Tradeshows are coming back as life starts to get back to normal in the global covid pandemic.
The prevalence of vaccines in the US has meant that in small ways life is slowly getting back to normal. For the multibillion-dollar tradeshow industry, this is a sign of relief and for marketers that rely on tradeshows to build customer leads and relationships, it means that they need to get their marketing on track in order to
Invite Contacts and Customers
You should start planning your tradeshow appearance months if not a year or so in advance. Send email invitations to any potential or current customers even remotely close to the event location. You’d be surprised how many might come out to visit your booth! This is a perfect opportunity to network in person. Most expos will have an option for attending firms to offer free tickets to their customers or VIPS.
Start emailing potential visitors well ahead of time, not only will they potentially come to visit your booth, but it’s a great excuse to start a new conversation with them regardless and further your explorations and product or service fit with new firms.
Trade Show Video Marketing
Video marketing for tradeshows is one of the most powerful tradeshow marketing tools you have. Great-looking and interesting videos will keep visitors at your stand much longer than just posters and static images. Video gives you a chance to show off equipment, case studies, new products, etc in a much more engaging way, than traditional static media offers.
Below is a trade show marketing video we created for a bio-medical firm.
There numerous types of tradeshow marketing videos, if you have several screens, you can cycle multiple videos on them. Often companies want a mix of explainer, case study, promo, and new product video for their trade show booths. Any video created for trade shows can certainly be used in other ways or marketing channels as well.
Trade show videos should be geared toward the audience present, often product explainer content, that shows a range of products, mixed together with a case study or two in the video can improve trade show marketing ROI.
How much does Video production cost in 2021? Take a look!
VR Trade Show Experience
Virtual reality trade show experiences are one of the easiest ways to guarantee tons of visitors at your booth sticking around quite a while! Every single trade show we’ve been to has reinforced that any booth with a VR trade show experience has had a line at the booth waiting for people to try it. Naturally, while people wait in line to try it and watching others in the VR experience, is a great time to network and develop many new leads.
In short, if you want to build more leads than ever, VR tradeshow marketing is the one tool that will absolutely move the needle on your trade show performance.
VR trade show experiences can come in many forms, some are 360 videos that showcase a project, product, or your facility, others are more interactive game-like experiences. It’s up to you which direction to go, ultimately a VR 360 video will be less costly than an interactive VR game-like experience.
Virtual Reality Trade show marketing is the next big thing, that over the next few years, many of the more proactive firms will start integrating into their tradeshow marketing plans.
An animated or live-action 360 trade show VR video is surprisingly cost-effective and can be used over several years and also integrated into other marketing channels.
How much does VR production cost in 2021? Take a look!
Virtual Trade Shows
If your favorite tradeshows are virtual again for 2021, digital marketing and video content are KEY to developing leads.
Your tradeshow marketing needs to make an impact, which is harder when the tradeshow is entirely virtual. One of the most effective ways to do this is by incorporating either a virtual reality trade show marketing video or a traditional trade show marketing video as an intro to what you do. It should be 2-3 minutes, so short and sweet and as impactful as possible.
Your website needs to be stellar, as does social media channels since your entire presence is via digital channels. Make sure that your website is set up to capture leads and works well on mobile!
The better the video/VR content, the more people will visit your website, in this scenario your website is a crucial part of your sales funnel that needs to capture leads and make a positive impression.
Here is another trade show marketing video we created for a startup:
Trade Show Booth Design
We’ve walked through a massive tradeshow and certain booths stick with us after the event is over. A striking bold design pays off, with more visitors and just being more impactful to visitors walking by. Incorporating interesting lighting, laser projects, anything that’s visually fascinating is important. There are many firms that specialize in booth design and construction.
Trade Show Booth Technology
Incorporating product demos, robotics, or simply anything that is relevant to your business that encompasses motion is a great way to generate visual interest. Often manufacturing firms will bring demo units of their products, this could be anything from assembly line parts, construction equipment, home gutter design demos with water rolling down them etc. Any like this is more visually interesting and will hold a visitor’s attention longer than just photos and posters.
Product demo units coupled with interactive media, videos, and some VR content will deliver a winning combination of visitor interaction.
Business Card Design
We’ve all been at trade shows and gotten dozens and dozens of business cards, some are just junk paper, others are really nicely designed on a nice paper. Which has more of an impact on you? Spend the extra money and create high-quality business cards for your next trade show. They should be bold, thick paper, and in general, be noticeable.
Sales Training for Trade shows and Expos
It goes without saying, but is your booth staff trained on common questions they will get? How to effectively build leads, how to record booth visitors, questions they should ask they will lead to suggesting your products or services as a solution?
You can have the best display booth in the world but without your team prepared to build relationships and have thought-out interactions with visitors it’s a waste, and you will miss important sales leads.
Spend time before the expo to put together a quick guide for team members there.
Effective Followup
One of the most important components of tradeshow marketing that isn’t talked about as much is how incredibly critical it is to follow up with all of your leads from the trade very quickly! Your prospects likely met a bunch of people at the trade show, so make sure you stay fresh on their minds. Typically wait a few days until they are likely home and then make a call or email. Reiterate what you talked about and where you left off. Hopefully, this puts you in the position to lead that prospect down your sales funnel.
Even if you don’t hear back, wait a week or so and reach out again. Persistence is key to maximizing your ROI on tradeshow spend. Converting just one or two additional prospects can make a massive difference in how successful the tradeshow is for your firm.
Largest Trade Shows 2021
Depending on your industry, there are a bunch of large trade shows in the later part of 2021 and early 2022.
One of the largest being the Consumer Electronics Show, in January of 2022 with an attendance expected of near 200,000. The pack expo, in Las Vegas, is another big one, with near 20,000 expected in September of 2021. This expo focuses on packaging providers and packaging equipment manufacturers.
The Magic tradeshow in Las Vegas is a global fashion industry event with upwards of 60,000 attendees.
NRF is a major retail tradeshow, held in New York, and hosts around 40,000 attendees.
AAPEX is a near 200,000 person attending automotive industry show, based in Las Vegas.
CONEXPO is another Las Vegas-based show, with over 130,000 visitors, focused on the construction industry.
A quick google will reveal a ton of trade shows for your specific industry! Even if you don’t want to spend the budget to have a booth, go check a few out, takes notes and photos on your favorite booths. As the global pandemic is thwarted by vaccine distribution, trade shows will come back stronger than ever. Now’s the time to start thinking about 2022’s trade shows!
Volan Media is a top Tennessee branding company and top Tennessee content marketing firm specializing in generating action with marketing content and planning. We’ve helped dozens of businesses build their brand through video content, Tennessee trade show marketing 2021, Tennessee video production company, and Tennessee startup marketing services. Our startup marketing video production explainer video work spans years across health marketing projects, automotive marketing, and others!
Get in touch today for a free trade show marketing consultation on building your brand in 2021!
