Innovative content strategies to amplify trade show impact and boost ROI long after the event is over.
Bob Sperber, Editor, Branded Content
Your company invests a lot of time, money, and effort in participating in a trade show. With a little planning and creativity, you can improve your ROI and keep your expo energy alive among booth visitors, attendees who missed your booth, and FOMO sufferers who couldn’t attend. Creating post-show content is easier than you might think when you use the sights, sounds, and conversations with people you meet to generate post-show content marketing.
Are you ready to think outside the booth? We’ve compiled several ideas to help you extend the excitement — and profitability — of your trade show investment beyond those few frenetic days away.
Show recaps and industry insights
- “What we learned” summary articles can present a roundup of key trends, quotes from show speakers, and what your team took away from the experience.
- Behind-the-scenes recaps can personalize your people and your brand by showcasing your setup while highlighting informal exchanges and team dynamics.
- Third-party trends roundups curate insights from other booths or educational sessions to show thought leadership beyond your own solutions.
Customer & attendee voices
- Booth visitor reaction videos that capture reactions and comments can show how your solutions address challenges.
- Thought leadership interviews featuring industry experts, allied partners, and other vendors demonstrate your role in the broader industry ecosystem.
- Customer case studies can be previewed in short, casual at-show chats (even as anonymous use cases) and be formalized into post-show success stories and official testimonials.
Technical education & problem-solving
- Deep-dive blog posts or explainer videos can address frequently asked questions or misconceptions heard and answered at your booth.
- “Ask an engineer” Q&As can easily be created based on booth visitors’ questions and interactions and can be used for short video clips, blog posts, or downloadable resources.
- White papers or application guides can expand on technical topics covered in your exhibit or presentations and be used as gated content marketing assets.
Demo & product-focused content
- Mini-demo videos are ideal for replicating booth demos in a more polished or application-specific video format.
- Slide deck downloads are a great way to repurpose presentations. Add more context with transcripts or added notes and share via apps such as SlideShare or via your own content repository of PDFs, video links, and documents.
Visual content & galleries
- Photo galleries with highlights offer visual storytelling, using captions to tease deeper content engagement.
- Short-form photo or video storytelling on social media can link audiences back to more detailed post-show content.
Once you’ve decided on these or your own ideas to generate your written and multimedia content, you’ll need to produce and deploy them via owned channels such as your social accounts. For example, you can post your content to your own social accounts or your website’s blog or news pages.
You can also extend your reach via sponsored content programs with media partners — many of which offer benefits both immediately after the show and in the longer term.
Show Shorts
One such sponsored example within the Informa Markets — Engineering (IME) family is its new video offering, Show Short: two- to three-minute videos shot live on the show floor to spotlight your brand through booth demos, presentations, or trend discussions.
“These short videos address the tremendous desire we see in the marketplace to help attendees catch up on things that they may have missed, given the amount of information they need to keep up with,” says Elliot Howell, IME’s Head of Media Sales. “They also address the need for exhibitors to extend their voice beyond the trade show floor.”
The videos are edited, packaged, and go live within a week — "while it’s still fresh in people's minds, but after they’ve had time to return home and decompress." Show Shorts are posted to IME’s social accounts, featured on the selected media site's homepage, and promoted in a post-show newsletter. Exhibitors also receive full rights for long-term uses such as product pages, blogs, and webinars.
When it comes to generating new and creative content ideas, trade show experiences are the gift that keeps on giving — both for your audience and for your bottom line.
Upcoming events include MD&M East (New York), MEDevice Boston, the Battery Show, Electric & Hybrid Vehicle Technology Expo, and MD&M Midwest (Minneapolis). For more, visit our events website and select your desired dates, regions, and sectors.
