Trade show Marketing often represents a major investment for brands, the cost of sponsorship, booth space, sending a team to the venue, booth design, build and transport, all can add up to a significant required budget.
A Focus on lead generation is the most reliable method of quantifying tradeshow success, that coupled with average trade show customer close rates and average customer revenue or lifetime revenues, which can be an easy napkin style approach to determining acceptable tradeshow budgets.
Once you’ve made the investment to have a company presence at a tradeshow, everything following should be a focus on lead generation and maximizing the value the tradeshow has for your company.
Over the years our team has been to dozens of tradeshows all over the US and in Europe. We’ve seen what works and doesn’t work when it comes to tradeshow marketing regardless of booth size or budget.
A key differentiator between many of the most popular booths is the use of rich media – this could be anything from video screens to Virtual reality experiences to case study videos, etc. But there is a clear divide between booths that only utilize static imagery and banners vs some sort of video content.
Incorporating video into your tradeshow marketing plan can be done in a variety of ways and at different budget ranges.
Trade Show Explainer Videos
Tradeshow explainer videos are designed to succinctly break down a product or service into a 2-3 minute long condensed pitch. Whether what you sell is simple or a complicated industrial machine, an explainer video should break down what it does, the benefits to a customer, and your competitive advantage. These videos should always be a customer and benefit-focused vs just listing features.
Explainer videos are probably the most common type of tradeshow video we create, typically they are between 1-3 minutes, often use animation along with some live-action segments.
Tradeshow Case Study Videos
Case study videos typically are used slightly further down the funnel than more general explainer or company promo tradeshow videos. For prospective customers who want to learn more about a particular service or product, a case study video is a great way to alleviate buying fears and better inform the buyer what their experience will be like.
Hearing from another paying customer that the project went well and that they recommend your firm does make a significant difference with many new clients.
Case study videos often utilize live-action footage captured of the client’s project and are best served to have interview clips from the client’s representative. This adds a more human element to the case study vs having a professional voiceover narration for the entire video.
Case study videos, as we’ll go into detail below, are a great resource to have beyond the halls of a trade show. They should be sent to prospective customers in email, and if possible featured on your website.
Tradeshow Promo Videos
Promo videos are typically a company-level video, ultimately you want to make an impact in a 2-3 min long video on what you do and why someone should buy from you. This video is less specific and detailed than a product or service offering explainer video, with a greater emphasis on overall company product lines, product support, your team, and potentially your facilities.
These videos should be thought of as a quick way for a booth visitor to understand what you offer and why you are different than competitors.
Often these videos use a mix of animation and live-action footage and can be made in a variety of styles.
Virtual Reality 360 Trade Show Videos
360 vr videos are the wave of the future for tradeshow and interactive media in general. VR allows for another step of engagement vs traditional video content.
Without question, every booth at a tradeshow that has some sort of VR experience has a line of visitors wanting to try it. This is nearly priceless, giving you a lot of additional leads and giving your sales team the ability to screen and get contact info from visitors in line.
Tradeshow Videos After the Tradshow
All of the videos discussed above can and should be used through a variety of marketing channels before and after the trade show. Most commonly, our videos for example are used in email marketing channels, websites, social media, sales meetings. Often they can be edited into a short-form version to be used in paid PPC ads as well.
Many times these videos, particularly the study videos or production explainers can be used in email marketing as a follow-up to leads you’ve made at the tradeshow. This is a powerful technique to build retention and engagement with leads, which can help to move them down your sales funnel.
This is a great way to maximize the use and investment you’ve made into video content.
Video Production Pricing Explained
Tradeshow Video Production – Covering your Event
Another strategy companies often choose to utilize is hiring a video team for a 1-day shoot on a day of the trade show, this is a great way to have company content that can be used in future trade show videos, social media channels, and posts, and company communications in general. It cements your company as having been a part of the event and is just another to build interaction with your audience. This also lets you hype next years event, or other tradeshows by sending short videos announcing your being at an upcoming tradeshow to your email lists.
Tradeshow Video Display Systems
The methods by which your booth visitors watch the videos are numerous. The most basic method is simply to utilize a flat-screen tv or two that is integrated into your tradeshow booth. We recommend making the video display be highly visible without coming into your booth area, this will help to draw in more traffic.
Many times we create a looping version of the video that will be much longer than a normal video file or the video can be made in a way that the media player on the computer running the tv can seamlessly loop the video.
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Volan Media is a top Knoxville video production agency specializing in broadcast production as well as digital video and social media ads. For top Knoxville trade show video, social media video ads, digital video ads get in touch!
