With limited time and a never-ending to-do list for booth design and logistics, you may have overlooked one of the major keys to success as an exhibitor: attendee acquisition.

This is a mistake. While it’s true the event organizer is responsible for attracting industry professionals to the convention city during the trade show, as an exhibitor you are responsible for getting the right professionals into your booth when the exhibit hall opens.

To succeed as an exhibitor, you'll need to add one more set of tasks to your list: supporting the show's attendee acquisition efforts.

The good news: You don’t have to micromanage this process or handle it alone, but you do have to understand and support the show organizer through these steps.

Step 1: Commitment

It’s in your best interest to help the show organizer with their attendee acquisition efforts, but knowing this fact is only the beginning of this first step. Now, it's time to ensure your entire team is empowered to act upon this knowledge, too. 

Explain the importance of attendee acquisition and how it works to your stakeholders and staff members. 

Find constructive ways to bring any traffic-related challenges you face to the show organizer. Most importantly, own your role in the process.

Step 2: Understanding

Attendees have been registering later and later since the pandemic. In fact, 98% of show organizers reported that attendees are registering later for trade shows, compared with pre-pandemic times, according to TSNN research. 

In my experience, that doesn’t mean they aren’t paying attention in advance. It simply means they aren’t committing until closer to the event.

Tip: don’t cut your dedicated pre-show marketing time short; start early and expand your reach.

Instead of only targeting those on the official attendee list you can rent from most trade shows, include all other relevant contacts (like those you’d normally prospect to and partner with) in your early pre-show marketing campaigns. Feature your favorite show benefits and #FOMO-inducing memories/sneak peeks to help them justify their registration sooner.

Did you know? One of the top factors considered by organizers when defining their marketing approach for the next edition of their trade show is ensuring the messaging for the event is aligned with the primary motivations for attending (74%), according to the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR). 

To maintain their market share, savvy organizers make significant investments in understanding their attendee’s interests and addressing them in show-related communications. Instead of starting from scratch to research on your own, take advantage of their hard work (according to the same study, most organizers start promoting their show between 3 to 12 months in advance, so if you’re paying attention, you’ll have plenty of reference material).

Tip: use the organizer’s messaging to gut check your own.

Throughout your pre-show marketing process, use the themes you observe in the show organizer’s promotions to anticipate what will resonate most. As you make each message your own, speak specifically to your audience segment, but don’t lose the underlying alignment.

Step 3: Support

Ask the show organizer about other ways you can support their attendee acquisition efforts.

For example, most trade shows provide exhibitors with branded images they can share, email templates they can tweak before sending, and even free or discounted passes to gift to their connections. Take full advantage of these opportunities.

Other shows may be active on social media. Identify the official hashtag, follow official accounts, and like, comment and share their posts to amplify their message and expand your collective reach.

Ultimately, trade shows are a team sport. Even though attendee acquisition isn’t technically your responsibility, it’s a prerequisite to your exhibiting success.

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