your audience through discount offers, Promo-Codes, or Event Invitations. Key to successful marketing is understanding what will bring your audience to put in the effort to visit or learn more about your business.

Strike up that Interest in your customers! Consider what would make your audience curious, and worth the public’s time and effort to travel to your business.

3. Be the Face of Your Business

Expos offer an amazing opportunity to provide people with a human face to your organisation, and engage in conversations with the public. By showing people that you are a part of the community, your audience will find it easier to connect to your organisation.

Engage in dialogue with your audience, and talk to them as a fellow member of the community. People are more likely to remember those who they have a connection with, or share common goals with.

4. Listen to Feedback

Businesses have been forced to adapt to the new environment, and key to this is listening to your audience and what their concerns are. The only thing as important as the concerns you address, is the concerns you don’t address.

Your audience may not always be upfront with their concerns, which is why data collection has grown exponentially in the last few decades. Understanding subtle cues like the best method of communicating, or what values your audience hold are vital to not only reaching your audience, but encouraging them through your doors.

5. Have a Fun Time!

Most importantly, make sure you enjoy yourself! You can’t give 100% if you don’t feel 100%! Key to this is to just be yourself, and treat this event as a fun way to meet new members in your community. Sales is not only about confidence in your product, but also in yourself, and that translates into how you behave in crowds.

Also a few extra tips for introverts: just take a few breaths, make sure you have a bottle of water on hand, and focus on high quality conversations rather than a high quantity of conversations. From personal experience, people with introvert personalities communicate better about shared interests and values, rather than discussing sales and products.