In our previous post, we discussed the most effective ways to incorporate landing pages, email campaigns, and social media into your trade show marketing strategy. For this post, we’ll continue our discussion on ideal ways to include trade show booths, displays and post-event follow-ups.
Planning Your Strategy for Your Trade Show Booth and Displays
Your trade show booth and displays are a marketing medium to create brand awareness and recognition. Therefore, the main purpose of having eye-catching trade show booths and display materials is to attract visitors and convert them into leads. Remember that visitors attend a trade show event to find solutions for their needs, and to stay updated with the industry trends. You must focus on making your booth attractive enough and have well-trained booth staff to capture the attention of the visitors and engage them.
Here are some tips to get the best results out of your booth and displays to attract prospects.
- Choose a good location for your trade show booth as it plays a critical role in how many attendees visit your booth. Depending on the high-traffic areas, overall visibility, and the presence of competitor booths, request a specific location on the trade show floor.
- Make sure to train your booth staff so that they can handle the visitors efficiently. Include knowledgeable and approachable staff from your company as well as professionals to make a complete team.
- Connect with the press and media that cover your industry. Contact them in person to get your organization featured in some relevant publications. If the press is present at the event, set up an appointment at your booth in advance for a briefing about your new product launches and all that you have to offer at the trade show.
- For your signage, use bold and bright colours that complement your brand and that are easy on the The idea is to develop a unique colour palette that helps you shine among the other booths.
- Include a wide variety of promotional and marketing materials such as brochures, flyers, interactive displays, videos, live demos, downloadable white papers, etc. Incorporate large LCD displays to run product descriptions, social media updates, general information, and hashtags.
- Promote giveaways in advance to attract visitors.
How to Conduct Post Show Follow-Ups
It’s a very crucial part of your trade show marketing strategy. Note that a lot of attendees who visited your booth are still wondering if your product is right for them. Following up with your leads after the trade show will help you nurture your newly developed relationship and influence their purchase decision.
- For those visitors who have opted to receive updates from you, create a drip campaign to send them more valuable updates such as case studies, newsletters, white papers, etc. through emails. Also, make sure to contact them via phone.
- If you had a speaking presentation at the event, share the slideshow at various slide sharing platforms such as SlideShare, and AuthorSTREAM. Then make sure to promote them across your social media channels. Include the slideshow links in your drip campaign to provide more information to the interested leads as they’re likely to share it with their social circle.
- Make sure to add recap blog posts after the trade show is over. Highlight the key takeaways of the event, your experiences, and other relevant information that may interest your leads and prospects.
- Ask visitors to provide a feedback and try to include them in your blog posts and social posts with their consent.
Generating qualified leads defines success for your trade shows. These tips and industry practices can help you achieve your goal and maximize your returns on investment. It’s important that you have a solid strategy for each phase, that is, before, during, and after your trade show event.
