Looking for some FREE and EFFECTIVE resources to help you reach your marketing goals? Look no further! We’ve compiled a list of websites and helps aimed at assisting anyone with  business objectives, a tight budget, and plenty of focus. To help maximize your trade show ROI and surpass your event planning benchmarks, read on!

Event Calendars

To help you get your schedule hammered out for the annual trade show schedule, use an online calendar such as Skyline Exhibitor Source’s own Trade Show Selector Tool. Many other associations also offer industry-specific options, as well. Such tools offer a compendium of events of all sizes and specialties.

Marketing Templates

Marketing template generators are just one of the many useful and absolutely free tools offered by inbound marketing geniuses at HubSpot. Skyline also has some free trade show templates available at Skyline. These templates will streamline your budget, social media calendars and email communications to make your marketing endeavors smoother.

Custom Timeline Generator

In the busy world of trade show marketing, the best way to predict future success is to plan in the present. That means having a good timeline that helps guide you step-by-step from today to the trade show floor. Take a look a free Custom Timeline Generator from Skyline Exhibitor Source.  A couple minutes of time can save you immense amounts of time and costly mistakes down the road.

Social Media Management

Of course, social media is ALWAYS at the hub of your marketing ventures. We all love to be wooed by visually appealing social posts and we know they generate more engagement when we utilize them; the only downside is that they can be time consuming to imagine and create. Pablo’s free software makes this process easier. With more than 600,000 images and two dozen fonts, you’ll never be lacking for a fresh new look when you’re creating social media graphics.

Books, Magazines, and White Papers

Don’t underestimate the value of the old-school pen & paper resources, even if they’re digital now! Skyline has a free archive of white papers, workbooks, magazines and eBooks. This 100% free resource contains invaluable advice on every topic you might need information on concerning trade shows -- from booth staffing to social media marketing – freeing you up to make the most of your exhibit hall location and investment.

Glossary of Trade Show Terms

Perplexed by trade show jargon? Confused about industry terms? The Exhibit Services and Contractors Association maintains this glossary which is a compendium of phrases and acronyms commonly used in the world of marketing.

Email Marketing

Do you wish you had a simple way to reach your target audience and meet their needs? MailChimp makes it easy to find your audience, engage with your customers, and build your brand through automated marketing tools. And if you’re relatively new to email marketing and have yet to establish a client data base or email list, this is going to save you a TON of time. (And money, too!).

Website Optimization

Maybe you’re nailing your email marketing, but you need some help with your website – finding and removing dead links, fishing out design flaws, tracking traffic. Hotjar, a website analytics tool, can trace the traffic of your website visitors, providing helpful feedback  about the “who, when, what, and why” concerning people surfing your site. Like most software programs, it comes with a risk-free, 30-day trial.

LinkedIn Trade Show Discussion Groups

Since we’re all on LinkedIn anyway, why not try out one of the 200+ trade show discussion groups buzzing around there? Not only are these groups a great way to stay in the know minute by minute, they are a fantastic opportunity to network with and learn from your peers. Among the highlights are the Trade Show Marketing Group. Created by Scott Young to help managers and exhibitors maximize the exposure and business opportunities created by events and trade shows, the Trade Show Marketing Group is a valuable asset. While LinkedIn isn’t completely free at every level, they do have tiered memberships that you can choose from based on your professional needs.

Time Tracking at Trade Shows

Here’s a gem of a hack! If you’ve ever wished you had a time manager to keep you on task and push you a little further, stop right here.  TSheets is a free time-tracking tool for you to use at an actual event. It helps marketers properly budget time and increase productivity. It even has built-in mobile and GPS capabilities for tracking time when you’re tending to your exhibit. If you’re less digital and more of a spreadsheet guru, Skyline can also help you plan your trade show timeline with this spreadsheet.

Trade Show Webinars

Last but not least, Skyline’s free webinars and seminars are an opportune place to learn from industry experts. Whether you need help mastering digital marketing or understanding industry regulations or anything in between, Skyline has help and info that’s just a click away.

Attract Decision Makers to Your Exhibit Through Design, Strategy, Marketing, Information and Technology!

 

This article was inspired by "10 Free Trade Show Marketing Resources" by Amy Armstrong, and first appeared at www.skyline-etips.com/