Leveraging your blog to promote your next trade show or event will give you a leg up on the competition and prepare you for the big day. Adding relevant content, responding to frequently asked questions, or making a guide to your exhibit booth for attendees are all great ways to use your blog to promote your trade show exhibit. Combine that with other digital and social media marketing tools like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram promotions, and you’ve got yourself a successful marketing campaign!
Start writing promotional blogs months in advance
Starting around three or four months before the next trade show, use your blog to write about the event – promoting both the trade show and your business at the same time. Create an active content calendar for yourself that includes blogs geared toward each of the buyer personas you will be targeting at the show. Each blog should feature content that gets them excited to check out your booth.
It’s generally a good idea to maintain an active presence on your blog year-round. Doing so will ensure that your audience stays engaged and interested and that you and your brand remain relevant. In addition to writing about relevant topics, use your company blog to interview experts or other professionals and have them provide thoughtful commentary on important aspects of your business.
Remember: all of this information should pull from the themes of the trade show itself and provide value to your potential leads – don’t just produce content to produce content!
Create giveaways and contests to generate interest
You can even create a giveaway or a pre-show contest to draw new prospects to you, or you can plan on having a contest during the trade show. Use that to funnel your top prospects to your signup form so you can get that meeting booked!
Creating a landing page on your blog for the contest is a great email acquisition tool. Have people sign up for the contest by inputting their email address, and use the landing page as a jumping-off point for other relevant blog articles on your site.
Provide value to your customers by asserting yourself as an expert
Above all, your blog content must provide value to potential leads and customers. Answering their questions and/or helping them find your trade show exhibit will always be helpful; enticing them with new and exciting information and trends in the industry is also a great attention-grabber. Here are some ideas for valuable blog posts to create:
- Answer frequently asked questions
- Develop a blog (or even a series of blogs) around common questions you hear at trade shows. As you answer these questions, encourage readers to find you at the show and follow up or ask their own questions. Let your content help people invest in your team.
- Detail what they can expect to find at your booth
- Will you be doing demonstrations, or showing videos about your product? Will you be introducing a brand-new VR setup for some other exciting new element to your booth this time around? You can even include photos or a video tour of previous trade show booth designs.
- Write about the trade show itself
- Discuss why you’re attending this particular trade show, and include references to the show’s overall themes and what other exhibits/demos attendees can expect. If you’ve attended the event before, discuss what you loved about it; hearing personal experiences is a great way to establish trust with potential leads.
Follow up after the show
After the trade show or event, be sure to follow up with your leads and connections via email and make sure your email includes links to your blog as well as your social media accounts. If you held a seminar or have other educational materials from the show, that’s great content to use on your blog for a post-show breakdown and summary. You could even include video clips of the seminar, photos you took at the event, or links to PDF handouts.
For information on how to promote yourself and your business during a trade show, take a look at our trade show training courses!