7 top tips to get the most out of exhibiting at digital health events
In-person health trade shows are a great way of networking with potential prospects and boosting company awareness. Whether you’re well established in the field, or a health tech start-up looking to grow your digital health business it can be a fruitful way of marketing your business.
So how can you make sure you’re creating momentum, getting people to your stand and making the most of the opportunity?
We’ve curated some of our top event PR and marketing tips to help you guarantee your success at any digital health trade show.
1. Perfect your pitch
Whether your aim is to raise brand awareness, build client relationships or generate leads it’s really important that you perfect your pitch. This will help you to articulate your offering in a concise way that makes you stand out from the competition.
Conduct research or a messaging workshop in advance of the event to ensure you know your customer personas. This will help you to ensure your pitch is relevant to each person who comes to your stand.
Try to come up with a tagline or key phrase. This will help you to hone in on the most important features you want to relay to any prospects you meet during the event. Make sure the colleagues on the stand are able to speak passionately about what you do and your message is consistent across the team. Ideally, have one of your customers at the stand who can speak first-hand about their experiences of working with you.
2. Announce you’re going to the event online
Once you have a pitch ready, it’s time to create buzz for the event online. Tell your customers you’re going to be there and maximise the opportunity to meet with them.
Use your own website to promote the digital health event. Consider having an event microsite or landing page so you can schedule meetings ahead of the event. Get in touch with media sources and the event organisers to see if they can promote your activity too.
Create social media content specifically tailored towards the digital health event and add any links, hashtags and images exclusive to the show. Be sure to promote your presence using key words such as NHS, digital health and health tech to draw appropriate audiences to your exhibit. Start looking at who else is using the hashtag and engage with them in advance of the show.
If you have an email newsletter, let your subscribers know about the event or try to piggy back on a partner newsletter. This can help attract customers – just make sure the email subject line is concise and eye catching in order to grab their attention!
3. Produce a press release to maximise exposure
To encourage the highest possible footfall to your stand, engage the press and make sure you’re getting media coverage from a range of digital health publications pre, during and after the event.
If you have a large announcement, this would be a great time to showcase this. Even if this isn’t the case, there are plenty of announcements worth publicising through the digital health trade media. Some ideas could include: health IT awards or key milestones, company growth or partnerships, product launches, demos at your stand or announcing a new campaign.
Make sure that your press release is relevant to the media sources you contact and will engage their readership. You could even drop a copy into the press office at the event or have it included in their virtual press pack or newsletter.
For media coverage during the event, try and schedule interviews and appointments with journalists prior to the show, giving them access to new company announcements and interviews. This will help garner media interest for your stand and ensure that you get coverage to raise brand awareness.
4. Use marketing to attract customers to your stand on the day
Once the event is live, it’s time to attract customers to your stand. Make sure you have promotional material to encourage people to stop by and talk to you – especially case studies. Make it specific to your market, whether it’s leaders of ICSs or NHS providers, policy makers, pharma or health tech.
You could include something as simple as a free giveaway or to make things more exciting, host live interviews, surgeries or competitions to encourage people to see what your company is all about!
5. Arrange appointments in advance and have a plan for capturing leads
Try to have a plan in pace to record specific details from any leads that come your way during the event. Do this by preparing your exhibition stand staff to handle any enquires from the media or prospects.
Most importantly, make sure that you follow up with anyone who was interested in your company at the exhibition. The real success of the show can only be seen once all your leads have been followed up with and you can accurately determine awareness and ROI. Use this follow-up opportunity to build a relationship and personalise your communication. You could do this by mentioing any relevant blogs, case studies or articles to show that you understand their challenges. Don’t forget to thank any media that came to your stand to maintain a relationship with these outlets for future brand announcements.
6. Attend conference sessions
Attending the sessions at any health tech event is a unique opportunity to hear first-hand about what’s going on in the digital health sector. It will also give you points for discussion with prospects back at your stand. Use this opportunity to meet some of the speakers at the end of their speech too which will give you an insight on their take on key digital health topics.
7. Network with others
Health tech trade shows are a great place to meet individuals within the industry, create relationships with other brands and media contacts, as well as find potential clients. Make sure you take time during the show to network and get to know those working in digital health around you. This can be invaluable in building relationships which will benefit your brand for years to come, whether it be a partnership, acquisition or just a familiar face.
If you keep all these points in mind when preparing for any exhibition, we’re certain you will be able to make the most of it. The impact of PR and marketing before and during health technology trade shows is often overlooked but, when used effectively, they are crucial to help your brand grow and establish their place within the industry.
Our team of PR, social, digital marketing and creative specialists can help your company make the most of any trade show. If you’re exhibiting at a digital health event this year and want to boost your PR and marketing, get in touch to find out how Silver Buck can help you.
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