Tell your story instead of give a pitch.

 

I love a good story… but hate being given the hard sell. Anyone who has children knows that the bedtime routine can be an ordeal. Saying “It’s time for a story!” works much better than “Get into bed so you have enough sleep!”. Even though you’re bigger, you still enjoy a story much more than being told what to do. Your customers are the same, think about telling them a story instead of telling them to buy your product and you will have a much more positive result.

 

Consumers are more savvy to marketing tactics than ever before. They record TV shows and fast-forward through commercials to get to the story faster. Ads have become so prolific now that we have simply learned to tune them out. Stories, good and bad still get through the background noise and get people talking.

How Can Your Exhibition Marketing Tell A Story?

 

Think of it this way. Most television ads pitch something to you: “Buy our perfume because it smells beautiful! Try our soft drink because it tastes great!, “Buy this car because its cool!”

All they want is for you to spend money on their product. Now image the television commercial didn’t hard sell to you, but instead, told a story and allowed the viewer to make an emotional connection.

 

Applying the approach to exhibition marketing means involving the customer in the story and therefore emotionally vesting them in your product. Talk about how your product came to be, how its made and the stories of people who made it. You can tell story with words and picture, or even make a small documentary. Customers will feel more informed with the knowledge they get from story telling, and it just might be the reason behind why your exhibition marketing starts to work better.

Including Storytelling Into Your Marketing

 

There are many ways you can begin to implement storytelling into your trade show marketing. One of the first places you should begin is to consider your display. Is telling a story about brand/product/company or just kind of sitting there? 

 

Use your display space to talk about your company history, the process of developing your products, a respected employees story and how much they love working for you. Another great way to do this is through a slide show, or highlight video clips of your company, even a short documentary showing within an audio visual space within your display.

 

Storytelling within marketing works well only if the information is relevant to your audience. Done right however, the results can be extremely positive.