Trade Show Emporium

It is no secret that gearing up for a tradeshow can be a costly event. Even if you are just sending a few salespeople to only attend the event, it can still be a serious investment of time and money. Should you decide to pay for booth space or sponsor a part of the show, a clear commitment to success must be established. You have arranged accommodations, designed and purchased a display, printed your marketing materials, and feel you are ready for the show. Shockingly, a lot of successful companies manage to overlook one of the most important steps prior to the actual event which are pre-show promotional strategies. You cannot just show up to the event and expect it to pay off without a little pre-planning.

Pre-show promotional strategies are vital to the success of the show and can help create clear returns on your large investment. The first step to promoting your attendance of a show is to let your current customers and partners actually know you will be attending. It can be difficult to keep up with all of the vendors, partners and customers you have, and a trade show presents a great opportunity to personally connect to important people to your business. Make sure to personally invite these people by contacting them through the phone or email and give them a reason to attend the show or stop by your booth if they are already attending the event.

Another thing that you can do prior to the show is to make sure you promote the event and your attendance online. This can consist of several different strategies like email reminders to newsletter subscribers, creation of landing pages on your website specifically promoting the event, banner advertising or email advertising on industry specific websites, and submitting an online press release. There are many online press release distribution sites but we recommend using the most widely used and respected service called PRWeb. They are more expensive than others but the results are worth the extra investment.

Associations, trade groups, and industry specific social organizations can also be a great resource for getting the word out before you attend the big trade show. All of these groups tend to have monthly newsletters sent out to their members and usually offer opportunities to promote an event or new product in the newsletter.

If your company has big money and really wants to make an impact, you can always take out TV, radio and billboard advertisements in the city where the show is to take place. While some of the other strategies are focused on getting people you know to the event, this strategy is all about making sure others come to the event and ultimately visit your booth.

Regardless of what strategy you decide upon, it is clear that pre-show promotional activities are well worth the investment – Especially when you add the total cost of taking part in the big event.