Get the maximum ROI on your trade show investment with an aligned, event-specific marketing plan.

Your trade show roster is ready to rock for the year. You have secured booth space for some majorly important face-to-face marketing events, and you’re armed with the top design trends of 2021 to make sure your exhibit aesthetic is a show stopper. These are some major details checked off your list, for sure!

What savvy corporate event marketers know is the event marketing strategy is one the most important components on the extensive list of to-dos during the planning stages. The event marketing strategy is what helps bring all stakeholders and exhibit staff into alignment with your brand’s vision and mission before, during, and after each live marketing event. It’s the driving force behind critical ROI data. Having clear, direct marketing to convey why attendees should visit your booth will help to attract the right visitors — aka, the people who are ready and willing to spend their money on your brand.

Event marketing strategy isn’t always easy to plan, especially when you’re buried in the hundreds of logistical details required to successfully execute exhibiting at a trade show. That’s why Steelhead has developed this resource to help event planners get started with their strategy brainstorming process. Having the answers to these questions thoughtfully drafted, trust that you’ll look like an event marketing rockstar to your stakeholders!

Also, if your trade show budget is an issue (really, when isn’t it?), having solid points in answering these questions can also help secure the budget for the trade show. It might reveal that you have enough funds, or you need more and now you have a solid case as to why, or you might even realize you have plenty for this show so you can move some funds to a future live marketing event.

Basically, the more your answers to these questions are fine-tuned and thought through, the easier your strategizing and budget will come together.

Start by thinking about and pulling data from the same event last year (or, more likely, two years ago), and reflect on the following:

1. What was your event strategy and how effective was it?  

The answer to this question will help you evaluate whether or not you need to reinvent the wheel, or maybe just a few parts of it. If the ROI was off the charts, then definitely plan to incorporate some of those key marketing strategies in a way that’s relevant to this year’s event. If the ROI was meh, then it may be time to re-evaluate your marketing strategy for this event and try something new.
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2. What did your competitors do last year?

‍Hey, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a little friendly competitive intel gathering. What did your competitors do well? How can you adopt some of those tactics and make them your own, aligned with your brand? What did they do that did not resonate with attendees, so you know what to avoid?
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3. What are your brand's new sales and marketing goals and objectives for this year?  

No matter how successful your events have been in the past, it’s important that this year’s event is aligned with this year’s goals. For example, if you’re launching a new product this year — how does your exhibit support this marketing effort? What are the sales goals for this upcoming event? Or if you’re looking to expand into more thought leadership, do any of your executives have a speaking engagement at this trade show?

And there you have it, a launching point for an amazingly effective event marketing strategy! As always, we are here to help our corporate event marketing friends. If you’d like to do a little brainstorming with strategizing for your next event, schedule a brief 15-minute discovery call below with one of our event marketing experts.
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