There’s no denying that planning an exhibition is a big task, but no matter how much planning goes into the event, it is unlikely to be as successful as it can be unless you market it successfully. You need the right type of exhibitors to get the right kind of visitors.
Pre-event Marketing
The pre-event marketing campaign is all about how you attract those exhibitors and visitors and there are so many options you can choose from to engage with your audience.
Social Media
The quickest form of communication is through social media. Whether you use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram, or maybe all of them, you can send out posts introducing your event, reminding your followers when and where the event is and anything else you want to tell them through so many platforms. If you haven’t got time to post every day, use a platform like Hootsuite, where you can schedule your posts in advance and have them sent out to all your social media pages in one easy click. Social media helps you to develop concise messaging, but don’t forget the power of images and videos!
E-shots
E-shots are another great marketing strategy to get potential exhibitors and visitors to your event. They should be time relevant and you can send them out to as many people in one time as you like. You can use a mailing platform like Mail Chimp, where you create the campaign, add your list of receivers and off you go. Not only is it easy, but these types of email service providers share statistics too, so you can see how well a campaign has worked. Just make sure you have the appropriate permissions to email someone – we won’t go into GDPR here!
Press Release
Press releases can be a little more time consuming but can also be very effective. Once written they can be published in magazines and other publications relevant to your industry, the events industry, on your website, and the link can be sent via social media and e-shots. Unlike the other forms of marketing, a press release will allow you to go into more detail about your event, providing your audience with more information about what you are doing. Remember you are targeting journalists with your release – so it has to be interesting to a wider audience, not just to you!
Post-event marketing
How you conduct your post-event marketing campaign, is just as important as the pre-event effort. This is where you find out how well your event went. The feedback you gather from after the event will help you improve and develop both your next event and its pre-event campaign
A great way to conduct your follow-up is with a short survey. No longer than five to ten closed questions with an additional comments box. The questions can be tailored to the event and you can pick what you ask so you get the feedback you require. The survey can be sent through via email on a link, making it easy to access for your recipients. From here you can analyse your data and begin to plan for your next pre-event campaign and work to improve the exhibition for next time.
Branding
Throughout the whole process, your branding needs to be consistent so that the recipients of your campaign become familiar with you and what you are promoting. Having your company colours and logos on all marketing materials will help, but also think about tone of voice. Is it professional and corporate, fresh and vibrant, mysterious and enigmatic?
Try and consider all of these items when you begin to think about marketing your exhibition. But if you are in-doubt ask for advice and help from colleagues, your production company or even the venue. You could hit upon a great idea!
