GW Digital Marketing
  • Free SEO Site Audit
  • Services
  • Free Consultation
  • Media Features
  • Free SEO Site Audit
  • Services
  • Free Consultation
  • Media Features

September 24, 2018  |  By gessell In BLOG, SEM, Social Media Marketing

Trade Show Marketing: How to Guide

how to market trade show booth

Whatever industry you are in, there is most likely a conference, trade show or convention that will be attending to promote your business.  Are you curious about the best way to promote your booth using online marketing tactics? This guide was put together to show you just that!

 

pre trade show marketing

Pre-Show

 

Objective

Pre-show marketing increases the quality of the audience attracted to your booth as well as the likelihood that booth visitors turn into qualified leads.

Strategy

  1. Video Views promoted on LinkedIn and Google Display Network.
    • What you need: A video to promote. Seeing as though you already have videos made, one of these can be used.
    • Why: 81% of companies used video for marketing in 2018, compared to 63% in 2017 and with good reason. Videos are more engaging than words. Where both video and text are available on the same page, 72% of people would rather use video to learn about a product or service.
      • LinkedIn: The social media platform just recently introduced videos as part of their advertising platform. This is a strong awareness touchpoint and allows you to cater your message to a very specific audience.
      • Google: The Google Display Network reaches 90 percent of people using the internet through millions of websites. It also allows advertisers to promote using text, video and photos.
    • How: Create a sponsored post on LinkedIn using video. Create a Google Display Network campaign targeting the conference search term. If you have a list of professionals that you need to reach you can also target this list of people. Link both of these ads to the landing page.
Create a landing page designed to capture appointments for during the convention as part of your pre-show marketing strategy. Click To Tweet

2. Landing Page

  • What you need: A landing page designed to capture appointments for during the convention.
  • Why: This is where you highlight your attendance at the trade show and clearly state your calls to action.
  • How: Make sure that you include the following, minimally: The event name, location, dates and a link to the event website

Be sure to also link to the event floor plan and highlight your booth if possible and also link to any relevant press releases that you may have.

And maybe most importantly, have a booking system in place so that people can schedule appointments with you during the trade show.

 

Paid promotion: As mentioned above, link the sponsored videos to the landing page. For organic promotion, you can also post about your event participation across your social media channels while linking to the landing page. Create a clear call to action for people to learn more or to secure their spot for a meeting during the convention. It could also be beneficial to create a second landing page specifically for media contacts.

 

KPI’s to measure

Reach

  • Before the show, a key priority is to make attendees aware of your brand and your attendance. This is measured by seeing how many of your qualified targets you are able to reach.

Unique Visits to Landing Page

  • Measure how many people clicked through ads to the landing page.

Video Views

  • Measures how many people viewed your video. Usually counted as a percentage of the video viewed.

Appointments

  • How many appointments are set up through the landing pages, emails, or company social media pages?

 

 

during trade show marketing

 

During the Show

 

Objective

Encourage interaction with your company through digital marketing. Make sure you have a lead capture system in place. This will allow you to build a personalized profile for the leads that you sale team talk to. Tell your prospects to expect a follow-up conversation from you after the convention. This will prep them to expect, and encourage them to open, the communication that you send.

 

Strategy

  1. Digital record your booth, announcements, contests, or other interesting events during the event.
    • What you need: Photos, videos and quotes showing a behind the scenes look at the show and your product. It would also be beneficial to create your own branded hashtag for added awareness and engagement.
    • Why: The key purpose of posting about your attendance as an exhibitor is to give your audience a persuasive reason to stop by your booth.
    • How to execute:
      • Photos: Booth, salespeople, attendees, relevant events
      • Video: Of the event itself and showcasing the product

 

2.Promote a LinkedIn post targeting the geographical area during the event.

  • What you need: Copy and photo/video about the show and your participation in it. Most show attendees want to learn more product information, so be sure to highlight yours. Source
  • Why: It can be a way to push attendance to your booth by pushing attendance to the show while it is happening.
  • How: Create a sponsored post and push paid promotion based on location.

 

3. Follow the hashtag of the show, and use a social listening tool to interact with attendees in real time.

  • What you need: A social listening tool and someone available for digital marketing while the show is taking place.
  • Why: It’s an easy win when it comes to promoting yourself to others interested in the event that you are attending. Plus, growing your audience helps your exposure in the long run.
  • How: Use a social listening tool such as this one to find people actively talking about your brand, competitors, and the show in general. Then like the posts, comment on what is being said and/or follow these people as your brand.
Use a social listening tool to find people actively talking about your brand, competitors, and the show in general. #tradeshow #marketingtips #smm Click To Tweet

 

KPI’s to Measure

  • Mentions – Brand name or hashtag is mentioned online.
  • Followers – Increase in social media followers during the show.
  • Engagement – People clicking, commenting and liking your posts.
  • Leads Generated

 

post show marketing tips

 

Post-Show

 

Objective

Segment leads and create appropriate marketing funnels using marketing automation.

Strategy

After the show, it’s all about following up with your warm leads via marketing automation. Unless of course, for some reason, you prefer to do this manually.

What you need: A marketing automation system. Popular ones are Hubspot and SalesManago.

Why: Having a marketing automation process in place ensures that none of your freshly gathered leads goes bad. Instead, you can segment them and automatically follow up with them appropriately.

With a marketing automation system in place, you can personalize their buyer’s journey while also saving you time through automation.

How: Set up a list of hot and cold leads and establish a marketing funnel for each. Since 30-50% of leads aren’t ready to buy when they first learn about you and your company, so it’s good to follow up with them after the show. That’s why turning these leads into customers should be your goal in the month following the trade show event.

 

Subscribe to our newsletter!

Latest Posts

  • SEO for Startups: How Your Business Can Benefit
  • How to Price Your Marketing Service: Hourly Rates vs. Selling as a Package
  • The Top Five Reasons for Cart Abandonment (And How to Avoid Them)
  • The Top 4 Most Common E-commerce Marketing Mistakes (and how to avoid them)
  • 5 Killer Marketing Strategies to Improve Your Holiday Sales

Subscribe

Get new posts by email

Please follow & like us :)

RSS
Follow by Email
LinkedIn
LinkedIn
Share
© Gessell Wolitski 2021
All rights reserved.

  • LinkedIn

gessell@gwolitski.com
Skype +31 (0) 20 894 3362
KvK 68354800

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. Please click to continue browsing the website with cookie consent.Accept Reject Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.

SAVE & ACCEPT