If there were companies still hesitant about industry events and trade shows in 2022, it seems clear that 2023 will see companies back in full swing, eager to meet their customers and prospects face-to-face after the last few years of Zoom meetings. Industry conferences have always been a powerful channel for companies to get their name out there and connect with potential customers, partners, and other industry players. However, some key focuses when preparing for an event are not just the swag, happy hour, and logistics, but presenting your brand as an expert to the relevant audience prior to the event.
When you're at an industry event, you're surrounded by other companies that are all trying to make an impression. If you want to stand out and make a lasting impact, you need to make sure that you're the one leading the conversation. This means that you need to be actively participating in conversations and sharing your expertise and insights on social media, in blog posts, and in other channels well before the event takes place.One way to do this is to identify key topics that will be discussed at the event and start publishing content around those topics. By increasing your Share of Voice around relevant topics prior to an event, your audience will be engaged leading up to the event, almost like a virtual redcarpet where your audience can be educated and brought down the funnel, so that by the time they rock up to the exhibition hall, they’re already keen to learn more.
The same is true for post-event activity; to continuously talk about the same relevant topics by redistributing content and continuously engaging your audience in order to remain top-of-mind once everyone gets back to the office. Understanding how to leverage all resources and channels to maximize the impact after your event will help maintain the momentum generated at the booth and ultimately ensure trade-booth leads have higher intent to eventually convert to paying customers.Ultimately, attending industry events is about more than just showing up on the day of the event. By increasing your share of voice beforehand and continuing to engage with your audience afterwards, you can maximize the impact that you make and build lasting relationships with the people you meet.One way to increase your share of voice before and after industry events is by utilizing a strategic marketing platform such as Brew. Brew provides a suite of tools that help companies increase their share of voice by centralizing content creation, distribution, and analytics in one platform. By using Brew, companies can easily identify key topics that will be discussed at industry events, create targeted content, and distribute it across multiple channels. This allows companies to engage with their audience before, during, and after the event, increasing the chances of building lasting relationships with potential customers and partners. Additionally, Brew's analytics feature allows companies to track the success of their campaigns and measure the impact of their share of voice efforts, enabling them to make data-driven decisions and optimize future campaigns.