Not everyone who sees an exhibition ad will buy a visitor ticket. A marketing funnel for exhibitions is the tool that helps organizers picture and manage the process from the moment a stranger first hears about the event to when they actually walk through the registration door.
What a marketing funnel is
A marketing funnel is a visual that helps explain the process of turning potential customers (leads) into real customers, seen from the marketing (and sales) point of view. The core idea is that, like a funnel, marketers draw in a large number of leads at the top, then gradually nurture those prospects through the buying decision, narrowing the pool at each stage of the funnel.
Niche advertising for B2B exhibitions
Organizers of private (professional, B2B) trade shows usually use highly targeted niche advertising channels to promote their events, for example trade publications, newsletters, magazines and websites. Because these events aim only at visitors who have been screened in advance and must meet certain attendance criteria, mass advertising is almost never used. Instead, media channels whose audience matches the event's demographics are chosen.
Two orientations of an advertising message
An advertising message can focus on a marketing orientation or a public relations orientation. Marketing-oriented advertising drives sales and contains a call to action, asking viewers to decide to buy. PR-oriented advertising can focus on the image of the organization or product and doesn't necessarily contain a call to action.
Exhibition organizers usually use a range of promotion tactics to reach the target audience and increase visitor numbers and exhibitor participation, most commonly advertising across various media channels, public relations, communications, direct mail and digital marketing (e-marketing).
PR and marketing work together but have different goals
The public relations (PR) function in an organization can sit within the marketing department or be a separate department. Both marketing and PR use advertising as a tool for delivering messages, but for different reasons. PR's purposes can include developing relationships, monitoring and managing stakeholders, communications and promotional activity for the organization. The PR practitioner's focus is the organization's image in the eyes of key stakeholders, while marketing usually directs its attention to promoting products or services to a chosen audience. PR tends to be oriented toward longer-term goals, though there are sometimes PR efforts focused on short-term goals.
The risk of media you can't control
Creating positive attention is a common PR goal, because positive coverage has a unique advantage: the audience sees it as an objective view since a third party delivers it. While this can be very useful, event managers also need to understand that they have almost no control over how a third party will ultimately deliver the message, so there is still a risk the message will be conveyed negatively.
Fit the marketing funnel for exhibitions into the overall plan
Understanding the marketing funnel for exhibitions helps organizers allocate budget and messaging to the right stage: niche advertising and PR to create awareness at the top, more in-depth content to nurture in the middle, and a clear call to action at the bottom when the visitor is ready to register. Missing any one of these three layers, the funnel will leak and the conversion rate from lead to real attendee will be lower than expected.
Measure each layer of the funnel, not just total tickets sold
Many organizers track a single number, total registrations, and skip measuring each layer of the marketing funnel. In reality, the number of ad views, clicks to the registration page, people who start the form but abandon it, and people who complete registration are all separate indicators to track. If the drop between "started the form" and "completed registration" is unusually high, the problem most likely lies in the registration form itself (too long, asks for too much information) and not in the advertising content at the top of the funnel.
Which channels fit which layer of the funnel
Not every media channel suits every layer of the marketing funnel. Advertising in trade publications and on social media is usually most effective at the top of the funnel, where the goal is broad awareness. Email marketing and regular newsletters fit better in the middle, when you need to nurture people who know about the event but haven't decided. Personalized invitations and direct calls from the sales team are usually most effective at the bottom, when you need to close the registration decision from prospects who have shown clear interest.