Despite all of the talk about content marketing, social selling and other tech-based tactics for driving leads and increasing revenue, trade shows remain an essential component of many companies’ marketing budget. Daniel Scalco, CEO of Digitalux, a digital marketing and SEO agency, offers these tips for getting more from trade shows:
Create a system to measure goals.Having a clear idea of your ROI is essential to making marketing decisions down the road. Knowing if you were able to add 100 new signups to your email database is obvious, but gauging brand awareness is more complicated. If you don’t have the tools to measure your goals internally, hire a professional who can gather information such as social media engagement or the source of new traffic to your website.
Create a memorable experience for your audience. It’s your job to stand out from the competition and remain relevant in their minds afterwards. One way to stand out is to cater your conversation to your booth visitors’ interests. Rather than dive into your pitch, ask them questions to get to know them better, learn more about their company, and what their problems and needs are. It’s much easier to sell to someone when you know who you’re talking to and what they want.
Integrate social media into your event. There are only two forms of marketing that take place in real time — events and social media. Take full advantage of your event and combine the two to optimize exposure and extend your reach far beyond the trade show’s doors. Here a few ideas:
• Think of a memorable hashtag to create a buzz around your booth and encourage feedback from those that stop by.
• Tweet to guests that have stopped by your booth with a simple thank you or nice to meet you to keep the conversation going.
• Highlight those that won a game or raffle at your booth to strengthen connections and get other attendees excited about stopping by.
• Search Twitter to find individuals tweeting at the event and encourage them to stop by your booth.
