Exhibiting at a trade show is an excellent way to make your presence felt in your industry. To make your trade show performance a success, you should focus on impactful exhibits and a strong marketing strategy. However, there is one more thing you should use effectively to drive more traffic to your booth. That important element is digital marketing through social media platforms.
Social media has tremendous potential to engage consumers. According to one survey, internet users spend an average of 2 hours and 22 minutes per day on social networking platforms. This is one of the reasons why digital marketing budgets are increasing and traditional ones are shrinking. That’s why it is wise to invest in a digital marketing strategy to bring great return on your investment.
7 Expert Tips to Promote Your Trade Show Using Digital Marketing
Here are seven ways to promote your event using digital marketing that are sure to bring you outstanding leads.
- Make a Digital Marketing Plan
Your first step is to create a digital marketing plan that answers the 5Ws (who, what, where, when, why) and 1H (how) of your event. For instance, who are your attendees? Where will the event take place? When will it happen and how long does it go on? The ‘why’ of your event is important as you need to articulate to people why they should attend your show. If you can logically back your answers, your show is more likely to be a hit. But this is just the beginning. After you have all the relevant answers, divide your strategy into three timelines: before, during and after.
- Before the show, promote the event to your target audience, including existing customers
- During the event, generate leads by collecting relevant data about visitors
- After the show, build a business relationship with qualified leads to bring in revenue
- Identify Communication Channels
The many communication channels available in the digital age include:
- Podcasts
- YouTube
- Websites
- Webinars
Each is unique, and content should be tweaked accordingly to impact audiences. You can choose all of them or select a few based on what suits you best. Just be sure that the messaging is similar in all the selected channels.
- Use Proper Hashtags
Hashtags have the power to make your company visible on a relevant topic. That’s why choosing proper hashtags for your event is important and requires expertise. Make sure the ones you pick are functional which means there should be no hyphens, dashes or spaces. Be sure to check the credibility and authenticity of the selected hashtags; otherwise, you might end up using hashtags already employed by a competitor’s trade show.
- Make Your Event Website Responsive & Mobile Friendly
These days a majority of people prefer to browse online via mobile devices like tablets, iPads and smartphones over traditional desktop computers and laptops. This is because the former devices are portable, so people can operate them on the move. That’s why your website should be optimized for mobile devices. In this way, you increase your conversion rates, thus allowing you to reach more people that you would have otherwise missed.
- Plan an Email Marketing Campaign
Email marketing can do wonders if you keep in mind different time zones. You can either opt for a normal email informing people about your show or a newsletter based on what suits you best. To get this right, you must list your consumers and those curated from data analysis. Make sure you reach out to as many people as possible before the show and follow up afterwards to foster a healthy business relationship.
- Curate Your Sponsors, Partners and Speakers on Social Media
Another expert way to boost your event is to curate your sponsors, speakers and partners and engage with them on social media. This will surely create a buzz in your industry and drive more people to your trade show. In fact, in this way you create a bandwagon effect which can help you get additional sponsorship opportunities.
- Create a Video to Promote Your Event
Video is another medium through which you can drive more traffic. Event promotion videos are generally 60 to 90 seconds long and highlight key parts of your event in snippets without revealing everything. This video can be repurposed in other marketing channels such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and your website.
Using digital marketing to promote your trade show will bring you nothing less than the best result. Just be sure you have conducted thorough research and selected social media channels based on your requirements. Also, make sure the messaging is similar on all channels to avoid disrupting your audience reach. Once you have considered these factors, you are sure to have a successful event.
