How Do I Increase Tradeshow Success?

Want to turn your next tradeshow into a major win? Tradeshows are packed with potential—but only if you play your cards right. Between grabbing attention, generating leads, and making real connections, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.  

If your business is thinking of attending, we’ve got a list of tips to increase your tradeshow success.

Pre-show campaign – 

Oftentimes you’ll be able to get a list of event attendees ahead of the event. Take this opportunity to send a message out to attendees and explain to them why they should not miss out on your booth! Make sure you are writing this email from a point-of-view that will tell attendees what is in it for them. Be sure to give the attendees all the information they will need to find you. Know your space number and location and share the details in the email for easy reference. It would also be wise to share this information on your social media accounts. Let all your fans and followers know where you’re going to be at the convention.

Landing Page – 

When you go to a convention or tradeshow, you are likely speaking to a specific audience or niche. Create a landing page on your website and put that URL on all your convention marketing materials. The landing page can be branded similar to your backdrop and repeat all the same messaging. Repetition is key…

As a testament to the power of integrated marketing, research conducted by Gartner has found that Integrated campaigns across 4+ channels outperform single or dual-channel campaigns by 300 percent.

Meaning if a visitor gets an email (or two) from you pre-show, then sees the messaging at your booth, picks up a brochure with the same campaign, sees a landing page, and then gets a post-show email all with the same messaging… you’re likely to outperform anyone just standing in front of their booth hoping to get some traffic.

Create a reason to visit-

Giveaways are very popular at conventions. People love to get free stuff. If you are going to invest in a giveaway, make sure it is something that is relevant to your business and is desirable to your audience. The branded promo market has a ton of ideas for giveaways for service-based businesses. If you are doing a giveaway, be sure to follow tip #4 below.

Allow people to sign up for more information-

Either through your giveaway or just for a future phone call, make it easy for people to give you their contact information. The new version of the glass bowl for business cards is the iPad with a sign up form on your website. Have the iPad at your booth and have it open to a page where people can either sign up for your giveaway, newsletter, or link to your calendly link to schedule a follow up.

These tips will help you create some buzz about your convention attendance. Make the most of the money you invest into attending conventions by spending a little time preparing and communicating before you go.