Trade Show Preparation Checklist – 16 weeks

This series of articles is called “Trade Show Preparation Checklist” and helps you, week after week, to prepare the most important aspects of your booth setup and event organization. We will review everything from booth decoration, promotion, samples, logistics, travel, staff training to leads management. Access your checklist week by week here.

What should I prepare 16 weeks before my event?

You still have 4 months before your event starts. It may seem like a lot of time, but it is actually shorter than you think!
Your priority this week is to build your company page. Why can’t my website suffice? Why so early? What should I put there?
Relax, we share all our secrets!

Why your website isn’t enough

Your website targets a very broad market: through your homepage, you try to talk to anyone potentially interested in what you have to offer.

While this is great for most people, it will not convince people to visit your booth and work with you. You need to build a unique page that specifically talks to your trade show visitors and tells them WHY they should visit your booth and even request an appointment with you.

The reason you need a specific page is to focus on that event in particular instead of your company in general.

Why you should start now

You must start now because of SEO reasons. Ever heard of that?

To simplify it, SEO is what makes your content (here, your page) easy to find on search engines.
The problem with your page being indexed is that it takes time, and four months is a good timeline to get your company name on the top of the results list before the show!

What should you put there

Your company page has a single purpose: get people to visit your booth and, whenever possible, request a meeting.

To achieve that, your page must convince people in a very short amount of time. You will need to have:

• a brief yet complete company introduction (go straight to the point!)
• photos of your products, services, venues (images talk more than words)
• files to download (only for those who want to dig deeper – catalog, brochure, etc.)
• your logo, your banner
• a clear CTA (Call To Action) – focus on one or two USPs (Unique Selling Point). People won’t read 50 pages of text, you need to convince them within seconds.
• Keywords. Make sure the name of your event, your industry, your product name appear in the text. These keywords will help with your indexing.

What’s next?

Promote your page!

It is great to have an SEO friendly page, but a little help is always welcome. Promote your page on Social Media, send a link to your current prospects, add a banner in your email signature, have an announcement with a link on your website, etc.

 

Ready?

All you have to do now is setup your myfairtool company page and get your first meeting requests!

The Exhibitor.