Social media is a vital part of many businesses’ success in today’s world. There has never been an easier, more effective way to market to highly targeted audiences at a very reasonable cost per click or impression rate.
To set you up for success at trade shows, you should adopt a plan for how to best utilize the various channels and what your ideal result will be. This will help you effectively create a pre-show marketing plan and will assist you at the trade show and with a follow-up after the show ends. If you’re really struggling, you can look to trade show companies such as Alliance for all your exhibition needs.
Here are a few ways that we like to use social channels for marketing trade shows.
Before the Show
This is arguably one of the most critical aspects of your social media plan. By creating a marketing plan, you can efficiently schedule your posts and call to actions without scrambling at the last minute. Your email list will build a custom audience to target with ads and display ads.
Those ads can feature your booth number and help people sign up to make appointments to visit with you. Make sure to create a dynamic landing page on your website to gather even more email addresses and leads for marketing your business.
This is a great place to do a particular lead-in offer for prospective clients to make an appointment to take advantage of your deal at the trade show only.
At the Show
During the trade show, you will want to make sure you are recording as much as possible. If you can interview current clients so they can give testimonials and reviews about your business, this will be great exposure.
Make sure you are using the hashtag for the event so you can gain extra exposure from attendees. If there are some great speakers at the event, consider live streaming. The stream will drive additional traffic to your social media sites for the people who couldn’t make it to the trade show.
Running Contests
Another great way to gain some social media exposure is by running a contest during the tradeshow. Many businesses opt to go for a like and share contests, so their business gets promoted to every entrant’s social network.
You can give away free services or products, be creative with it. Remember, the more amazing your prize looks to people walking by at the show, the more likely they are to take steps to enter your contest.
After the Show
After the show has ended, you have hopefully collected a lot more clients and leads. Make sure you follow up with them all and invite them to follow you on your various social media channels.
This is a very effective way to market to people that showed interest in your product but maybe didn’t decide to buy at the show.
Social media should be an integral part of your business strategy for setting up at trade shows. It is the single most powerful way to reach your clients and get your appointment calendar full.
