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For many companies, exhibiting in industry trade shows is a necessity. After all, 81% of trade show attendees have buying authority; that means four out of five people walking the show floor are potential customers. As the trade show world has gotten more competitive and attention spans have grown shorter, companies are competing for visitors. And you don’t just want to attract potential customers to your amazing custom-designed booth; you want to keep them there! Here are some trade show trends for 2020 that can help you give visitors an experience they’ll remember.

IMMERSIVE AND EXPERIENTIAL DISPLAYS

The very definition of immersion means the fact of becoming completely involved in or a part of something. These types of interactive exhibits invite the visitor into the story of your brand, whether through a physical, emotional, or personal connection. Here are some examples:

• Gamification. Using elements of a game like skill testing, point scoring, prizes, and good old fashioned competition is a great way to generate interest for your trade show booth. Add old fashioned carnival games or high-tech trivia to help sell your brand.
• Live presentations. Live presentations are much more engaging than one-one-one product demonstrations. Make them interactive by inviting the audience to share their own experiences with a product.
• Nostalgia. Does your brand have a unique history? Consider designing a booth that replicates an original storefront or other settings so visitors can feel like they’re living the evolution of your brand. 
• Photo ops. For 2020 traditional photo booths can become interactive digital photo walls where attendees can capture their experience in your booth and share across social media platforms. It’s a great way to get the online advertisement during the show, but visitors will remember you after the show while they’re scrolling their photos.

MULTISENSORY DISPLAYS

Multisensory booths go beyond the visual stimulation and also engage visitors through sounds and scents. To get people to connect with your brand, consider these marketing ideas:  

• Scent marketing. According to Exhibitor, incorporating scents into your marketing plan at a trade show can make visitors feel more relaxed and keep them in your booth longer. For a scent to be effective, pick something that’s tied to your brand.
• Headphone stations. Trade shows are always bustling with music and loud noises. Adding headphone stations that either tell a brand story or just offer soothing music gives your booth visitors a way to tune out all the other distractions for a while.
• Kinetic lighting. The integration of creative lighting can have a big impact on drawing visitors into your booth. Motion and sound-responsive lighting make for an interactive experience that visitors will want to capture and share on social media.

TECH INTEGRATION

There may be no single trend that drives booth traffic and captures leads like tech integration. Each year the technological advances get better and better. Here are some ways you can effectively use tech to boost show traffic.

• Virtual/Augmented reality. Let visitors give themselves a virtual tour of your brand by using VR goggles, touchscreens, and video walls. You can create a virtual reality experience of your manufacturing process or showcase a customer’s unique experience.
• Voice tech. Use AI voice assistance to drive booth engagement and collect leads. Visitors can ask your voice assistant to sign them up for your email list or answer product questions.
• Apps. Show management generally has apps to help trade show participants and attendees find their way around the floor. But brands can take advantage of their own in booth app to help visitors navigate product information and booth workshops.

With the never-ending tools and technological capabilities that marketers have at their fingertips in 2020, your company can make a lasting impression on trade show visitors and a positive impact on your ROI.    

To help you get ready for the 2020 trade show season, we’re extending our flooring special through December. When you contract with us for your 2020 custom booth purchase or rental, you can save up to $10,000! With that savings, you can reinvest in some of these 2020 trends to drive more qualified traffic to your booth. Learn More Here.

Trade shows play a vital role in aligning your business goals with your marketing goals and can have a big impact on your bottom line. They can help you bring in new leads, generate buzz around a new product, create brand awareness, and bring you a face-to-face meeting with that elusive customer you’ve been wooing for six months. Having clearly-defined marketing goals before you get there will ensure a more successful trade show experience.

CLEARLY-DEFINED MARKETING GOALS  

So, what is a clearly-defined marketing goal? It’s the difference between: We need more potential customers to stop by our booth than last year vs. We need to generate 55 new qualified leads, land two new customers by the close of the show, and bring 200 visitors to our website after the event in order to meet our trade show revenue goal of $250,000.  

The well-defined goal gives you and your staff a specific road map for your marketing strategy that’s easy to measure; and it can also help you plan your exhibit space.  

TRADE SHOW DISPLAY AS A MARKETING TOOL

Your exhibit is a large part of the trade show experience and the design should fit your marketing objectives. It should communicate your brand and resonate with visitors so much so that it will be well remembered after the show. Here are some design considerations:

• Modular exhibits offer flexibility and can be adapted to fit any trade show requirement.
• Custom designed exhibits are uniquely built to your specifications to showcase your brand.
• Rental exhibits are ideal if your business is testing the trade show waters and can be designed to suit.

 
PRE-SHOW MARKETING STRATEGIES

Upfront marketing efforts ahead of a trade show are crucial. In fact, 85% of companies use pre-show marketing tactics to increase traffic before the start of a trade show. Here are some pre-show marketing strategies to help meet goals.

• Content marketing. Create brand-focused content for social media and blogs to stimulate interest in the upcoming trade show. 
• Landing page. Develop a landing page with show-specific details like your booth location, the products you’ll have, and why attendees should visit you.
• Email drip campaigns. Send a series of emails spaced days apart to a targeted audience with specific messaging about your appearance at the show.
• Pay-Per-Click. Use PPC ads to promote the fact that your business is part of this important industry event.

 
POST-SHOW MARKETING STRATEGIES

Don’t wait until you return home from the trade show to start the follow-up process. Start writing your emails to potential clients while it is still fresh. Here are some ideas for post-show engagement:

• Business cards. Follow up with everyone that left you a business card promptly after the show.
• Track leads from your landing page. All the traffic that came through your pre-show landing page is a lead, so add those potential clients to your list of follow-ups.
• Engage on social media. Post photos and videos of your trade show endeavors and invite followers to share their experiences from the show. 
• Email drip campaign. Capitalizing on your pre-show email campaign, follow up with contacts and leads through another post-show campaign.

 
MEASURING TRADE SHOW MARKETING EFFORTS  

To know that you hit your marketing goals at a trade show can be somewhat subjective because often those leads may take some time to close the deal. But, according to Exhibitor, you can make some estimation based on the following:

• The number of booth visitors who agree to a sales contact after the show.
• Enlist your sales force to track trade show leads that convert into sales.

Once you have this information, Exhibitor recommends using this calculation:

Number of sales x close rate x average value of a sale or contract = estimated revenue  

With a cohesive strategy and well-defined goals, you and your team should have a winning formula for your next trade show. And don’t underestimate the power that a great trade show exhibit can have when it comes to reaching your marketing goals!

Now through the end of December, take advantage of our FREE flooring special and save up to $10,000! With that savings, you can reinvest into display upgrades to make your booth even more appealing! Learn More Here.

Exhibiting at a trade show is a great way to market your business and make new connections. But, how do you get people to actually stop by your booth? How do you engage and market your business to those that visit your company’s booth? How do you follow up with your booth visitors? The answer is social media. 

The Power Of Social Media

Social media is a powerful marketing tool and a great way to market trade show attendees, including both prospects and current customers, before, during, and after the show. 

Ideas For Marketing To Attendees Before The Trade Show

According to Social Media Today, you should start promoting the fact that your business will be at the trade show a good “2 to 3 weeks beforehand in order to capture the attendee mindshare while they’re in the schedule planning phase.”

Here are some ways you can market to attendees before the tradeshow via social media:

• Post your location to your social media channels. If you are going to the event, let your current followers know that you’ll be there and where exactly you’ll be located by providing your booth number. 
• Use the show’s official hashtag. Use the show’s official hashtag in any social media posts you send out prior to the show. 
• Create a YouTube video to promote new products or services. If you are about to release any products or services during the trade show, create a teaser video and post it to YouTube.
• Create a landing page. Create a landing page where you can post-event information as well as where you will be located during the event. This landing page will come in handy later when you send an after event email because it will allow you to track any page traffic you get. 

Ideas For Marketing To Attendees During The Trade Show

• Run a contest. Run a social media contest during the event by having attendees like, comment, or post a photo to your social media accounts, like Facebook or Instagram. Have the winner stop by your booth to claim the prize. 
• Live tweet. Social Media Today suggests live-tweeting useful event information, like helpful hints for navigating the event hall, where to find phone charging ports, and the great insights you’re hearing from the event speakers. 
• Incorporate a Twitter wall. This will allow you to run a live broadcast of your tweets and any tweets attendees are writing about your business.
• Post a video to YouTube. Post a video of your team at the event. Or post videos of attendees trying out your products. 
• Set up a photobooth. Set up a photo booth where your booth visitors can take selfies and post them to their social media channels and tag your business. 

Ideas For Marketing To Attendees After The Trade Show

• Write a blog post. Craft a blog post about what you learned at the event, and once it’s live on your site, share it on your social media channels. Don’t forget to incorporate the event’s official hashtags in any of your posts. 
• Connect with your leads. Go through the leads you acquired at the show and connect to them via your social media channels.
• Send out a post-event email. Send an email to the leads you met at the show and invite them to connect to your social media channels.  
• Share your content. If you presented at the show, post a video of your session or create a pdf of your presentation and share it via your social media channels. 

At the end of the day, there are so many things you can do to integrate social media marketing into your next trade show. We hope you found this guide helpful and that your next trade show is a success!

Now through the month of October, take advantage of our FREE flooring special and save up to $10,000! Learn More Here.