Effective Pre-Trade Show Marketing Strategies
An important part of your pre-trade show marketing campaign is to simply make others aware that you will be at this particular show. It is advisable to make your new or revamped company and product known before the show. The best strategy is to drive traffic to your booth during the event. Do so by putting notices on your social media accounts, and by emailing those people you are targeting directly.
Email blasts are effective low-cost channels for reaching existing and potential clients and prospects with information about your booth location and special offers. Make sure all materials carry your brand and key messaging.
Email marketing
If you can get your message through and send a few emailers throughout the month before the event, focusing on the attendees you want to draw towards your booth, you will see a huge increase in numbers and buzz! Try to make the messages more personalised with information about special offers at the booth, to get attendees to come by.
You need your sales team to include a specific request for an in-person appointment at your booth in the correspondence they send to your prospects. This way, you can engage more prospects; your sales team can create memorable in-booth experiences; and you can reciprocate with meaningful and relevant follow-up that will help to maximise your ROI.
Print marketing materials
A keen message to capture the potential of business prospects, leave a lasting impression on them, and associate the organisation’s professionalism with the product are key in a powerful print design. Choosing the right format and colour scheme with complementary images can also play an equally important role in making banners and brochures more effective.
Flyers, posters and catalogues are still print marketing materials popular with many attendees which can help draw them straight to your booth. Today’s catalogues and punchy communication strategies differ significantly from past incarnations.
For example, a tri-fold brochure offers a short and easily digested explanation of a product or service from a single standing position, while a gatefold or Z-fold can offer a sequential unfolding that allows for instructions or a timeline to be presented.
Webinars or workshops
Whether or not your brand is exhibiting at an event, the ability to communicate effectively with the target audience well in advance is part of a successful strategy. A great way to accomplish this is through PESO – the Paid, Earned, Shared and Owned channels of promotion.
You can leverage your sales team further by asking them to share information through email or phone calls (or LinkedIn connection requests) with your clients and prospects.
Define trade show goals such as increased brand recognition or new relationship development, then develop marketing tactics that will allow you to achieve these objectives while maximising ROI. And, of course, follow up with the leads that were generated during the show to secure sales. Obvious, but it happens – don’t forget to do it!
Booth incentives
The most commonly used incentive for booths in tradeshows and events is to draw attendees to their booth and generate leads. Contest, giveaways and other fancy strategies at booths can attract crowd but do not necessarily add advantage for marketing if they are not aligned to your marketing strategies and goals.
Likewise, a suggestion to increase sales from your event booth: Make an offer to discount an item for those customers who make a face-to-face appointment at your booth – thereby increasing your time with your market.
The postcards containing details of your firm should be kept at various places inside the venue so that the guests can find them. It’s also an attractive way to attract more people towards your booth.
In-person meetings
A trade show, for instance, is one of many events that enables sales leads. It is therefore important to establish feasible marketing goals based on the business objectives such as Leads, Conversions, Cost per lead etc.
Sending an email within your existing client, customer or colleague database is an easy, cost-effective way to warn people that you will be attending an event. “Show name> this year! Come and see us!” Is an easy email campaign to send.
Your staff should be trained before a trade show so they can understand your company’s products fully, and can engage people during the event.
Social media
Third, a social media campaign can be useful to gather customers to your trade-show booth: if you have a stimulating campaign with very attractive posts and pictures that showcase your company’s work and education, a campaign in this medium can build a group of followers even prior to the opening day of the show!
Teasers and backstage pictures shared on social media relate to Instagram and Facebook will also heighten the excitement among attendees, as will inviting audience members to take part in contests.
In addition to live streaming, interviewing industry insiders and/or happy customers can help keep audiences interested, as can polls or Q&As with your target audience, which might also help you tailor future events with that feedback in mind.
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