Your exhibitor listing is a small part of your exhibit marketing program that can deliver big results. It usually appears in several places like on the show website, the interactive floor plan, in the show directory, on the mobile app, and more.
It’s also one of the key places attendees look when deciding which exhibits they plan to visit.
Knowing the high visibility and important role it plays in driving booth traffic, putting a little more thought, effort and creativity into writing an effective listing is worth a few minutes. Unfortunately, most exhibitors’ listings look like they copied and pasted it from their brochure or mission statement. Often the listing is filled with platitudes like “quality”, “competitive prices”, “great service”, how long they’ve been in business, and other tired phrases that are all too commonplace.
While it is important that your listing clearly inform attendees about what you do, to make this powerful and overlooked little marketing tool deliver more value, you’ve got to take it a step further.
The Primary Purpose of an Exhibitor Listing is to Give the Reader a Compelling Reason to Visit Your Booth
A good strategy is to start with a hook to grab the reader’s attention. The first sentence could be a problem based hook like: Tired of… Worried about… Struggling with…? Or you could use opportunity based hooks like: Interested in… Curious about… Want to know more about…?
Then, briefly describe what you do, AND tell them what they will gain by visiting your booth. Use action words like SEE, DO, LEARN & GET to prompt the reader to add your booth to their show planner or agenda.
Here’s how I would write my 50 word listing:
Tired of poor quality tradeshow leads? Visit Competitive Edge. See the industry’s most effective exhibit staff training programs. Take a fun 60 second quiz to test your staffing knowledge. Learn 3 big mistakes your booth staff is making. Grab a FREE exhibit staff skills assessment tool.
In just 46 words, the reader learns about a specific problem we can help them solve. They know exactly what we do AND they know exactly what will happen by visiting our booth.
Now that’s a small marketing tool with big pulling power. Want me to review your listing? Email to jefferson@tradeshowturnaround.com.
