For decades, large conventions and annual trade shows have been a very successful marketing tool for exhibiting companies and industry growth. Conventions provide brand marketers the opportunity to showcase their products/services, engage customers and generate top quality leads.
Today, technology has completely changed how businesses develop and execute exhibition booth marketing. Nonetheless, the key aspect of any successful trade show remains your ability to grab the attention of hundreds to thousands of paying guests eager to learn more about brands of interest and collect free promotional event giveaways. Expo marketing requires a certain level of original creativity and digital marketing capabilities which we’ll discuss in the pre-show outbound marketing tips below.
Pre-Show Tips for Modern Exhibition Booth Marketing
Select the Right Exhibition Booth Space – Different trade shows have different themes and will attract different groups of audiences. Ensure that the convention you plan to attend attracts the right type of audience for your business. You should also register in advance and book an ideal exhibit booth space, understand its show floor layout, size and choose a location with high traffic and trade show exhibit visibility from afar.
Your Goals – Come up with a detailed trade show preparation checklist of objectives you would like to achieve at the event. It could be brand awareness through attracting more attention to your brand signage using high quality LED edgelit light box stands, displaying new product samples to help build excitement for your event brand launch, or aggressive industry networking by walking the convention hall floor to generate hot leads, but whatever your best exhibition booth marketing goals are, it must be in-line with your core business objectives.
Market the Event – Make it known to clients, friends, family and potential new prospects when the exhibit convention will take place and that you will be part of the exhibitor list. Use social media channels to spread the word, create and host a count-down webinar for the show, create interesting blog posts about it, invite prospect customers directly, use trade show booth demos and interactive presentations. Ensure that your brand’s message is clear.
Bring Your A-Team – From your pool of employees, select the very best team to be part of the exhibitor team. The team should have excellent customer service skills, expert knowledge about your brand’s products.
How to Stand Out During a Trade Show Rush
Exhibition Booth Design – Schedule a consultation with industry exhibit marketing consultants on how your portable display booth needs to leave lasting impressions to ensure it captures sales leads and a larger audience interested in your brand. It’s important not to clutter your booth space with unneeded items. Always allow free flow for visitors, and allow comfortable and inviting lounge seating for visitors. You may decide to rent comfortable trade show furniture, modern portable LED backlit light box fabric display stands and high-tech interactive digital displays that guarantee your brand leaves lasting impressions. Whatever you decide, ensure the exhibit design layout remains modern, minimalistic and tasteful.
Branding – Let the visitors clearly and simply identify you. Ensure that your branding and graphic mural arrangement dominates the trade show floor. Ensure that the exhibition booth, promotional items, portable monitor kiosks and your exhibitor teams professional attire leaves the competition envious.
Modern Technology and Trends – There are various multimedia technology features that you can use as an effective booth booster! One example would be backlit trade show cabinets, illuminated using modern eco-friendly LED event lighting. This booth display accessory could be combined with a portable digital sign display stand, that brings movement and motion to your booth design layout, as well as LED brand illumination.
Exhibition Mobile Apps – Today trade shows have mobile apps that allow exhibitors to communicate with attendees through push notifications in real-time. This can be used to help your target audience save time during the exhibition by sending push notification alerts tailored to the interest of the attendees and response-bound call to action. You can also locate visitors with tracking gadgets and notify them how far they are from your trade show exhibition booth.
Interactive Touch Screen Walls – These next generation booth boosters give visitors the opportunity to control choices based on their personality and interests, their learning pace and information they retain is done at their own pace. Guests will want to learn your brand’s history, future product releases and any other important company milestone through an interactive screen. Thus, eliminates the need for overpriced and bulky brochures.
Games and Contests – You can design elaborate games and contests that are in line with your business goals to attract more visitors. You may craft the game in a way that the participants will earn entry through marketing your brand, for example posting about your brand on social media. It can also be crafted to request signup for every participant, an excellent way to collect contacts from your potential customers.
Digital Resting Space – After spending hours in the tradeshow, attendees will end up exhausted, hungry and thirsty. You can create a resting space for the attendees in your booth. The digital resting space should have a hospitality and technology appeal. Have comfortable seats, universal cell phone recharging tables with AC power outlets, USB ports and light plugins. You can also provide free Wi-Fi which requires visitors to sign in using a valid email, snacks and even soft drinks. While at the resting bay, the attendees can be busy on your interactive screens and you can also engage them by requesting them to post about your exhibition event booth and products on social media.
What’s next?
After the exhibition, it is important to follow up with prospective customers and also measure your performance against the set goals. Now you know how to execute effective trade show marketing tactics using digital technology and by keeping up with the latest industry trends. Follow the advice from trade show exhibit consultants and your brand will continue to grow in 2018!
Author bio:
Shruti is a blogger & a digital marketing consultant with a lots of passion to write about technology, startups & other niches. She has contributed to a number of famous websites. She live and breathe in digital marketing. Her aim is to spread her thought-provoking ideas to all generations. Stay tuned with her at:@shruti_gupta01 or via skype : shrutigupta2811
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