Trade shows offer an incredible opportunity for your business to make a mark in your industry, teeming with potential partners, investors, and customers at every turn. They give you the chance to demonstrate your newest products, celebrate your services and analyse the latest trends in your industry — opportunities that should never be wasted.
But despite trade shows being a lucrative business opportunity, they also make it very easy to burn through your marketing budget. Many people attend trade shows without reaping the rewards, especially those who aren’t familiar with the inside secrets of experience marketing.
Luckily though, we do. And we want to share that knowledge with you. Keep reading to find out the most common mistakes businesses make when it comes to trade show marketing, and how you can avoid burning your budget on events that don’t deliver results.
Lack of pre-show marketing will ensure your trade show is unsuccessful
Marketing is important for any event of course, but it’s especially crucial with industry trade shows. Many businesses think that setting up a stand in a ready-made room full of potential customers is enough, and that promoting your presence isn’t necessary. This is simply not true, and you’ll want to avoid falling victim to beliefs like this if you’re hoping for a successful experience.
Whether you decide to equip yourself with social media, email marketing or a more traditional form of mailer, it couldn’t be more important to make your presence known. Developing a strong message and making people aware of exactly where to find you are just some of the marketing tactics you should be using when preparing for a trade show. One of our favorite tips is to send out a personalised invitation to potential customers. This will encourage prospects to book themselves in on your meeting schedule on the day.
Fail to prepare, prepare to fail — trade shows require forward planning
Believe it or not, you can’t just turn up to a trade show and hope for the best. Your competitors will have planned in advance, analysing their messaging and developing their strategy for months before the day.
For smaller businesses, we recommend a planning time of around 3-6 months for optimum preparation. For medium companies, 6-9 months is the ideal window, and large organisations will generally need 9-12 months’ worth of planning to get everything in order.
Trade shows aren’t just about making your company brand known, they’re also about capitalising on potential boosts to your latest campaigns. If you’ve got a new product launching around the time of the show, you’ll want to shout about it, and some solid preparation will allow you to do just that.
Bad graphics and irrelevant imagery are a recipe for disaster
This is a no-go for any style of marketing, nevermind the immersive and visual experience of a trade show event. The first thing guests will do is scan the room, always looking at stands before they engage with them. If your imagery is irrelevant to your core message, or your graphics are pixelated, you are going to have far fewer people approach you.
Prepare your visual communications with your niche avatars in mind and what they will want to engage with – they’ve got to speak to them from across the room! When you nail the visually appealing aspect, you’ll see an increase in organic engagement from the aisles. This will naturally lead to more inquiries, of course, increasing your ROI.
Sidelining the lead follow-up at trade shows is a wasted opportunity
One of your key goals for every trade show should be to make new contacts, put your products in front of fresh eyes, and allow your name to be heard. Failing to follow up with your new audience is the best way to burn through your marketing budget without anything being gained.
Do your research. Collect the data. Prepare something to send. Keep the conversation going!
Expecting staff to smash their sales without training is a long-shot
Trade shows offer a unique opportunity for growing your business and stretching your reach, but your employees probably aren’t used to attending them. Sending them on their way unprepared and without training is a disaster waiting to happen. Not only is it unfair to them, but it’s unfair to your products and services too in that it won’t do them justice.
Equipping your teams with the right information, skills, and energy is one of the best ways to ensure people will engage with your brand and enter the sales pipeline.
Not leveraging technology for your trade show is a huge mistake
We’re living in a world that’s becoming increasingly more digitised every day. New marketing trends and technologies are emerging by the minute, and embracing those changes is key to a successful trade show.
Leveraging technology not only shows your audiences that you’re a modern business, but it will also transform the whole experience of the brand environment. You can weaponise technology at every moment and use it to your advantage, from immediate contact forms filled out on iPads, to touch screen demonstrations of your product.
It may seem like an expense that will cut into your budget, but it’s one that’s 100% worth the payout. You can reuse it again and again, no matter where you’re heading to.
Take care of your prospects or lose out on potential business
Sales is all about listening to your prospects’ requirements/problems and offering them the solutions — trade shows are one of the best places to make this happen. Many hosts are too easily caught up in the excitement of the event, and try to fly through as many sales pitches as they can possibly manage. Nurturing a small number of potential customers is always a better approach than pumping out your message en masse to people who’ll have forgotten you by the end of the day.
Equip your sales team with the time they need to take care of your prospects with active listening, note taking, and genuine conversations. These engagements will be much more fruitful and are far more likely to bring people back for more.
Teamwork makes the dream work — don’t go out on your own
The final common mistake on our lineup is a classic and one that we see happening far too often. Sales teams are often made up of big and bold personalities, which can be great when you’re trying to get your name out there. However, allowing members of your team to go rogue and follow an independent process will leave your message vulnerable.
Keep things unified and nurture a strong sense of team spirit. Portraying one message and delivering sales through one gelled approach will make for a much more successful trade show experience.
If you’d like to find out more about successful experience marketing at trade shows & Conferences or need some much-needed guidance, get in touch with us today at Regis Event Design.
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