Participating at an exhibition is quite a high capital expense and the decision to take part will not have been taken lightly. It is both expensive in time as well as in monetary terms. It will be money and time well spent however if a few simple rules are followed. To garnish the most from your efforts at your exhibition, you must do everything possible to publicise the event and the fact that you will be there, ensuring that your prospective clients will know how, when and where to find you.
A great way to do this is to get involved with Social Media, whether you are up to speed with social media or not there is no denying that if used correctly, it is a very powerful marketing channel…… but best of all once the time has been spent setting it up it’s absolutely free!
Below are some example of things you can do using social media to both attract and inform your potential customers;
If you don’t already have; create a ‘Facebook’ page for your company, then email your clients and prospective customers and invite them to become a follower. The advantage of this is that you can post updates directly on to your page and reach hundreds if not thousands of people in one fell swoop. Another idea is to post a special offer only to be claimed at the show if people sign up as ‘fans’.
Start up a ‘Twitter’ account and as above invite your prospects and clients to follow you. Keep people updated during the run up to the show and then “Twitter” during the trade event so that the people who could not attend will still be able to keep up with any fantastic product releases or special events you may do.
Create a company blog. Become an industry expert. Enabling you to keep your customers informed and in the loop. You can even give away free information that would be useful to them. With a blog you can intersperse and educate your customers a bit more as to who you are and what you can offer amongst the free information. Write brief and detailed articles on individual products or services and provide clients with a link direct to the product or service which may interest them.
A great way to leverage this is to leave comments on other blog sites and articles which are aligned to your product in some way. You may be able to use the media of a larger, more well-known branded company to plug a new product release or event. Beware and be careful though don’t blatantly advertise – it has to be of general interest to readers of the blog.
Video is the latest craze but does work so film product demonstrations and staff interviews explaining your products or services. You can use audio visual equipment on your exhibition stand to play these in the background adding interest. You can also upload the videos to ‘You Tube’, post them on your blog sites, your ‘Facebook’ page and most importantly on your own company website.
Follow these simple steps and we assure you a better attendance at your trade show stand.
