You’ve done your research and created some amazing content. Now use these tools to ensure you reach the right audience.
Given the ongoing role of trade shows as industry education tools, their transition from live event to ongoing resource, thanks to content marketing, is a fitting one. We discussed the planning stage and essential components of a trade show content marketing strategy in Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, and today we conclude with the third and final part — the Art of Distribution.
Follow these five steps to reach more qualified registrants for your trade show or conference:
1. Be Consistent.
Whether you start with industry blog, podcast or e-mail newsletter (a strong content marketing campaign will include all of these components), consistency is key to building a loyal following. As your audience comes to rely on you for advice, posting on the same day every week does as much to retain your audience as quality content. Ensure that your posts are RSS-enabled to encourage direct inbox delivery.
2. Use (All) Social Media.
Although the ‘big 4’ social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn) are still the most important, thinking beyond these channels to niche channels unique to your audience can help you form a stronger connection with the audience for greater conversion. Industry forums, MeetUp groups, and other communities — for example, the Fashion Industry Network or Retail Bulletin for retailers — can be great opportunities both for publishing content and connecting with future speakers. (Need help finding the right platforms for your industry? Just ask us. We can help.)
3. Share Your Expertise.
Aside from contributing directly to industry sites, submitting guest posts on the blogs of respected experts can help to expand your reach while further establishing yourself as an authority. Start by simply reaching out to experts whether through their sites or on LinkedIn with story ideas that complement their blog. Offering to post a reciprocal article (retaining the right to edit for quality and to avoid over-linking) can be an act of goodwill that also helps you solidify relationships within your industry. Becoming an expert on a platform like Examiner.com or contributing articles to sites like Business2Community or Tech Coctail can help expand your reach even further.
4. Leverage Paid Placements
In addition to content distribution, paid placements can help you significantly boost registrations. You read about the importance of developing landing pages in Part 2 of this series; the final step is knowing where to place it. Facebook and Google Ads remain two of the most powerful platforms for launching successful landing page campaigns, although industry sites and digital magazine can drive strong conversion as well. Aside from landing pages, sponsored e-mails to the audiences of industry publications or sponsored content on the sites of respected magazines can boost your credibility along with your reach.
5. Syndicate & Reuse
Syndicating gets tricky when search engines value unique content and you’re trying to build traffic to your own site, but the benefits of syndication on sites like LinkedIn and Medium often outweigh the SEO hit of keeping content strictly internal. Not sure where to begin? This post shows you how to syndicate. Learning to re-purpose past articles for other channels, taking a different approach or focusing on a key point from your post, can also help you get more mileage out of your content.
Have thoughts on trade show marketing? Send your insights to our editorial team, and we may use them (and of give you lots of credit) in our next post!
818 Agency provides creative B2B content marketing and social advertising campaigns to Fortune 500 companies and growth-oriented startups. Purveyors of real-time event content marketing.
Post by Tracie Heffernan