What’s your number one trade show objective? Is it to have as many attendees as possible visit your booth? Working with trade show exhibitors, we hear that a lot. We often drill down even more with our clients to create an actionable objective list, but we can’t discount the importance of speaking directly with as many people in your industry as possible. After all, consumer engagements are the foundation of experiential marketing.
Here are a few sure-fire ways to drive more traffic to your trade show booth.
Know What Drives Your Audience
Evaluate your key audience and understand what motivates them. Design your trade show strategy with the consumer in mind. Your audience is the first place to go to find the insights on how to drive them to your trade show booth – and to your brand.
Unleash Brand Ambassadors
In addition to in-booth staff, send a street team outside the convention hall to wrangle up booth visitors. Brand ambassadors riding Segways, distributing free lemonade via JetPacks on their backs or riding sampling bicycles can help talk up your booth. It also extends your brand conversation beyond your pre-defined indoor square footage.
Our big brother company, do it outdoors media, owns many out-of-home media formats that we have seen drive traffic first-hand. We employed some of those tactics in our Yanmar and Millennial Media case studies. We’ve learned that by intercepting show attendees as they come and as they leave, you’re touching them at key times with high recall.
Be Active on Social Media
Smartphones are a vital trade show tool. Someone working inside your booth should have permissions to post to your company’s social media sites during the show – in real-time.
- Post videos of your booth and include your booth number with the show’s hashtag
- Post short intro videos by each of the in-booth staff, inviting people to stop by
- Tweet during the keynote, conference sessions or as you walk around the show floor to become an on-site resource for attendees (and those not attending but following the show’s hashtag)
- Say thank you to folks you meet at the show on social media with a mention; they may reciprocate and push others to your booth
- Look for questions or other conversations about the show and join in
Try Proximity Marketing
Use geofencing or beacon marketing to interact with devices within the specific event footprint. This allows you to text or push notify your existing customers who may be at the show, or reach new customers using banner ads on open exchange websites or apps. You can also use third party apps to push notify their active app users when they’re near your booth. When you add a layer of marketing that lives on someone’s smartphone and is contextually relevant based on proximity, you’re engaging an audience in a very powerful way.
Be Shocking
Flash mobs. Bands in the nearby Subway terminals. Celebrity impersonators. Chalk artists. Create a “wow” factor that can’t be missed!
Some of the best experiences require a bit of ingenuity…and scheming. And we’re ready to conspire with you.
For more ideas on driving traffic and improving your trade show marketing from start to finish, download our exhibitor guide!
Trade Show Exhibitor Guide
This free download is chock-full of tips for your next trade show – logistics, marketing, consumer engagements!
