Is Expo West Worth It?
As a social media agency, I love going to Expo West. It is something I look forward to all year. I’ve made great friends at Expo West and met some fantastic brands that have turned into clients and those clients have turned into lifelong friends.
The lecture series at Expo West is really enjoyable as well. Throughout the years, I’ve had the pleasure to hear some great brands and marketing experts speak about the natural products industry and got some great tips that I still use today.
But from a brand perspective, is Expo West worth it? This is a question I have been thinking about and asking brands I work with for over ten years. As we just missed Expo West and brands can sign up starting now for Expo West 2022, I want to challenge brands to really look closely at the cost and time they commit to Expo West.
When I think about all the resources (time, money, brainpower, and time spent away from the office), I question if Expo West is worth it for the average brand. A lot of these answers will depend on where the brand is in its lifecycle. Does the brand have a new product launching? Is it a start-up? Maybe you are looking for capital investment.
There are hundreds of well-established, well-distributed brands that go to Expo West with old, outdated websites and a minimal presence on social media.
Dear brand owners – Imagine you locked yourself in a room for five days, totally forgot about your day-to-day work, and buried yourself in product development. Imagine you took the thousands of dollars you just spent on a booth and instead invested in a state-of-the-art website.
Have you ever thought about attending Expo West and not having a booth? It’s really fun. You can go to some great parties and not have to worry about waking up early. You can enjoy the fantastic lectures, set up meetings with prospective buyers, and connect with your partners.
From speaking with industry veterans, and past and present clients, it seems like Expo West 2022 will be heavily attended. As an agency with many clients attending Expo West, our job is to make sure our clients capture any social and digital PR possible. Here are a few items to consider when setting up your social media gameplan for the show:
- Allocate a social media ad budget to garner attention.
- Consider targeting people in Anaheim during the show.
- Run ads to try and entice Expo West attendees to visit your booth
- Look to set up strategic partnerships with other like-minded brands before the show. Maybe you can host a joint party or breakfast? Perhaps you could do a joint social media giveaway or an Expo West scavenger hunt?
- Collect emails! At Socialike, we put immense value on email marketing. Before the show, have a game plan of how you will collect emails and how you plan to follow up with them after the show.
Expo West 2022 is coming – 11 months and counting!
