LinkedIn is currently the fastest growing professional social network in the world, with over 500,000,000 members at the time of the construction of this post. Additionally, new members sign up to use the site at a mind boggling two per second. With those impressive statistics, and the high rates of conversion that LinkedIn advertising gets, it would be downright silly not to incorporate LinkedIn marketing into your trade show checklist.

Targeted LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn ads have some of the best targeting available that any trade show budget can buy. With LinkedIn ads, you can target by age, gender, location, industry, job title, and more. If you want women in their mid-thirties who work as physical therapists and are within range of your trade show display, that’s something LinkedIn can make happen for you. LinkedIn ads can also be sent straight to the mail box of your target audience, virtually guaranteeing that they will see what you have to offer.

Sponsored Content Marketing

There are LinkedIn members in just about every industry that have HUGE followings. For example, Dr. Travis Bradbury is a renowned expert on emotional intelligence who has 1,840,131 followers. The most recent post that he shared at the time of writing this blog got 10,412 likes and 217 comments.

As a thought exercise, let’s say that your company makes aromatherapy steam diffusers that are being shown at a health and wellness trade show in a few months. You could hire a freelance writer to get a great article together on aromatherapy and how it heightens emotional intelligence (being sure to discuss the trade show in the article). Then, work out some kind of agreement with Dr. Bradbury on his sharing said post. This gets your trade show, product, and company in front of 1,840,131 new eyes.

LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn groups that are run well and have great, actively engaged members can be an amazing source of free advertising. Simply join the group and engage a bit with other users/posts to establish your name there. Then, share your event/link/article/company website, and watch your conversions soar. Additionally, creating a LinkedIn group for your company is a great place to keep team members and engaged customers in the loop on your trade show happenings (and any other products/events you have to share).

RSVP on LinkedIn Events

Be sure that everyone working at your company who will be attending the trade show in question RSVP’s to the trade show you have a booth at, if it’s on LinkedIn events. This will appear in the activity feed of everyone they have in their network, getting eyes on your trade show without costing a dime. Those RSVP lists are also great places to connect with potential customers before the show.