Trade Show Marketing Tips



By now you know how important establishing Thought Leadership is and what can it do for your company. In recent years content marketing has become as essential to businesses as other traditional methods. Here's a shocker you have always marketed content.

Remember that direct mailer or email campaign you ran ‘way back when’ those were the predecessor to modern content marketing. My career in digital marketing taught me one thing, “Content is King” A well-defined content strategy can propel you into the influential role of the resident expert.

The internet is quickly being reshaped into the fast-paced world by technological advances; it’s now harder to achieve a fully captivated audience. Today’s marketing requires a deeper understanding of the people you are trying to reach. Gone are the days where high volume keywords and useless articles meant more "eyes on content". Enter listening to the needs that exist behind each search term and addressing them with thoughtfully created content.

There are no "silver bullets" just best practices, carefully planning and analysis.  The one consistency is each space responds differently to social media marketing. There are months, days and even times when audiences prefer to read content.

As marketers, we are not prone to take into consideration seasonality behind search terms. Things like news that may affect trending or the person performing the actual search are keys to creating a high impact content calendar. Establishing a content calendar that looks at my year in content is something I like to do as it keeps me honest and provides a topographical layout of the events, holidays and campaigns critical to my end goal.

For B2B marketers’ trade shows are an important part of your marketing paradigm. Networking events are an invaluable resource in engaging your business’s true core audience, forming relationships and ultimately creating sales opportunities.

You’ve heard the clichés of social media’s ability to expand your brand's influence, source content and cultivate a loyal following. Have you heard the one that helps establish thought leadership and increase foot traffic to kiosks and trade show booths?

Trade shows are by far one of the more important entries on my yearly content calendar. Sure, there are more pressing issues, but where else can you find a larger concentration of your target audience.

Social media marketing presents a unique opportunity for businesses to heighten awareness during conferences. Think back to the last show you attended; remember those huge high definition televisions and that cool app you just downloaded? Not only do they showcase floor plans, show information, itineraries, and sometimes advertising, but that’s also your virtual signboard to establishing leadership through thought.

According to a study conducted by Amiando, Out of 1500+ event organizers interviewed 82% are planning on increasing their social media activities. During last SXSW 2013 users contributed approximately 280,443 tweets in 5 days, statistics by Digital Trends. This year’s CES saw user tweets tallying over 1.2 million.

This alone shows how far social networking has come in such a short span; the numbers support your participation; now let’s help you devise a strategy that works.


  1. Leverage technologies: Promoting your brand at trade show's doesn't have to be limited to you pamphlets, postcards, and fliers. Leverage your email list, social media, and other channels to create excitement and interest around your participation. Remember behind that cute little hashtag (#smx2020) is tons of activity, conversation and most importantly someone monitoring them.
  2. Create A Content Calendar: It's always good practice to have an idea of the content that you will be sharing, before during and after. This is a great time to tell you brands story in a noninvasive way.
  3. Engage Participants: Use this time to educate and interact with other brands,  Leverage social media engagement, influencer marketing, and informational content. 
  4. Do's and Don't: Add value by reposting great stats, quotes and other mentionable. Noone likes a self-promote. Use the 80/20 rule when it comes to sharing information and commercial content. Sharing your booth location is acceptable, along with news about your new doohickey just remember you want to enhance the conversation.  
How do you promote your brand via your marketing channels during Tradeshows?