by e4Design
Advertising is an important tool in creating brand awareness and getting your target audience to your booth. Your advertising message should go hand-in-hand with your trade show goals and identify easily with your brand, product, or service. Therefore, it is important to stay focused on creating a simple and clear message directed at your target audience.
Follow these effective trade show advertising tips before finalizing your advertisements.
1. Am I Focused On My Target Audience?
Don’t try to be everything to everyone. Think of a trade show as an opportunity for you to set up shop in a room filled with your target audience. Before you decide on a message, you must first do some research on your customers.
1. Customer Profile: Who is the typical customer in your database? Where do they live? What is their title? What industry are they in? 2. Show Information: What type of person goes to that specific show? Why are they going? 3. Customer Problems: Talk to your customers. What makes them stay up at night? What are their goals and objectives for the show?
2. What Makes You Stand Out From Your Competition?
You know your company culture and brand and have just decided on your message for the trade show. How do you work with this information to make you stand out from your competition at the show?
1. Culture and Brand: A company really clicks when mission, brand, and culture converge. Motivated by the culture and driven by the mission, booth staff can be a part of a company’s brand when they engage with consumers delivering a product or service. They create the customer experience that’s so important for sales and standing out in the crowd.
2. Using the 5 Senses: People are attracted to booths by more than just an appointment or brand awareness, use the 5 senses to engage people to your booth:
Sight: Use graphics to attract attendees. You could even have your booth staff dress to match your product or message.
Touch: Engaging activities will help attract attendees to your booth. Draw in customers with games or hand outs to give you the time to deliver your message.
Hearing: Music can take you back in time or to a specific place. You can enhance your environment by playing music to go with your brand.
Taste: Walking around a trade show all day long can be tiring. Offer snacks to attendees to help them keep going. Bring their blood sugar level back to normal and then talk about how you can help them.
Smell: A smell can help place you in an environment. If your booth has a beachy theme, use a pineapple smell to enhance the environment. If you want to make attendees feel like they are in a small coffee shop, have fresh brewed coffee that will spread the coffee aroma around.
3. How Can We Go Above And Beyond With Our Advertising?
Before and during the show there are additional ways to make your company stand out. The traditional methods, such as direct mailers, email broadcasts, and hand outs, have all proven their success. But what are other ways that you can go above and beyond to really stand out before, during, and after the show?
1. Social Media: Using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram to promote your company before the show allow you to broaden your audience reach. Tease what you will be promoting and make sure to include your booth number. During the show, use social media to let attendees know what you are doing real time. Are you doing a product demonstration in a few minutes? Will you have a celebrity at your booth? Let your customers know in real time!
2. Website Landing Page: Increase the SEO for your website before the show by creating a landing page for the upcoming show. A landing page will allow your website to show up in an online search for that show. Make sure that you research keywords and understand what people are looking for and use those to your advantage!
3. Present at the Show: Sign up before hand to be a presenter at the show. Not only get your name and company out there, but become an educational resource for competitors and attendees alike.
4. Contests, Games, Celebrities: Use engaging activities to attract attention to your booth. Word gets around the trade show floor if a company has a really fun game and is handing out great prizes. A celebrity is another good way to draw crowds to your booth. To be successful with these, you must have a clear plan and know what to expect in order to reach your goal.