Like any other marketing strategy, planning will be key to a positive ROI on your tradeshow investment.
Trade shows offer:
- Opportunities to build brand awareness.
- Introduce products.
- Create memorable experiences for consumers by entertaining and educating them.
Matching Your Business Goals
You will want to begin planning far in advance.
I’m not only talking about booking flights and accommodation for staff, but also the thorough development of pre-show, during-show, and post-show strategies that will match your business goals and brand objectives.
- What are your reasons for being there?
- What are you looking to accomplish while there?
Determine your answers to these questions long before arriving at the trade show. Everything you do at the show should connect back to your objectives.
Outlining Your Strategy
After defining your goals, it is important to begin outlining your strategy by deciding who the right people from your organization are to achieve these goals.
Depending on the purpose of the trade show and the demographic of attendees, who you choose to send to represent your brand will have a huge impact.
The skillsets and priorities of your team will vary, for example, marketing will gather the leads while salespeople will better deal with customers who are ready to buy.
Focusing on the Best Location
After you choose the right team to send, you must focus on the best location for your booth and make it attractive to customers.
To best pick your spot, you will need to understand the layout of the event space and find a location that will be good for high traffic and comfortable engagement opportunities.
- Registering in advance will be VITAL to securing a good location, last minute registrations often get stuck in less than ideal positions.
Even if you don’t get your preferred location, you should strive to make the space welcoming and comfortable for guests.
To ensure a spectacular booth get all the details beforehand: the dimensions of your space, ceiling height, access to lighting, internet access, electricity, etc.
- Get spectator’s attention, trade shows are chock full of booths and you often only have seconds to get a passerby to notice your booth. You want to make a visual impact with clear messaging.
- Ensure that your brand is prominent and consistent with all of your marketing materials. You don’t want any confusion surrounding the mission of your brand.
- When choosing giveaways, consider only giving items to people who give their contact information. Then make sure you choose an item of value, you want to pick something unique that attendees will want to keep for themselves.
This can be time-consuming, but it will go a long way in separating you from your competition in the eyes of consumers.
Determining Your Post-Event Strategy
Post-event strategy is important to ensuring the success of a tradeshow investment. This includes engagement with both customers and staff after the event.
- Reach out to attendees who left their contact info with a thank you email and a free download of your presentation. Track who is unsubscribing and you’ll save your sales team a lot of time and energy.
- Set up a campaign for those who stuck around and gauge interest. Keep their attention by posting content related to the tradeshow on your blog and social platforms.
Aside from the debrief with consumers, you absolutely must provide a meeting of some sort with your team. You want to discuss the successes, failures, and everything in between and learn from this experience.
In the end, having the flashiest booth or a celebrity guest isn’t the only road to success at a trade show.
Any organization with any budget can thrive with proper planning, execution of strategy, and follow-up post-event.
We Can Help!
Learn more about our experiential marketing program and contact us today to help you design your own unforgettable trade show!