Trade Show Website Redesign
 | Trade Show Websites: 13 Tips for Successful Website Redesign
We recently wrote on Trade Show Web Design Examples and in our experience uncovered the common features that make the best Trade Show websites highly attractive and extremely useful. Trade show websites are the most effective weapon in your marketing arsenal. They can communicate to thousands of visitors a day, convert those visitors to attendees, and grow in popularity in search engines. Tradeshow Website Redesign Unfortunately, many tradeshow websites lack the proper planning or design, resulting in a real under utilization of their online potential. In deciding to take on a website redesign, its important to know what some of the most effective strategies that Trade Show websites utilize. New Attendee’s Deserve Front Page Attention The most effective Trade Show websites communicate heavily not to dedicated attendees, but rather to those individuals that are on the fence to attend. In addition, recognizing it may take a couple of events before they go from a browsing and shopping phase to a purchase phase will help you convert more users over time. Use the front page to highlight aspects of the event that will attract these visitors by highlighting various aspects of the program or reviews from the prior year’s attendees. Be Explicit on Your Introduction Page Introduce what the trade show core goal and mission is on the home page. Many expos and trade fairs have strange acronyms that only a seasoned veteran understands. Social Media is Essential in building Buzz Social media - Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Google+ -- is essential to reminding existing visitors of upcoming events in an indirect and supplemental way. At the very least, give users the ability to share that they’re attending the event with their followers and friends. The typical internet user switches from work to personal social media sites twice a day. Make sure you stake out your brand’s place in that period. Utilize Slideshows to Highlight Vital Aspects of Your Event A slideshow on your Trade Show’s website can help you introduce the most vital elements of your event in the same piece of website real estate. Make sure one of the pages links to a ticketing landing page to help boost your online attendance figures. Use Open Source Content Management Solutions You don’t need expensive tools like CVENT to run your Trade Show marketing. Open source content management solutions tools like Drupal can give your organization an effective and powerful events platform and save your tens of thousands of dollars. Make Event Registration Simple Don’t make event registration frustrating for your visitors. Effective Trade Show websites offer seamless signups and easy to use logins for attendees. Give attendee’s the ability to login to see their receipts, sign up for events, or purchase swag. Incorporate Video on the Landing Page Some of the most effective Trade Show websites offer video on their landing pages offering introductions, explaining exhibitor services, or communicating the show’s benefits from a visitor’s perspective. Add an Easy to Find Help Tab An easy to find Help tab that allows emails to be sent directly to the organizers of the event seems simple, but can make a larger difference to visitors looking for information. Some Trade Show websites can make it difficult to find a contact form, which inherently frustrates visitors. We routinely offer clients Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) sections, as well as user powered solutions areas, to help attendees self service themselves and reduce the amount of customer support required by the Trade Shows pubic relations staff. Make your Tradeshow Easy to Find Use Google Maps to give visitors custom directions to your event, parking, and placement of exhibits. Many tradeshows go a step further and offer directions to nearby hotels, airports, and important service areas for visitors and exhibitors. Benefit from Search Engine Placement Registering your website as a tradeshow website isn’t enough. Use a firm to assist you with increasing the amount of natural keywords that come up for your Trade Show on major search engines. It’s entirely analytical. You can derive an immediate return on investment based on performance and it can be implemented before a website redesign commences. Add A Countdown Clock Countdown clocks are a simple way of adding to the positive tension of when your next event will occur. We instinctively respond to countdowns and it’s a helpful to convert potential attendees, especially in the last 30 days of event registration. Highlight Prominent Exhibitors on your Event Page Showcase prominent exhibitors on your landing pages. This becomes not only a selling point to bring exhibitors to your website, but also gives you an additional billable service. If you deal with nationally recognizable brands, this will also boost your events credibility factor. Maintain an Active Blog A blog or news section on the event page will help engage visitors and allow you to update the website in a structured manner. Trade Show websites with blogs are also benefiting from better online rankings as Google will recognize and index new content. Trade Show Website Redesign |
