Comments from K2 Global Communications

 It’s not just a matter of sending your sales team.

You’ve determined your trade show marketing goals, partnered with an experienced PR team, contracted with an exhibit designer, set up your logistics, and picked your giveaways.

Now, it's time for one of the most crucial, yet overlooked, trade show prep tasks: training staff to work your booth. You need sufficient booth staff who handle crowds, restock brochures, walk around, attend meetings, and talk to media and customers.

You need people who are knowledgeable, efficient, motivated, and at ease outside their comfortable zone, all while working seamlessly as a team.

Public relations isn't rocket science, as my partner has consistently reminded me over the past decade. However, it does take a significant amount of time, energy, and persistence.

Getting your news out there

You can have it all, just not at the same time, or so it seems.

Your SEO/AIO expert is amazing but your writing team doesn’t have the time to create all the needed content nor create all the content and landing pages, even with AI help.

Your social media team has created comprehensive promotional campaigns but is falling behind on curating the objective content necessary to please your target audiences.

Let’s just cut to the chase: Never put DIY and content marketing in the same sentence.

“Writer’s block happens to all writers, including content marketing writers.

 With 91% of companies today using content marketing to attract leads and engage customers, as content marketers you can’t afford to run out of ideas. True, ideas are literally all around us, but finding that truly exceptional concept that results in more traffic, more leads and conversions, and greater consumer love and loyalty for your brand can be quite challenging – challenging, but not impossible. If you want to come up with fresh, relevant topics all the time, but feel that your well of content ideas has dried up, read on.

Don’t underestimate the power of the free offer

Okay. Before you sniff at that premise and protest how downscale that sounds compared to other “more serious” strategies for increasing traffic to your trade show booth, hear me out.

Of course, you should do pre-show outreach to and make appointments with both regular contacts and registered show attendees. Of course, you can bond with clients and future customers by hosting events or speaking on a panel. Create a warm, inviting environment in your booth where visitors can find calm and relaxation amidst trade show chaos - manned by a well-trained staff who can expertly and unobtrusively engage visitors to find out if they’re potential customers. Needless to say, you can use eye-catching and benefit-oriented signage to attract qualified prospects.

But see, there’s just something about the word free that gets people to come in. As you know, when people see their colleagues congregating, they’re bound to wonder what the buzz is all about - and follow suit. So here are some ideas for free stuff - and not necessarily useless knickknacks either - that can create buzz and drive more traffic to your booth:

Free gift just for stopping by - This could give show visitors a solid reason for showing up, absent a new product or new product feature from your company. The right gift can promote your product, engage prospects, and create better recall. It could be a price discount, a free book, or other special gift that will attract someone in your target audience. Forget random items. Attract people to your booth via giveaways that will deliver quality leads.

Free sample - What better selling tool than to give customers a taste of your product or service? Moreover, people love to hang around booths with free samples. Selling a technology or service? Give booth visitors one month’s free use of the tool in exchange for customer information. Selling a consumer product? Sample-size freebies are always a hit. In the hospitality business? A 10-minute neck massage right there and then! You get the picture…

Free workspace - For those with big exhibit spaces only. Trade show guests will always need (very) short-term office spaces to catch up with work or phone calls or to simply take a break. Offer them desk space, some comfy chairs, and plugs and they’ll really appreciate it.

Free WiFi - Visitors will flock to your booth if they know they can get wireless access. Not all trade show venues offer free WiFi; providing prospects with the password in exchange for their contact info is a win-win bargain. Bonus points to exhibitors who can tie up this freebie to their product or service.

Free charging station - An entire day spent at a trade show means that attendees will likely need to charge their phones. Provide walking around-chargers or extra AC outlets in your booth and a place to put the devices on as they recharge - and you’ll be drawing visitors like flies. You’ll also earn their thanks and, who knows, you may even get inquiries about your product or service.

Free food - Who can turn down free coffee, juice, donuts, or cookies? It’s a great way to stave off hunger between booth visits when lunch or dinner is hours away. Moreover, recipients of these free goodies would likely politely listen to a short product pitch in exchange and maybe even ask a question or two. The important thing is, you got them into your booth and gave them a chance to look around and survey your offerings. Don't put the food on the front tables so they can furtively "grab and run." Put the food in the middle of the booth so they are serious about walking in.

The past decade has seen a clear trend toward attenuated press releases. Gone are the days of public relations people writing long screeds, with endless quotes and reams of data. This is partially an outgrowth of the use of email, social media, and chat as the preferred forms of communication between the public relations community and the press (which, for our purposes, includes bloggers and analysts). The explosion of technologies and information, in general, has, in turn, led to journalists’ exploding email boxes.