5 Trade Show Marketing Tips to Generate ROI

Gauging return of investment (ROI) for every event can be quite tricky. There is no specific metric to measure ROI because it can vary based on the event and the products you are promoting. That being said, we would shine a light on a specific event type called trade shows.

One of the most adapted types of events is trade shows. It is an effective way to increase awareness and let potential customers get to know your products even more. So it is no longer surprising why marketers often turn to trade shows as part of their marketing campaign. 

With that, we have created this guide to help you generate ROI for your trade show.

Choose the correct event

In terms of trade show marketing, there are several ways to execute and get the best out of your investment. For example, rather than hosting your own event, you can participate in conventions and have trade show booths instead. 

Since events usually take a big portion of your marketing campaign, we highly suggest you take these several things into consideration such as

• Costings
• Your brand Image
• Products/services you offer
• Target customers
• The potential market you want to reach
• Benefits
• Disadvantages

To generate ROI and get the best of your buck, then you should participate in trade shows that have high turnout. Other than that, attending small or local conventions might be even more beneficial for your business because they usually have a niche or particular set of attendees from the same group. This is especially helpful if you already have a target customer or demographic in mind. 

Create a buzz for your products

To ensure that you would generate ROI even before you start the event, start generating buzz for your brand or products a few weeks ahead. This would help you secure attendees for your trade show. When you create a buzz for your brand or products, people would be more interested to get to know your products or service.  

That being said, generating buzz does not have to be that difficult. You can accomplish this by simply leveraging what you have. For example, you can use social media as one of your tools. Given that almost everyone now has at least one social media account, it would certainly help you in your brand awareness campaign. You can create a buzz and get people online excited about your products. 

Once you people become more aware of your brand, they would be more inclined to check out your products and attend your trade show event. 

Develop a content strategy

In relation to the use of social media that we just discussed, it is also important to have a content strategy for your trade show. However, keep in mind that content is not exclusive only to social media postings. Content can both be online and offline. 

For online, these are mostly social media postings, blogs, articles, publication materials, and other things brands usually post on their website or social media accounts. Having a content strategy would certainly boost awareness for your trade show and help you generate ROI because people nowadays usually turn to the internet for new events and products. 

As for offline content, these are usually marketing collateral that you use for events such as posters, brochures, business cards, catalogs, and so on.  Even though most of these can be sent online, having these materials at your trade show event would certainly help attendees remember you and your products. You can even hire trade show models who would distribute these offline content for you. Doing so would ultimately save you a lot of time and they would be promoting your products as well. 

Give incentives to your audience

One of the surefire ways for an audience or customers to remember you is to give them something noteworthy. It can be giveaways, cards, free products, or even food, anything that would make your audience remember you.

Since your main goal for the event is to convert the audience into buying customers, giving them incentives or rewards would certainly encourage them to attend more of your events and buy more of your products. 

Aside from giving free stuff, there are also other ways to incentivize your audience. For example, if you have a trade show booth, then you can design your booth or exhibit in a way that would benefit your audience. You can put a charging station, lounge area, photo booths, and many more. 

Track your goals and objectives

The main goal of trade show events is to generate ROI. Oftentimes, businesses and startups miss the point of hosting or joining trade shows. They become too fixated on having more people attend their event that they lose track of their main goal. 

Having a bigger audience does not always mean a better ROI generation. Sometimes, focusing on a niche and hosting events in a local community generate better results. 

That being said, doing research would surely help you in the long run.