6 Techniques To Promote Your Business Efficiently At A Trade Show

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Do you plan to promote your business at a trade show? Trade show appearances have proven to help companies increase sales, enhance product knowledge and boost brand awareness. There is no reason why you shouldn’t have a booth and make your presence at such professional events.

Many up-and-coming managers and entrepreneurs erroneously believe that trade shows are a relic of times gone by. But the truth is that while these events may be old-school, they are still just as effective at helping small business owners and smart marketers build valuable relationships with their partners, customers, and prospects.

People look for authentic experiences and want to interact with organizations with similar values. And trade shows let you speak to and reach prospective clients and partners as effectively as possible. But simply setting up a booth won’t do. It would be best to plan your trade show presence to ensure a productive marketing experience that successfully promotes your business to the attendees.

How Can You Promote Your Business At A Trade Show?

Your trade show business booth can get a brilliant start with appealing marketing collateral, unique offerings, and thoughtful planning.

A trade show also has the potential to strengthen and develop your brand. Whether you want to position your business as a critical player in the industry or secure a niche in the market, promoting and exhibiting business at trade shows go a long way in outlining your brand’s identity and your objectives to onlookers.

Taking on a strategic approach to these trade shows can help small business leaders to make sure to get the most out of this experience. Formulate a strategy before the event, make sure that it aligns with realistic business goals, then implement the plan during the event.

Here are some viable techniques to promote your business effectively at a trade show:

1. Use Social Media Marketing To Bring People To Your Kiosk

A trade show survey report demonstrated that most marketers observed that Twitter is one of the more valuable social media assets, followed by LinkedIn for trade shows.

You can leverage social media platforms for pre-shows. Use the official hashtags with each post, and make sure you start putting up relevant posts a few weeks in advance of the date of the actual event.

This positions your messages and tweets for exposure and allows you to market your products/services and brand to possible trade show visitors and even those following the event online. If you are feeling particularly adventurous, create a hashtag particular to your campaigns and work in tandem with trade show marketers to take advantage of a unique branding opportunity for your business.

Post on your official social media pages leading up to the trade show event and give the details about what’s there for the attendees, any deals you may have for them, and all the necessary information people need to find you.

Moreover, you can custom design small business flyers, distribute such material and share links to your digital channels to help people connect with your venture once the trade show ends.

2. Email Campaigns

Invest your resources and time in email marketing campaigns targeted toward the intended audience to garner the right insights and produce the desired results. This also helps you get the most out of your valuable investments in brand recognition, ultimately converting quality leads into clients.

One of the essential factors to be mindful of when leveraging email marketing tactics at trade shows is that you don’t make your email content too salesy or promotional.

We recommend using PosterMyWall to help you create appealing and brand-specific posters for your email campaigns. It simplifies the designing process for you while ensuing stunning promotional posters.

Emphasize quality content and solid information about your products or company to keep your target audience hooked. Moreover, your email marketing strategy must include follow-ups and upsells to take your business promotion at a trade show to the next level.

This is a great opportunity. So send out an email a few weeks before the event and then follow-up 24 hours before. That way, you’ll also get to know if your efforts have been fruitful.

3. Video Marketing

Using video marketing is one of the best marketing strategies for trade shows in digital age. You need to post videos of your company and your products to your digital platforms.

You can make a quick show teaser to excite the attendees. For example, CONEXPO-CON/AGG, a construction firm, made a 1-minute teaser video to captivate their audience’s attention and inform them. The key here is to keep it fast-moving and short.

Curiosity can be a brilliant motivator. As attendees are intrigued about how all the preparations happen at trade shows, you can maximize that curiosity by posting a sneak peek at how you make all the arrangements. For instance, you can make a concise “behind the scenes” glimpse related to what goes around arranging and organizing the show.

The Golf Industry Show precisely did this by telling how they constructed their setup, “Inside the Ropes.”

To gear up to address a big crowd of attendees, videos can be the best sidekicks. It can help you drive the narrative.

You should send these business-related promotional videos to prospective clients to entice them to join you in the upcoming trade show.

These videos help generate buzz amongst the attendees, getting them all excited about your specific business booth and knowing more about it.

Also, it is vital to keep your videos interesting and make sure that you create all your videos professionally to entice your audience to share them with their contacts.

You can also leverage these videos by uploading them on social media platforms like YouTube and Facebook to engage potential customers, drawing their interest in your services or products.

4. Newsletter

Demonstrate and advertise your presence at the trade shows via direct mail pieces to the final list of attendees (or perhaps a targeted list from the list of all the confirmed attendees. Also, you can promote your business presence at a trade show via your website, in newsletters, through email campaigns, social media sites, on your blog, and more.

Positively endorsing your business at a trade show and making this experience worthwhile and successful go beyond presenting your brand at trade shows.

These events are merely a source of connecting your brand with quality leads, not clients. Therefore, it is imperative to follow up on all of your prospective customers via newsletters, email, or direct mail list.

5. Raffle Tickets

You can use raffle tickets as icebreakers for your introverted attendees who aren’t sure about how to begin a conversation.

Attendees might also visit your booth twice to see if they have won a prize, reward, or not. Although you can develop different fun items or gifts yourself. And remember gifts or giveaway items that reflect your company values are typically well-received by the attendees.

Here are some ideas for fun prizes that can entice your attendees.

Clothes. Sweaters, jackets, and shirts with your brand logo can be trendy gift items for your attendees. This will help you create a good bond with your attendees, and also enjoy free marketing whenever they wear it in public.

• Gift Cards. A gift card is another grand prize to offer your attendees. This can include cinema tickets, a museum trip, or even a coffee voucher for two
• Gadgets. You can offer smartwatches, tablets, headsets, etc. Gadgets rule this digital era, so offering them may make sense to entice your attendees
• Luxurious Prizes. If your budget lets you go over and beyond for your attendees, you can offer them hot air balloon rides and VIP access to specific events as prizes
• Stationary. People love promotional pens, keychains, and branded notebooks, and you can offer such things to promote your brand strategically

6. Hand Out Giveaways

You can market your business in various ways at trade shows. One of the most popular ways is by giving away advertising items. You can do this by offering prizes to people filling out a survey. Give away samples for free, or offer rewards/gift cards for solving riddles, depending on your company or product.

Moreover, when deciding what type of items you want to give out, remember that the practical goodies have better appeal and help people remember and recall your brand.

Wrapping Up

Promoting your business and getting your brand name out there is critical to a successful business. Without customers and partners, what’s the point anyways? And industry-related trade shows are one of the best avenues to boost brand awareness and recognition.

Business trade shows present many opportunities for business promotion and marketing your products, services, and brand. The marketing strategies mentioned above can help you effectively engage and interact with your potential and current customers while scaling your business.