We’re aware of just how frantic and fretful the approach to a big show can be, and often planning marketing activities AT the show takes a back burner. Below are a few straightforward ways you can make better use of your digital marketing toolkit at your exhibitions and events for 2012.
Don’t worry we’re not going to bamboozle you with weird or wonderful technologies – hopefully these are all mediums you’ll be familiar with, if not engaging in already; we’re simply hoping to make your digital marketing tactics work harder for your business objectives.
Use social…
To promote your stand and your event activities to your audience
- Remember to add your stand number to your tweets, facebook page etc along with any specific times that senior staff will be on the stand to meet clients.
To directly engage with any specific new business contact you may have
- Why not invite them to your stand for a coffee, or to watch a talk you’ll be doing.
To run competitions
- Engage with your audience in a fun way – asking for pictures or comments and celebrating the best.
Use video…
To share your seminars or stand activities with your online audience who might not have been able to make it to the show
- This adds greater value through longevity – the videos will be relevant content on your website until next year’s event – and possibly even longer.
On your stand as a feature
- For example why not showcase the technical capabilities at your factory or head office by showing some interesting videos on your stand?
To liven up your blog
- Why not use the event as inspiration for, or merely a backdrop to some video blog posts?
But don’t forget to use your website…
To support all of your digital marketing activities, so that when you successfully drive traffic
- All videos, images, stand details and activities etc should all be visible and accessible from your website
To capture data (email addresses, twitter handles or phone numbers) from the traffic you drive
- This will help you to measure whether your activities at the show have successfully expanded your audience, and allow you to continue a ‘conversation’ with them into the future.
- Don’t forget to request information on where they heard of you, so that you can clearly evaluate the tactics you used and make a simple decision on whether to continue with each of them in the future.
It’s all too easy to focus on ‘just getting through the show’… picturing yourself with a well-deserved drink and your feet up on the sofa on that Thursday evening.
There’s just one more thing we’d like you to think about though…
Follow up with your newfound friends…
Thank you’s
- Aim to quickly thank everybody you met, through Twitter, email, Facebook or even LinkedIn – start the relationships as you mean to go on, and continue that good first impression.
Write a blog post
- To evaluate your time at the show, highlight the good bits, and make a joke about how solar panel companies seem to be taking over the world…
Plan an email marketing campaign
- Specifically to your contacts from the event, this will give you a good platform to reinforce your key messages from the show, and point everybody directly to any relevant downloadable materials on your website.
