The best way to maximize your tradeshow ROI is to draw in and meet as many potential leads at the tradeshow as possible. Having a booth is just the beginning but it doesn’t stop there. Don’t be late to the game! Preparing for a successful tradeshow starts almost a year in advance! Read on to learn the top 3 ways to pre-market your tradeshow exhibit booth!
1. Does Anyone Know You Are There?
Pre-Marketing is the name of the game folks! Don’t wait until you get to the exhibit hall to decide your game plan for the next two days. Before you even pay for your booth, you must create a pre-show marketing plan! Your pre-show marketing plan will include dusting off your contacts from years past and seeing if they are attending the same conference. If so, set appointments! Allow the show itself to help you with your marketing. Many shows offer the pre-show attendee list and some even allow you to do marketing to that list if you sign up as an exhibitor. If you’re hosting an event or contest in your booth, make sure to mention it in your pre-show marketing campaign to catch prospects’ attention and encourage them to visit your booth during the show.
Sponsor
Sponsoring an item or event at the tradeshow is a great way to start marketing pre-show! Sponsors get top billing at conferences with logo’s and company descriptions starting from as early as a year before the conference or tradeshow. Imagine 12 months of potential attendees visiting the show’s website and seeing that your company is hosting the networking lunch. Don’t think this is out of your budget either! Many shows will have multiple sponsors for their networking events to spread the cost over a few different companies. For $5,000 or so you could be one of a few sponsors getting top billing on the website, in the conference brochure, in the App, on all signage and more! Sponsorship also often comes with a few registrations and booth badge’s, so you are already saving money!
Pre-show marketing is an important part of your tradeshow marketing plan and ties into the closed loop strategy that should be essential to your tradeshow marketing. The closed loop consists of three parts: pre-show, onsite, and post-event. You have to plan for all three phases to be successful otherwise you will walk away thinking you had a bad show when really you may just be a bad exhibitor.
The goal of pre-show marketing is to drive traffic to your booth. Marketing during the conference involves creating an engaging experience that also allows you to gather contact information from attendees, so you can continue the discussion through post-show marketing. They all work together!
2. Submit that Call for Papers!
This is one of the easiest ways to stand out at the tradeshow but so many people skip this opportunity or wait too late to get in on the action. The call for papers usually goes out about 10-12 months before the next conference. Grab a white paper you presented, your grad school paper, anything and use it as a jumping off point for a speakers proposal. Conference managers and education coordinators want new and unique speakers at their conferences because that keeps people coming back year after year. Speaking provides your company with exposure and the opportunity to position yourselves as leaders in the industry and the marketing for speakers stars before people can even register for the show! This is pre-marketing at its finest! Hey, they worst they can say is no.
3.Promote on Social Media
Don’t know how to use hashtags? Check out this hashtag tutorial. If your tradeshow has a specific hashtag, use it and don’t forget to blast out your booth number as well! If you’re having a promotion or giveaway going on, use the tradeshow hashtag to let people know that there are great reasons to visit your booth. Reply to other people using the hashtag, too. Keeping active on social media will remind people that you’re at the tradeshow and encourage them to stop by and see you. Plus, engaging one-on-one with people on social will make them feel more connected to your brand and more likely to seek you out and remember you. Also, show managers will love you for promoting their show, being engaged and otherwise making them look like rockstars!
Remember start your pre-marketing early and watch how an ordinary tradeshow becomes extraordinary!
