Should You Turn Your Trade Show Displays into a 3 Ring Circus?
For a lot of firms, trade show appearances are often isolated events, mostly separate from their overall strategy. There’s a new show in a
couple months, so they sign up, set up their booths, then go home when it’s over with some new leads or sales.
This is a fine beginner’s strategy for up-and-coming firms, but there comes a point that you should consider growing your exposition booths into a part of something larger…
The trade show itself doesn’t necessarily have to be the alpha and omega of your event outreach. Instead, it can become one “ring” of a much larger circus you build around the event.
After all, if you’re already transporting people and goods to the trade show, it makes sense to try to make more use of them while they’re there.
Accordingly, a more comprehensive trade show strategy -which includes pre-show and post-show elements- can combine to create a far more robust outreach effort. Let’s look at a few ideas.
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I. Pre-Show Exhibition Initiatives
The pre-show for your trade show appearance can stretch on practically as long as you want.
If, for example, you’re planning on debuting a major new product in the Fall, you could start hinting and hyping it six months before.
Social Media
Social media will be your best tool here.
There’s value in using email and phone calls to reach out to your best leads and clients, but in terms of overall reach, social media can draw far more public attention to your activities.
Material for social media can come from literally anywhere.
Even your own design and concept art can be repurposed.
Further, any content you create for pre-show purposes can also be distributed during and after the show, so you can stretch the value considerably. Social media materials should be intended to pique interest, and get people talking.
If done properly, social outreach can build plenty of buzz.
Webinars And Online Trade Shows
Another good strategy -which can be tied directly into social outreach- is to have a series of online promotional events that happen in the days leading up to your trade show appearance.
Webinars, Q&As, or even entire virtual trade shows are a possibility.
These few days leading up to a show, especially a major show, are critical. It’s when you’ll build momentum for your appearance, and start pushing to give people a reason to visit your booth, specifically.
While some advise a “withholding” approach, saving big surprises for the show itself, we tend to advise the opposite: Be forthcoming with information.
Then, the people visiting your actual trade show display will be there because they’re truly interested in your offerings.
You’ll spend more time ‘talking turkey,’ and less time simply describing your products.
Generally, only very large companies will benefit from staged “Big Reveal” stunts at their trade show displays.
Everyone else should be trying to find all the outreach they can get.
Local Media Outreach
Possibly the biggest single mistake we see trade show attendees make in general is ignoring local media.
Nearby TV and radio stations are virtually always covering a show, and will often be happy to help you create a stunt if they’ll get ratings out of it.
Contests, promotions, personal appearances, or even separate displays at other locations are all possible when you’ve got the local media on your side.
Plus, whatever they broadcast about you becomes instant fodder for your ‘clip reels.’
A contest that begins a couple days before the show, and continues up to the actual show, is a perfect way to create a sense of momentum and of the trade show merely being one part of your larger outreach strategy.
II. Paint A Bigger Picture During The Trade Show
There are a lot of strategies you can deploy to broaden your outreach during the show, but they all boil down to one key element: Presenting a bigger picture.
Everyone is expected to self-promote while they’re running an exposition display.
What’s rarer is organizations providing commentary on the entire exposition, or the state of the industry, or how announcements others are making will impact the market.
This is your opportunity to show yourself a thought leader.
Beyond your self-promotional efforts, spend some time as an analyst.
Take some objective looks at your industry, and look to take the lead in reporting what your trade show “really” means for the future of your industry.
Become a thought leader: report what your trade show really means for your industry. Click To TweetFrom running livetweets, to blogs, to post-show video wrapups, there are plenty of ways to do this.
Demonstrating the ability to look beyond just your own business interests will do a lot for your standing and reputation.
III. Keep The Momentum Going After The Show!
A trade show appearance isn’t necessarily over after the doors close!
If you’ve got enough momentum and public interest, you can often stretch things out for some time afterward.
As a few examples:
• Post-show parties. It’s common enough to have private parties for clients who need wining and dining, but consider an open party or press function. There’s a lot of exposure to be gained, plus you can reuse the same display materials you had in your booth.
• Extended engagements. If all your trade show materials are already in a town, make more use of them. Look for smaller appearances you could book locally after the show. This is especially good if you’re at a private industry show and want to have a day for public outreach using the same trade show displays.
• More online activities. Not to belabor a point, but those same webinars, Q&As, and other Internet-based promotions could be just as easily deployed after a show, or even kept active and running for an extended period afterward.
• Roadshows. An out of date concept? Not necessarily. Depending on what materials you have, you could turn a trade show road trip into more of a grand tour, with a few stopovers in towns on the way home.
This is also a great option if your products have rural appeal, and you don’t want to focus solely on city-dwellers.
The best thing about post-show promotional opportunities is that the field is truly wide open.
Once the exposition doors are closed, a lot of the competition for press time and attention goes away.
Hanging around the area for a day or two longer can get you a lot of direct press access without having to fight for it. And every time your name gets mentioned in the media after the show, the longer your own little circus keeps rolling.
Create A Great Experience Throughout Your Next Trade Show
Virtually anything you can do which extends the exposition in time, before or after, ultimately creates a richer and more productive outreach environment for you.
Getting people engaged, involved, and interested throughout this process will vastly increase your outreach, as well as luring more qualified leads to your display.
This also gives you a great opportunity to stretch the value of your trade show material investments, getting the most use out of them before they go into storage.
For more, check out our guidelines for displays or how to have successful convention displays.
We’ve offered you some new ways to think about promoting your trade show presence here. We can help you create an outstanding exhibit, or just spruce up your current display.
For more information, Contact Us or call us: 1(800) 676-3976.
