The following were the 10 salient points discussed at the 4th Indian Exhibitor Industries Association Open Seminar, at HITEX Hyderabad - 29th-30th August. Abhay Bhatia of Procialize was invited to be a panelist on the same.
Topic: 'Social Media, Digital and e-commerce as an opportunity for Trade Fair Business'
1. Marketing for Trade Fairs needs to be a year long affair - and not just 1-2 months before the event.
2. Digital Marketing (Google Ad Words, Facebook, LinkedIN and Twitter campaigns) are the most cost-effective way of marketing, because they are the most accurate tool for targeted campaigns.3. Quality of content needs to be important. Speak to your exhibitors about their top 10 customers, and post content about those customers. Remember, it is the visitors at your trade fairs which will ultimately drive home the success or the failure
4. Do not post content such as 'We acquired X customer, or Y number of exhibitors'. Post content that is valuable to your customer such as trends in the industry, any merger/acquisition activity or any industrial forecasts.
5. Digital Marketing is only effective when you know your customer. Knowing your customer means acquiring all information about the customer as well as the activities (meetings set up, campaign carried out, and visitors met) done at your event.Procialize is a great event app that can capture all these activities at your next trade fair.
6. Digital Marketing cannot be thought in isolation. It has to be integrated with the entire marketing activity. You can capture the people who have clicked on your Facebook page, google ad, or website, and then use that data to make smarter cold calls and pitch attractive packages.
7. Organisers need to be patient with digital marketing. A 3 year window is needed to reap the real benefits of your digital campaign
8. Your website and your Facebook/Twitter page need not be two separate entities. You can integrate your Twitter page into your Website, so that the content on the website always remains fresh. Click here to see how Procialize did this with CII's Digitize - Digital Marketing Conference
9. Roughly 15% of your overall marketing spend should be directed towards Social Media - Panel Verdict
10. Your marketing strategy will differ for different industries. Example: Spend more on Social Media campaigns versus Google Adwords for Healthcare related shows and vice versa for manufacturing shows.
