Trade Show Booth Staff Training Expert, Susan Friedmann, CSP, The Tradeshow Coach

As you plan next year’s trade shows, take advantage of the new decade as a marketing tool. When the calendar flips over, people—including your customers—enjoy the chance to do a little reflection. That’s why the beginning of any new decade is heralded by predictions about upcoming trends, as well as the usual end-of-year summaries of the best and worst.

This kind of self-examination is not just a natural human instinct. It can be a great tool for gaining honest feedback from customers, for gaining their involvement, even for the much-sought-after viral marketing. Here are four ideas to get you started:

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Streaming a video on your company web site is just the beginning. Long after the trade show is over, you can use that footage in creative ways to market your business.
Use these four tips to help plan an effective video campaign.

1. Optimize for search engines and the people who use them.
The standard SEO tips apply here: tag the video, make sure you use keywords in the filename, create a sitemap specifically for videos, and make sure your metadata is accurate and complete.

2. Tell the world about your video.
Embed a clip in an email to your customers. Announce its URL on social media such as Twitter and LinkedIn.  Facebook allows you to post video directly. You may wish to allow people to embed the video in their blogs or websites, too.

3. Cross-link to your site.
If you decide to post the video file on YouTube or Facebook, provide a link back to your site. These public sites can reach a broad audience, and you want to get the most from their buying power.

4. Keep track of video viewers and their purchasing decisions. Whether you choose promotional codes or separate URLs, you need to track the ways viewers find your videos—and how they react to it.

I was teaching an exhibitor workshop recently when a participant told me about this GREAT giveaway item she’d recently picked up at a trade show. It was a can cozy, an insulated foam wrap designed to slip over beverage cans and keep them cold. She thought it was the most amazing product.

“That’s great. Can you tell me what company gave it to you?” She could not.

“And what did you do with the can cozy?” I asked.
“It was so nice, I gave it to my dad!” she promptly replied.

Now, was this a great giveaway item? No. The participant couldn’t even remember who had given it to her. To add fuel to fire, she’d given it to someone completely unrelated to the business. This marketing message definitely failed the “keep it” test!

The purpose of a giveaway is to increase recognition of your company. Make your giveaways memorable and effective by considering these four essentials:

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In this episode of the Tradeshow Minute, Susan Friedmann, CSP, The Tradeshow Coach, tells you how a your show booth can make or break a show.

For years, keynote speeches and major product announcements have been shown live to audiences who cannot attend a trade show. Now you can use cutting-edge technology to create streaming video from your trade show booth—and you don’t need a news van complete with photojournalists to get great results.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be discussing how you can create professional streaming video and use it to maximize the return on your trade-show investment.

Why use streaming video? Here are five reasons:

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