Top 5 Mistakes Trade Show Websites Make

April 30, 2010 | by Tracy Betts | Posted in Web Trends

We have worked hard this year to send employees to key industry trade shows in order to connect with our customers and keep up on the latest industry trends.

As we have prepared to attend ASAE, NTEN, DrupalCon and PRSA conferences, I am extra cognizant of the challenges that face trade show marketing executives and CEOs.

Our work supporting some of the largest trade shows in the world has taught me a thing or two about what makes an effective trade show website. The list of "do's" is a mile long. 

I've restrained myself and limited the list of "don'ts" to five, please feel free to add to this list!

Top 5 Mistakes of Trade Show Websites:

1. Inflexible Design

We've seen it happen time and again. A beautiful homepage design is created at the launch of the website. It usually features a cool video from last year's show, sponsor recognition, and the all-important register now button. Efforts to reach out to and communicate with exhibitors begin. Everyone is happy.

...and then it's time to push for early attendee registration. The marketing director wants to add a widget from the vendor that connects attendees to exhibitors. Alas - there is no room for the widget on the home page so we do the best we can to fit in in anyway. Things are looking a bit tight.

...and then the CEO decides that we are co-locating with three other shows that all need a presence on the homepage. We can't take any sponsors away. The widget previously mentioned isn't budging. The additional logos find a home but that beautiful design is now gone. As is the usability of the website.

The Lesson: Make sure your designer understands that a tradeshow website is a living entity that will change early and often. The design needs to be extremely flexible and easy to change. Even professional web development firms may be surprised at the constant change a trade show design endures compared to their other clients.

2. Not planning for all phases of your show

Your website strategy document should account for all of the phases of your webshow. At the minimum the document should address:

• Pre show (attendee, sponsor, and exhibitor phases)
• During show
• Post show

The document should outline key marketing and PR initiatives and how the website will support them. It should describe what information is added to the website on which date. Attendee registration opens on May 1 - how does this change the look of your homepage? Are the calls to action different? 

Too many times we approach the end of the show and the post show website as an afterthought. This is such a missed opportunity! Trade shows should be supplying those who attended with materials to download. This same information should be available to those that could not attend - give them a taste of what they missed so that they are more compelled to attend next year!

The Lesson:  A website strategy document that takes into account every phase of your trade show is crucial to a successful site.

3. Hiding your PR and marketing plan from your web firm

A reputable web firm will usually ask to see this at some point. If they don't see your marketing and pr plan, how are they going to avoid mistakes #1 and #2? 

The Lesson: Sharing is good.

4. Your main call to action is "Register Now"

Of course you need a call to action. Of course one of those actions is "register" for our event. But do your emails and other promotions driving people to the website give users a credible reason for registering? Go deep. Go really deep. Why should I register now? Is there something at the show that addresses my current challenges? Who else will I be able to connect with?

The Lesson: Even "Register Now" should have a compelling story that supports it. Don't let this call to action rest on it's laurels.

5.  Believing that one firm can "offer you a website too!"

I am bitter. I admit it. We work really hard at doing one thing really really well at Balance Interactive. We are not a company that gets distracted by shiny objects. Trade shows, in particular, are susceptible to other vendors that claim they design websites too. Usually it's a vendor that has some sort of online tool that works really well and that vendor truly believes it makes more sense to add the web design portion on to the contract.

This ends in one of two ways:

1) The vendor tries to use existing programmers from their online product to create the website. There is little concern for usability, content, or strategy. Your users suffer.

2) The vendor realizes that your expectations for your website (see mistakes 1-4 above) outweigh their budget. The relationship with a good vendor suffers as your website suffers.

The Lesson: Use vendors that are experts in what they do and facilitate communication between them. No single firm will be able to fill all of your needs - especially if it is a larger trade show.

So that's it: Top 5 Mistakes of Trade Show Websites according to Tracy.  What am I missing? I'd love to hear from you.