Are you planning to organise a trade fair? Do you have super innovative ideas for your event and a precise plan of what added value you want to deliver to your visitors? But how do you reach your audience and get them to participate in your trade fair?

You will find the answers to all these questions in this article. 

In order to make successful exhibition marketing, the target group must be defined first. This is the basis for the next steps in your marketing process. These three steps will help you to fully understand the target group: the development of a type, a solid market research and the final analysis of the market size.

– Determine the buyer type: Determining a prototypical attendee will contribute significantly to the success of your event. Ideally, you will come away from this process with a document that helps you understand exactly who you want to target with the event, the background of this type of buyer, how your event can help them achieve their goals and where you should place your advertising to reach this type of buyer.

– Conduct market research: Try to confirm or disprove your assumptions about your target group by conducting market research. For example, you may assume that your potential respondents are interested in branding and design, but in fact they want to meet experienced design professionals. The results of their research can help them target the event and formulate effective promotional messages.

– Market size analysis: For this you can, for example, expand their search on LinkedIn – Are there groups there that include their target audience? How big are they? How active are the members? If they find few LinkedIn groups with potential participants, this could be a sign of lack of demand.

Following this analysis, they should be able to make reliable statements about the specific target group of their event, their interests and appeal, and the appropriate placement of advertising messages.

Event marketing is a broad field! But: the basics are simple and do not require a huge budget.

– Advertise among family and acquaintances: Before you start with circulars, social media advertising and blogging, they should first look for support among friends and family. Warm and authentic references are always the most effective and have a more credible effect than other marketing measures.

– Email marketing: Email marketing has fallen into a bit of disrepute lately. The reason for this is GDPR, spam emails, but also the sheer mass of messages we are confronted with every day. However, it is one of the most cost-effective ways to promote your event.

– Social media: Try to find out as early as possible which social media channels are best suited for your event, then promote them more instead of aiming for a scattered presence on social media.

– Website – SEO strategy: Social networks are now the channels through which participants become aware of events. Nevertheless, search engines still play a major role in successful event marketing. Here, the ranking of your event in search results is crucial.

– Press releases: A mention in one of the major newspapers or on television is a boon for any organiser of a new event.  Find out in advance who your contact person for the event or cultural sector would be to ensure that your design ends up in the right place. Tell them an exciting story with all the important facts.