4 Ways to Grow Your Business at Trade Shows

If you aren’t doing so already, we’re fairly certain that before too long, you’re going to be looking towards your next, or maybe first, trade show.

 Trade shows are an incredible marketing opportunity to promote your wares, evaluate the competition and see the latest innovations your particular industry has to offer. If you’re planning on taking part in one, or numerous, trade shows over the next 12-18 months, we’ve got the inside track on everything you need to put on a show worthy of your name. More importantly, we’ll highlight how social media will play a pivotal role in its success, become the unsung star of your show and reinforce all your inbound marketing efforts.

 There’s no denying that putting on a trade show can be labour-intensive, not to mention an expensive way to showcase your business, but the benefits to your overall marketing strategy can be enormous. In addition, the almost instant impact a show can have on your inbound marketing makes a trade show a business must, particularly when it comes to aligning your virtual presence with a very real one. If there are multiple trade shows you could attend, how do you decide which ones you should attend?

Which Trade Show

The first thing you should do is your research. Take a look at all the shows coming up and get a feel for who’s going to be there, what exhibitors it has, its location, and floor space and choose the one (or ones) that best align with your marketing strategy.

They won’t all be a perfect fit, so work hard to understand those that are. Remember a trade show isn’t just about the event itself. Consider the days and weeks leading up to it, the immediate pre-show, and naturally the event itself, but also don’t forget about the post-event.

This is where your social media campaigns will come into their own and honing their effectiveness to the different timescales will work wonders. Each platform will be able to offer something different, at different times and have different results. All of which you can analyse and use to your advantage for the next show.

B2B Social Media Planning

Plan the social media elements of your inbound marketing strategy and your trade show game plan like a military operation. Starting from about 8 weeks out, work out a schedule of posts across all platforms. Initially, it may be enough to spread the various social media sites out quite thinly, e.g. Facebook post on a Monday, a Tweet on a Tuesday, a LinkedIn post on Thursday and a blog on a Friday.

All of these should already be part of your inbound thinking. All of them should reflect the growing enthusiasm for the show to captivate and excite potential customers.

As the event gets closer, increase the number of posts and increase the platforms used. Include more posts, more regularly and, where possible, have guest blogs from other visitors or guests. Your schedule should reflect the various strengths of each platform and run up to, including, and after the event is finished.

Your social media blitz shouldn’t end when the show begins. In many ways, it becomes even more important. Once the show is in full swing, your inbound marketing strategy should start to blossom. Now you can meet all those virtual leads in person, plus all the new ones you will make, so keeping track of them is vital.

Take the opportunity to connect with them; follow them on Twitter; take photos and tweet them with your hashtag (you’ve thought of one, right?), share promotional information and swap business cards. Even in this technology-driven world, that little card is still massively important.

 CONCLUSION:

Once the show is over and the booth is packed away, now the hard work begins; turning all that data into leads, customers and sales. Inbound marketing is crucial to all of that.

Depending on your product or service, the selling cycle might be a couple of days or a couple of months, but whatever it is, use it to your advantage. Remember, inbound marketing is for life, not just for trade shows.

As much as you think you can conquer the world, a well-organised trade show presence is never a one-man (or woman) operation. It takes a team of motivated, dedicated and knowledgeable professionals to turn a run-of-the-mill trade show into something attendees will remember for a long time. Here, we’re going to look at what you need to do to assemble a trade show team that is worthy of your name and brand.

A trade show is an incredible opportunity for you to take all the great work you’ve been doing online, particularly with your inbound marketing, and continue it offline in the real world. You can connect to those in the same field from all over the globe. To do it right, you not only need to bring your ‘A game’ to succeed, you need to bring your A-Team too.

Depending on the size of your company, you may have a wealth of talent to choose from, or your choices may be more limited. Either way, you must choose your team wisely. It’s tempting to just fill your stand with your best salespeople, but there is more to trade shows than the selling.

Marketers are increasingly working their magic on visitors to your stand. It works for your inbound marketing campaigns online and can work just as well on the trade show floor. The team you take should represent and reflect everything good about your company. You can use this opportunity to extol the virtues of your team and getting people to fit your image is key.

If the size of your business restricts the team you can assemble, then don’t be afraid of outsourcing staff. Hiring temporary staff for a trade show isn’t unheard of.

Many companies do it successfully every year. The key to its success is getting the right people, with the right level of professionalism and the ability to think on the spot. Getting them up to speed will also be crucial, which is where you and your team back at base come in.

Have a resource pack on hand that gives everyone the information they need. You can’t expect them to know everything, so make sure you implement a plan to pass visitors off to those who do. Again, it boils down to the team and working as a unit.

If you’re the leader of that trade show team, then your role at the top of the pyramid is going to play an important part too. Getting the right team is only part of the puzzle, so showing them off in their best light will pay dividends long after the show ends. That doesn’t start when the trade show does.

There’s a degree of preparation and planning that will need to happen to get everyone firing on all cylinders. It’s vital that everyone in your team knows their roles and responsibilities and is capable of delivering what you want. It’s not useful to find out that they don’t on the opening day with a million other things to worry about. In the days and weeks leading up to your show, coordinate the team and ensure everyone, not only knows what it’s expected of them but also that they know who is doing what.

Of course, with you at the helm, it’s equally important for them to know you trust and support them. It’s only natural that things may not always go to plan or that unexpected hitch may occur. Trade shows are an incredibly tiring experience for everyone. Meeting, greeting, talking, sign-posting and interacting with hundreds, if not thousands, of people during the day can impact the energy and morale of the team.

Your role as a leader will be to gauge this and manage it to ensure visitors get the same high-quality experience from minute one to the end of the day. Let people have breaks when needed, encourage and support your team if difficulties arise and show a united front. Do that and you’re sure to be a success.