Earlier this year, we wrote about engaging your clients with great storytelling. This is a practice that doesn’t just work in a presentation, however. Storytelling can be used to draw an audience to your event or booth. In this case, though, you won’t use the same storytelling techniques as we described before. You’ll use short text lines and imagery to paint a picture – like the narratives cavemen drew. Here is how:
- Know your theme, know your audience. What makes you stand out from other booths at your tradeshow? Who are you targeting? What are their needs? How do you benefit the attendees? What problem do you solve, and how will clients feel when it’s solved?
- Create visual stories of the elements of your booth. What will be present, solved, or taught, and what visuals represent these things? What is the clearest, simplest way to express the problem and solution for each? Pictures from past tradeshows can work really well. A strong tactic to use is the same strategy used in packaging and displays. If your product or service makes life easier, use images of people who are free of stress. If you have fun at your booth, show people enjoying themselves. When you have several ideas, choose those that:
- Best represent the core benefits of your business
- Give a clear idea of what to expect
- Relate the best to the people attending the eventWith the right images, your story can simply be shared in captions or short sentences connecting the pictures.
Once you have a story ready, choose your channels to share it. Social media is the absolute easiest way to get your message out because it’s free. Use all your channels for this, including LinkedIn and YouTube. Plan to space your individual pieces out so that you’re telling one part of your story at a time. Correlate with the time of day when possible. If you’re bragging about the food you offer at your booth, for example, post that right before lunchtime. Tap into any emotional or sensory response possible.
Before you put everything into action, make sure that every post, email, and handout link back to both your event and your location at the tradeshow. Ideally this information is a seamless transition from each piece of the story you’re sharing.
By using imagery and storytelling to communicate with your attendees, you tap into what drives their behavior: emotions. Make an emotional promise, and you will see more people engaged in what you have to show them. If you need promotional items, display holders, presentation materials, or flexible packaging, Vinyl Art has you covered. We’re known for on-time shipping on all standard orders. We can also handle custom requests that our competitors can’t. Find out how we can help you make your tradeshow a great story. Call us at 800-569-1304 or email sales@vinylart.wpengine.com.
