Trade shows – book the stand, brief the graphic design with some catchy messaging, book the hotels, roll up, eye up competitors’ stands, have a chat with former colleagues, overdo it at the show party and go home with a headache and sore feet a few days later. Oh, and hopefully a few leads too – the finger of fate should bring some of those your way, maybe even with the elusive bluebird ready to fast-track you to a deal that pays for the whole thing, and some.

That’s it? Well, not exactly. To the untrained eye, that’s a trade show but there’s so much more behind the scenes which can bring out greater and longer term value.

I’m not talking about the mechanics here of getting to the show, or the right sized stand in the right place relative to your competitors / the presentation theatre / coffee shop / traffic flows. You can work that one out. It’s the other stuff you don’t want to leave to chance; there’s a lot more potential in planning for an exhibition, so it delivers way beyond just paying for itself. Here are some ideas which might just help:

1. Before… About 6 months pre-show, there’s likely be a call for speakers – do you have an articulate customer with a great success story, who might stand up and share at the show? People like to hear from people, they don’t really care what the vendor says. Proof is everything, so start to nurture a star turn early. Your star might say yes but have to get corp comms approval, so seed this way ahead of deadline – reassure the customer marketing team of what’s involved. Make sure you offer to help with their presentation too: ideas to add a bit of video or engaging content might not be their strength, but marketers know how.
   Or maybe you can pitch a discussion panel on a key industry topic; it’s a bit more work to get speakers together – a customer, a thought leader, your brand’s head evangelist – but you could come away with a headline slot linked to your brand, with 100+ visitors on day one. It does happen – like the ‘Are We Nearly There?’ Accessibility panel at the London Book Fair ’23. You’re the marketer, you can guide a catchy title and succinct takeaways which will help the pitch get a slot, and generate plenty of interest once it’s on the agenda. And don’t forget to promote it yourself too, relying on the show is too dilute.
   
2. PR might seem a bit old-school, but if you’ve got an announcement, use every vehicle to get it seen. Events often have regular related newswires, like the Service Desk Show’s SITS Insight – free to drop in content. If you just submit some related news and ask nicely, you’ll find PR’s not just for the big spenders.
   
3. Obvious, but tell your prospects that you’re going to be there. Not just once, but several times, to pique their interest and put visiting your stand high up on their shopping list. Why should they visit you? Well you know that, their pain guides your messaging, and you’ve been through the ‘why us?’ and ‘so what?’ exercises for refinement – just remember to deploy a drip feed of consistent information through email and social media. Don’t get bored, a degree of repetition is fine, but be creative, plan it out and keep it going up to and during the show. If your show landing page has a link to book meetings so much the better (but don’t expect everyone to show up on schedule, it doesn’t work like that).
   
4. ‘During’, I’ll mostly leave to you, though suffice to say, keep your company’s profile up – share of voice doesn’t have to reflect spend. Just make sure you stand out – a bold (3 word) hook, an eye-catching video and a well designed space can make a great first impression. The jury’s out on stand-attraction gimmicks – they can just as equally fall flat as fly, but a gentle or amusing link to your strapline can draw a crowd – a magician for the ‘Human Touch’, or even on-stand massage can certainly catch passing interest.
   
5. ‘After’? Well that actually starts before and during the show. Don’t wait until the stand’s all back in store to start the follow up. Use badge scans as a trigger to send an email to a visitor with some basic (or if you’re clever about capturing and using your data insights, targeted) info on the product they’ve just seen. Your new prospects could be reading more about your solution to their problems on the train home – if you get your act together you’ll be way ahead of the competition and set an altogether more positive brand experience.
6. Beyond that, it’s more follow up, segmentation, nurture and eventually pipeline. Marketing, really.
   
7. Don’t forget to put a packet of plasters and some paracetamol in your handy marketing-for-all-seasons box too! 😉