Trade shows are an exciting way to build connections in your industry and showcase your brand’s products in action. Since a trade show booth isn’t an insignificant investment, you’ll want to implement marketing strategies to maximize your ROI from the event.
One way to do this is to create a corresponding online landing page for your trade show display. A simple, dedicated landing page like those you can create with Bitly Pages helps funnel your booth’s visitors to your website to convert them into loyal long-term customers. Building a landing page can also help you boost post-event engagement and capture valuable data about your booth’s visitors.
*Note: The brands and examples discussed below were found during our online research for this article.
Why do you need a landing page for your trade show booth?
Creating landing pages for events helps you keep the excitement going long after guests leave. By building a landing page for your next trade show, you can connect with attendees online to nurture those leads.
Trade shows give potential customers the opportunity to learn about new solutions, try product demos, and talk to your team directly. However, many attendees won’t make a purchase directly at the trade show, preferring to wait until after the event instead.
One study found that 83% of B2B buyers prefer to order and pay for products using digital commerce tools, which highlights how important it is to connect with your trade show audience online.
Landing pages make it easy for trade show attendees to find your website and social media pages, allowing them to review your product options and pricing after the event is over.
This is particularly helpful if your booth gets busy throughout the day. Even if visitors don’t have a chance to talk to your representatives, they can navigate to the landing page to find out more about your business and product offerings.
A landing page is also a great way to capture your booth visitors’ contact information and stay in touch with them. Personalized follow-up messages keep the conversation going and encourage your attendees to make a purchase.
Key benefits of a trade show landing page
Landing pages play an important role in trade show marketing. Creating a dedicated landing page for your trade show booth brings unique benefits beyond repurposing existing marketing materials.
Lead capture
Landing pages are particularly helpful for lead generation at trade shows. You can create a custom landing page designed to capture attendee’s contact information, making it easy to follow up with them.
To incentivize attendees to keep in touch, you’ll need to offer exciting post-event benefits. For example, you can encourage visitors to sign up for email newsletters, exclusive promotions, or an upcoming webinar.
For easy and effective lead capture, add a sign-up form directly on your trade show landing page. This allows attendees to share their contact information directly from their mobile devices.
Post-event engagement
A dedicated trade show landing page serves as a hub for post-event engagement.
Trade shows are an opportunity to generate dozens or even hundreds of leads in one day. In fact, the average trade show returns one qualified lead for every seven booth visitors. Using your landing page for post-event engagement helps nurture leads, increasing the chances of future conversions.
When building your landing page, include content that will be valuable for your attendees. Put yourself in their shoes and consider what kinds of information they may be looking for.
For example, you could include product FAQs, pricing information, and event-specific giveaways. You can also share content from the event in social media posts or email campaigns and link to them on your landing page.
Tracking and analytics
Landing pages can also help you track engagement levels to determine whether your booth display was a success.
With Bitly Pages, you can add custom short links to your landing page that lead to your website or other key digital assets. Bitly short links are trackable with Bitly Analytics, so you can monitor your landing page visits.
You can also see when visitors navigate from your landing page to your website. This can help you calculate trade show metrics, like ROI and cost per lead when paired with complementary analytics tools like Google Analytics.
How to make an effective, interesting trade show landing page
Well-crafted digital marketing assets are some of the best ways to increase brand awareness, and your trade show’s landing page is no exception. It should be engaging, cohesive, and easy to navigate.
Here’s how to create a successful trade show landing page as part of your event marketing campaign.
Design for a mobile-first experience
Most trade show attendees will access your landing page on mobile devices rather than desktops. So design your landing page with smartphones and tablets in mind.
Mobile web pages should be simple and easy to navigate on a small screen. A design that works well on a desktop may feel too cluttered on a mobile device. When building your trade show landing page, keep the design minimalist so it doesn’t feel overwhelming.
Choose design elements like fonts, colors, and buttons carefully. Fonts should be clear and easy to read, even on a small screen. Use a high-contrast color scheme to help make your landing page pop. Buttons should be large enough to tap easily with a finger or thumb.
Additionally, the landing page should load quickly. The average person waits just eight seconds for a website to load. There are plenty of competitors at trade shows and expos, and attendees may get frustrated and move on if your page doesn’t load within this timeframe.
To optimize your landing page for faster load times, ensure you compress images and graphics. Turning on browser caching will also help the page load faster upon repeat visits. Keep in mind that many devices will compete for bandwidth at the event, so load times will likely be slower than your initial testing shows.
All landing pages designed with Bitly Pages are completely mobile-friendly, with customizable templates and responsive designs, layouts, and functionality, so you don’t need to start from scratch. You can get your unique landing page up and running quickly—no coding experience required.
Craft compelling CTAs
Each trade show landing page should include a compelling call-to-action (CTA). This encourages visitors to engage further with your brand and moves them through the sales funnel.
Your CTA should be highly specific to your brand and your trade show strategy. CTA options could include:
- Sign up for our email newsletter
- Book a demo
- Sign up for a webinar
- Schedule a follow-up call
- Download our e-book
- Connect on social media
Showcase event-specific content
Even if you had a great face-to-face conversation with an attendee, they’re unlikely to engage with a generic landing page. Make your trade show landing page more effective by incorporating engaging, event-specific content. For example, if you’re hosting trade show games, you can share live video and behind-the-scenes clips from the show floor.
Placing valuable downloadable content on your trade show landing page can help engage your audience on a deeper level. With Bitly Pages, you can share links to industry reports, case studies, whitepapers, or even images or videos of speaker presentations that your target audience could find particularly valuable.
Offer incentives for engagement
Incentives are an effective way to attract trade show visitors to your landing page and keep their interest beyond the event. Consider offering exclusive discounts, free giveaways, or early access to new products to create a sense of excitement and VIP treatment.
You could also provide access to premium content, like product tutorials or insider tips as a reward for visiting your page. These incentives not only make your booth more memorable but also encourage visitors to stay connected, fostering a lasting relationship that could lead to future sales.
Top 3 ways to promote a trade show landing page
To drive traffic to your landing page, promote it across multiple marketing channels before, during, and after the event. Here are three effective ways to push more prospective leads to your trade show’s landing page.
1. Social media
In the days leading up to the event, create a social media campaign across platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter to drum up excitement about your trade show booth. Each post should link directly to your Bitly landing page so your followers can learn about the event, pre-schedule meetings with your team members, or check out exclusive pre-show content.
During the event, continue promoting your landing page on social media with live updates and behind-the-scenes posts. These authentic, candid posts capture attention and foster brand loyalty, appealing to both existing followers and new audiences drawn in from your trade show. You can also use social media to share limited-time promotional offers and drive traffic to your booth.
After the event, keep your audience engaged by linking to your landing page in follow-up social media posts. Use this opportunity to share fresh content, such as product highlights, recorded sessions, attendee testimonials, and event recap videos. These updates not only keep the momentum going but also offer a chance for those who missed the event to experience the highlights and explore your offerings.
2. Email marketing
Email marketing campaigns are another effective way to drive traffic to your trade show landing page. Before the event, send an email to your subscribers to let them know about the upcoming trade show. This strategy helps spread the word to existing customers and warm leads, helping to increase attendance.
After the event, send follow-up emails with exclusive content and promotions to your booth’s visitors. These emails should also link back to your trade show landing page.
When building your email campaigns, create bold, engaging subject lines to grab recipients’ attention and use Bitly’s branded short links to drive traffic to your Bitly landing page.
With Bitly Pages, you can create customizable and trackable short links that allow you to monitor traffic from the email campaign to the landing page in real time. These insights let you quickly assess engagement levels, identify which messages resonate most, and adjust your strategy as needed to improve results.
3. QR Codes
Posting QR Codes is an easy way to share your Bitly landing page with trade show attendees once they’re on-site. Visitors can scan these codes with their smartphone cameras to open the landing page directly in their browsers.
To encourage more scans, place your QR Codes prominently on printed materials throughout the event, including brochures, signage, banners, and business cards.
You can also use QR Codes as part of your booth design to create interactive experiences, such as digital catalogs, video demonstrations, or live giveaways. These interactive experiences help generate buzz, draw visitors to your booth, and connect your in-person booth experience to your digital marketing campaigns.
Elevate your trade show success through strategic landing pages
Landing pages are essential in event marketing, helping capture interest, generate leads, and extend your reach beyond the trade show floor. A dedicated landing page for your booth can connect with potential customers, provide valuable resources, and keep their interest alive long after the event. Planning your landing page early allows you to integrate it fully into pre-show, on-site, and post-show marketing efforts, maximizing your trade show impact.
With Bitly Pages, you can create customized landing pages in just a few clicks. Choose from a variety of templates and tailor them with trackable Bitly short links and QR Codes for seamless connections to your digital assets. Plus, Bitly Analytics lets you monitor visitor engagement in real time, providing insights into what resonates most with your audience and helping you refine your strategy for future events.
Sign up for Bitly today to create customized landing pages that keep your trade show connections alive!
