Top Trends That Can Improve Your Trade Show Marketing
Posted by Jessica Davis on Thu, Apr 28, 2011
Doing effective marketing to promote your company’s participation in trade shows is essential to achieve your overall trade show objective, whether that goal is to boost traffic to your booth, generate sales leads or sell products.
Those of you who are responsible for event and trade show marketing and promotion on behalf of your organization are probably always looking out for that next trend or technology you can leverage to help you achieve these goals.
Let’s take a look at some of the emerging trends companies are using to improve their trade show marketing efforts.
Social media. It’s hard to find a company today that hasn’t at least dipped their toe into the social media waters. Sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and others have ballooned in popularity and are being used increasingly by event marketers. A recent study conducted by Forrester Research predicts that B2B companies will increase budgets for interactive marketing to $54 million by 2014, double the amount they spent back in 2009. Social media tools are being used by trade show marketers to promote participation in upcoming events or share news happening in real-time at events with customers, partners and prospects via Twitter feeds or YouTube videos.
Go global. While the U.S. economy slowly recovers from multiple years of recession, companies might look to exhibit their wares internationally. According to the World Bank, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in developing countries will grow nearly six percent in 2011, while the GDP in the U.S. will only grow by three percent. If your trade show budget doesn’t allow for the expense of exhibiting at an international trade show, look for opportunities to partner with a foreign company with complimentary products or technology or exhibit in a smaller booth within a group pavilion.
Marketing on the move. Mobile computing is probably one of the fastest evolving technology trends today. Smart phones are everywhere. Growth in mobile marketing is expected to continue its rapid rise in 2011. A research study conducted by Forrester Research found that mobile marketing will grow at a much faster rate than traditional B2B marketing mediums and predict that half of all web traffic will come through mobile devices.
Smart marketers are working to make sure their websites and blogs can be viewed adequately on these mobile devices. Other exciting news for tradeshow marketers and attendees is the introduction of tradeshow-specific apps. Look for apps that replace printed show directories; apps for sales lead management; and audience polling apps.
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