Aren’t we all looking for ways to draw more people to our trade show booth?  Start by generating traffic before the show.  Do whatever you can to get on the attendee’s short list of must see sponsors.  Here are a few ideas for pre-show marketing:

• Send pre-show emails and/or direct mail to drive visitors to your booth. Don’t have a list of show attendees? Email contacts in your database that are likely to attend. Start by inviting prospects in the area. Do anything and everything to let people know you will be there.
• Send out a press release – timing is everything on this because you don’t want to get lumped in with everyone else sending out a press release about the show.  Make sure your press release is full of the right keywords and links to relevant content.
• Announce it on your website
• Twitter about it – be sure to tweet before and during the show.  Make a tweeting schedule to promote registrations for the event and then the days leading up to the show to promote your booth.  Find out from show management if they have a pre-set hashtag for the show you should include.
• Utilize your sales team – make sure your sales team has all the details so they can promote as they speak with prospects.

In all communication, be sure to include your booth number and announce any giveaways and/or parties.

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