Exhibiting at a trade show or conference is a major opportunity to showcase your brand, connect with key stakeholders and generate buzz. But even with a prime booth location, engaging presentations and top-tier networking opportunities, your success hinges on one key factor—visibility.
At the end of the day, if the right people don’t know about your presence or why they should engage with you, you risk blending into the background.
Event PR techniques can be used to boost your brand’s presence at trade shows, conferences and stand-alone events. A successful event PR strategy can:
- Increase brand awareness before and after the event
- Secure speaking opportunities on the mainstage or in key panels
- Let your target audience know you’re going to be there and generate leads
- Position your brand as a thought leader in your vertical
- Make a splash with guerilla marketing on the tradeshow floor
- Introduce your brand to others for future partnerships and networking
How do I use event PR to accomplish these fantastic goals and KPIs, you ask? We’ve got you covered! Keep reading for some of our best advice to increase your presence at trade shows and conferences.
1. Share the deets
Successful event PR strategy ensures that customers know how to find you at the event or tradeshow. Include important details such as the event you’re attending, date, time, location (booth #, conference room #, meeting room, etc.), link to tickets/reservations and event itinerary (especially if you’ve got a spot on the mainstage). Make it readily available and give people a link out to the event’s registration page.
2. Create a landing page
Don’t make people wade through your website to find event details. You know they’ll tap out if they can’t find the info easily. Strong event PR will include a landing page that is all about your event attendance and makes it easy to sign up for a meeting time. Remember to schedule an automated email to confirm the reservation.
3. Write a pitch/press release
How can you make sure people find out about your presence at an event? Put it over the wire! Part of getting the word out is securing media coverage. This could be about your state-of-the-art booth at a major convention, speaking highlights or special industry contributions that you’re showcasing on the tradeshow floor.
Be sure to provide value in your press release and touch on the brand’s story. Include links to high quality PR assets including photos of your product or artist renderings of what your booth will look like, as well as headshots and bios for important event participants. Wrap up your details like a gift for the press. They will love having everything available so easily.
4. Reach out to media
Who cares? Why does this matter? Why would readers be interested?
When pitching media, be sure to create customized outreach that helps reporters understand the value of your presence at an event and why their specific readers will be interested. That’s what they want to know.
While you’re at it, invite your media contacts to join the fun! This could be a smart way to secure after-event publicity, too. Share the time of any floor presentations or speaking slots so they can be sure to schedule attendance accordingly.
If you’re doing media interviews prior to your event, be respectful of the journalist’s time and schedule 30 minutes maximum, provide a media kit and come prepared with a presentation that can be sent via email after your conversation.
5. Pre-book meetings
Tradeshows can be chaotic places, and prospective customers can easily lose track of time or get lost wandering the floor. Encourage your target audience to set meeting appointments with your team for a smooth connection. If you have enough meetings, consider booking a separate meeting room for a quiet place to chat and connect.
6. Social and hashtag
PR event planning should include a strong social presence. Before your event, post fun details, do a sneak peek, share key speakers and more. Be sure to utilize a simple and memorable hashtag that can be used throughout promotion and the event itself. Think about social media activations including live feeds, photos, contests, giveaways and other event PR tactics to boost engagement.
7. During the event
Employ an engaging booth aesthetic that speaks to your target audience. This could mean interactive booth design (innovative!), photo opportunities (shareable!) or other features to make the physical experience memorable. Deploy guerrilla marketing techniques to draw attention on the tradeshow floor. This increases the likelihood of media coverage during the show and prompts user-generated content (UGC) that can be shared during and after the show.
8. Keep track
How did it go? Well, it depends on what your goals were and what kind of tracking you had in place. Part of planning a PR event is being able to show return on investment (ROI) and you need to figure out what that means before you even start marketing your event. Your company is going to want to be able to see and track key metrics such as social media engagement, media coverage, sales closed at event meetings and new lead generation, and all that tracking capability needs to be in place from the beginning.
9. Nurture attendees
Keep in touch with attendees and press after your event. Don’t ghost your people… this wasn’t a bad date… it was an evening to remember. Attendees will ideally want to keep in touch. Send a thank you email to attendees who visited your booth (you’re definitely collecting at least names and email at the booth) and be sure to send personalized thank you notes to press. Add attendees to your segmented email list and provide them with value-based content. Create a recap for social media and shout out your successful event on owned channels.
Event PR like a pro
PR event planning has a lot of moving pieces but is well worth the effort. Want to make sure people visit your booth? PR can help! Want media coverage? PR can help! Want to capture leads and bolster your pipeline? PR can help!
By approaching your event with these PR techniques, your brand can make the most of the event you put so much energy (and investment) into attending.
Want to get the most out of your next PR event? Connect with the experts at Beyond Fifteen to learn how we can boost your event’s performance.
