5 Tips for Pre-Show Advertisement

Event planners and trade show organizers know first-hand that the success of an event is often measured by headcount and overall event experience. The more attendees you bring in and the better their customer experience, the more successful your event is. But how do you get the word out about your upcoming trade show or event? In this guide, we will reveal five big tips to help you advertise your next event.

1. Build the Essentials

Set a Budget

It's important to recognize that your trade show advertising efforts are going to be subject to budget constraints. But that's not necessarily bad. In fact, having a budget for event advertising can actually be a good thing because it forces you to focus on producing fewer advertising materials at a higher level of quality that are optimized for your specific event, as opposed to spreading yourself too thin and producing a large quantity of mediocre advertising materials. This allows you to be more thoughtful and intentional with your event advertising efforts, ultimately leading to better results and a more successful event.

Define Your Target Audience

After you've set an advertising budget, you'll need to determine your target audience. This can be achieved by creating buyer personas or analyzing past event data to understand who typically attends your events. By promoting your event to individuals with similar interests and behaviors as your target audience, you increase the likelihood of converting them into attendees. It's crucial to focus on the individuals most likely to attend and engage with your event to ensure a successful outcome.

2. Take Advantage of Marketing Opportunities

With the wide variety of events and trade shows happening, event organizers need to take advantage of any tool that can help them stand out from the crowd. It's not enough to simply launch an event website and blast out promotional emails. There are a few marketing opportunities that trade show organizers should use to their advantage.

Discovery Websites

A good place to advertise your trade show is an event discovery website. This is a good way for trade show organizers to reach new audiences. Keep in mind that it can be expensive to list your trade show through event discovery services. While this high cost makes it a higher-risk maneuver, it can potentially lead to a higher ROI.

Early-Bird Discounts

Offering an early-bird discount on event registration can be a powerful marketing strategy to generate interest and drive sales. By incentivizing potential attendees with a reduced price, you can create a sense of urgency and encourage them to purchase tickets sooner rather than later. This can be particularly effective since early-bird discounts not only attract bargain hunters but also create a sense of exclusivity for those who take advantage of the offer.

Social Media

Trade show organizers would be doing themselves a disservice if they didn't take advantage of social media to promote their events. According to Kepios, there are almost 4.8 billion social media users as of 2023. And that number is expected to reach nearly 6 billion by 2027. Social media is a powerful platform for promoting and reaching a wider audience. And it's something every trade show organizer should tap into to increase their chances of success.

3. Content Marketing

While social media may be a powerful tool, it should be just one tool in your trade show marketing toolbox. Social media is an especially effective way to distribute information, so it's most effective when you have quality content to share. Make sure you create content such as:

• Video

• Blog posts

• Infographics

• Email content

4. Create a Landing Page

Social media, email, and content marketing can increase your reach, but your target audience needs someplace to go to get all the information they need about your trade show. That's why it's important to create a landing page for your upcoming event. Unlike a generic website, a landing page is specifically designed to provide all the necessary information about your event in one place, including date, time, location, ticket prices, and other relevant details. This helps to create a clear and concise message for your audience, making it easier for them to understand the value of attending your event. 

5. Utilize an Event Management Platform

Between organizing the event, handling the marketing and advertising, and managing the logistics of putting the event together, trade show event organizers have a lot of complex tasks to coordinate. It can get really messy if you’re using simple spreadsheets and calendars to track everything. That's why an event management platform like Perenso Trade Show software is a must.

Event management software can handle event registration, content management, exhibitor negotiations, and more, all through a single platform. It can even gather data for analytics and custom reporting so event organizers can evaluate the success of their events.

Learn more about how trade show software can maximize your strategy.

Read more about how Perenso trade show software has helped other businesses advertise their events.