Event organisers are making serious revenue from online by using their website as a marketing tool. ASP’s MD Jon Benjamin tells EW how your event can do it too.
Getting exhibitors to promote themselves through your event website can sometimes feel as hard as trying to nail jelly to the ceiling.
Through our experience of working with exhibition organisers of all shapes and sizes across the globe, we believe the answer is showing exhibitors the supplementary value and sales leads your event website provides exhibitors away from the showfloor.
Below are some of our key tips to getting your exhibitors to use your event website.
Part of the package
Some of our clients include a charge of between £250 (US$303.6) to £750 in the exhibitor package and mark it down as marketing through the event website. They make it a pre-requisite of the agreement.
Year-round shop window
An exhibitor will be on the showfloor for a handful of days. But they can be on the event website and promote themselves to their target audience all year round. That in itself is a compelling reason for a company to sign up to exhibit at your show.
No freebies
It’s so easy to chuck in online promotion as a way of getting a company to commit to being at your show. But if you give away space on your event website for free, all it says to the exhibitor is that you don’t value your event website. So why should they?
Onboard them early
Once an exhibitor has paid for the stand, being on the event website can quickly be forgotten. We recommend including uploading content into the event website exhibitor zone as part of the onboarding process.
Get social
Encourage exhibitors to post content onto your website by making a point of tweeting about it and including their news and info in your newsletters. This will encourage other businesses to onboard and put regular content onto your website.
Great integration
As well as all of the tools that you have provided within your event website, we recommend integrating with companies like Showshoppa that allow exhibitors to sell directly from your website.
FOMO
If you are an exhibitor, the fear of missing out on clients to a competitor is probably something that makes them grind their teeth. We recommend sending a reminder to exhibitors who are yet to set up their exhibitor profile on your event website that includes names of fellow businesses who are on there.
Rebook
Finally, ask yourself this – which exhibitor is more likely to re-sign for your event; The one who actively engages with adding content, generates leads all year round, or the one that doesn’t? Getting exhibitors engaged online will give them a higher chance of having a successful show, making that rebook chat that bit easier!
Want to get in touch with ASP?
Visit: https://www.asp.events/
