Attending a conference or trade show is a great and easy way to promote your brand by establishing a face-to-face connection with current and potential consumers. They are also a great way to help you make new connections. They offer a lot of opportunities to promote your brand, businesses, products, and services. Those who attend are genuinely interested in the industry and everything that will be promoted there. However, just because you spend the money to attend a conference or trade show doesn’t mean you are guaranteed to get any new business. It all comes down to how you promote yourself and your brand. Below are a few tricks to help make sure you get the most out of a conference or trades show. 

Know your audience 

Before attending any conference or trade show, it is important to know your audience. You need to make sure that you attend shows that are relevant to them so you can gain exposure. You also need to think about the marketing strategies you will be using at the event and if they will appeal to your audience. 

Research profitable events

Don’t waste your time and money on an event that might not help you at all. You need to stick to events with a strong track record, and you shouldn’t be scared to reach out to the organizers and ask. If the organizers expect 500 people and only 100 show up, you might not meet enough customers to justify the cost of attending the event.

Promote on social media 

Social media is a great way to build interest. You can visit the event page and find popular hashtags, which you can then use in your posts leading up to the event. This way, you can draw attention from anyone who is following the event and planning to attend. If you draw them in with your posts on social media, they will then most likely come to your booth to learn more.

Get creative with promotional materials

Getting creative with your promotional materials is a great way to promote your brand at an event. Most people hand out pens, lanyards, coasters, or koozies. To help you stand out, especially at an event where the point is to help promote your company, it’s important to have promotional materials that separate you from everyone else there. When finding the best promotional materials depends on what industry you’re in, there are a lot of examples that you can find online.

While there aren’t necessarily bad promotional materials you could give out, keep in mind that if it’s something that people can genuinely use in their day-to-day lives the better. No one needs 50 free pens from various companies, but giving out an item such as a wireless phone charger will make you stand out from the crowd.

Host your own giveaway 

Aside from promotional materials, giveaways are a low-cost way to generate buzz surrounding your company. Even if your company doesn’t make a physical product, you can focus on selling your services as an experience. You can raffle off a consultation or introductory package regarding your company. Any company can create a giveaway, and it’s a great and easy way to draw people into your business. Also, by having them enter in a giveaway is a great way to get their contact information, which brings us to our last point.

Collect customer information 

At a conference or trade show, it’s easy for attendees to forget vendors because they see and meet so many people. Following up with customers is the key to getting referrals and repeat business. It’s important to find an efficient and respectful way to gather contact information from those who come by your booth. Like stated above, a giveaway is a very simple way and they get the opportunity to win a prize from you. Another easy way to gather contact information is to have attendees come by, leave a bowl out so they can drop their business card. By following up with attendees, they might look at your company website to better help them remember about when they went by your booth, which can lead to them being a customer if they liked your product.