Many businesses use trade shows to reach customers in a face-to-face environment. This can lead to sales leads, press coverage and new partnerships.
Hands-on demonstrations that allow visitors and prospects to feel, smell, listen to or taste your product are effective in attracting attention. Announce these demonstrations ahead of the show via email and social media to generate interest in your booth.
1. Increased Conversions
When companies invest in interactive marketing at trade shows, they can see real sales results. They can build on existing relationships and close sales in a relaxed face-to-face environment, and they can create a solid pipeline for future growth.
Digital marketing campaigns can zero in on potential attendees and target them with relevant, eye-catching content leading up to the show. They should also use social media to promote their presence at the event, leveraging the official hashtags to get more engagement from other show attendees and general social media followers.
In order to create an engaging experience, it is crucial that marketers and agencies have a deep understanding of their trade show audience. This includes knowing their industry, their level of management seniority, their main job responsibilities, their concerns and aspirational goals. This allows them to create activities that are tailored to meet those needs and deliver valuable information in a shorter amount of time.
2. Better Return on Investment
Investing in an interactive exhibit takes time, money and effort, so you’ll want to ensure the highest return on investment from each lead and sales opportunity that emerges from your trade show experience. A key component is to set up post-show email campaigns and workflows for your leads — including content that will continue to educate and move them along the buyer journey until they become customers.
Attendees expect more from the brands they interact with at trade shows — especially those with more tech-driven interactives. Whether through large touchscreens, iPads or even virtual kiosks, creative digital integrations allow visitors to see and experience more of your company, products and brand.
Use a pre-show campaign to let current customers and prospects know you’ll be attending the trade show, and that they’re invited to drop by your booth to learn more about what you have to offer. Include a sign-up form they can use to enter a giveaway or to schedule a product demonstration.
3. Increased Brand Awareness
Creating engaging trade show experiences requires a shift in perspective for marketers and agency creatives. Instead of representing brands in a variety of media, they must create activities that help trade show attendees experience and retain brand elements and competitive advantages.
To do this, they must understand the demographics of their audience. This means gaining a deep understanding of the type of industry they are in, their level of management seniority, their core job responsibilities and worries and aspirations.
Once they have a full picture of their audience, they can use it to build a strong call-to-action and hook for the event. They should then communicate this across all digital channels – including social media, email marketing and on their website. This will help to drive people to their booth, and also make sure that people are aware of what they will find there. They can then use FastSensor to measure how well their in-booth interactives are doing, using metrics like view time and dwell time.
4. Better Engagement
Billions of consumers log onto the internet every day. Many feel like a faceless conglomerate of pixelated data with no personality. Interactive marketing takes a different approach, embracing the consumer as an individual with unique goals, needs, and problems that only your business can solve.
Incorporating video into your trade show experience is a great way to connect with consumers. Whether you’re using a movie wall to play company videos or product demo videos, you can create real connection and engagement with your visitors.
Collecting emails from your trade show visitors is a great way to keep in touch with them after the event. Keeping up with communications after the event will help you nurture leads and keep them interested in your brand even if they’re not currently in the buying stage.
