Are you looking to get the most out of your investment in Natural Products Expo West 2019? Here are some tips for utilizing digital marketing to make sure your online efforts maximize your presence at the show.

1. Review your story 

Review the “About Us" section of your website and make sure your story and messaging are consistent and easy to understand. This content is essential to potential influencers walking the show. Your PR team and new business team are also probably hard at work trying to set appointments. What angle are they using? Make sure there is an excellent piece of content with imagery on the site they can use to help back up their positioning. For example, if you are pitching that you have a natural product that you invented to help your munchkin, it helps a lot if there is a piece of content on the site that tells that story.

2. Are you easy to find and evaluate online?

Create a landing page or blog post that details where your booth is located at Expo West and how people can get a hold of you. You'll need this when promoting anything digitally. Also, ensure you have links to your top social profiles in your header so that influencers and buyers can quickly navigate to those profiles at the show. Review your banner art on social media and make sure your imagery isn't pixelated and your messaging and product shots are up-to-date.

3. Communicate with your email list

Email your subscribers letting them know that you are going to be at Expo West, especially if you have an email list for influencers, wholesalers or retail customers. Don't forget to include your booth number and a link to the landing page you set up with your details!

4. Does your brand look relevant and engaging?

Starting a few weeks out, put out some engagement-driven content (think quotes about living naturally, not product discounts) and boost them on Facebook (even just $50 a post). This way, when buyers and influencers are checking you out at the show, you have higher engagement and better metrics on recent social media posts.

Need inspiration? Check out Expo West's Instagram Feed.

5. Prep your social strategy ahead of time

Social media engagement and conversations are prominent components of Expo West, and it is a good idea to get your strategy pulled together ahead of time. Also, you likely won't need much of a posting strategy (most consumer brands don't want to fill up their Facebook feed with business-to-business trade shows), but you will need an active engagement strategy.

6. Engage people before, during and after the show via digital 

Digital marketing is a great way to keep the momentum going after great in-person interactions at the expo. On social media, discover, engage and follow users planning on attending the event—key influencers and members of the press are great to add to this list. Also, collect and hold onto email addresses, so that you can send out post-event communications.

7. Prep your photo and video “shot list."

Nothing is more challenging the week after a show when you want to create an email blast and realize no one got a picture of the trade show booth. Just like you would for a product shoot, have your desired "shot" list put together ahead of time. Some good standard ones to get are of the booth (both by itself and with a crowd), your team at the show, your team in action and your swag. Extra credit if you can grab some video content as well!

I wish you great luck at the show and look forward to either meet you in person or watching you rock it at Expo West through your digital marketing!

Natalie Henley is the CEO of Volume Nine, one of Denver, Colorado's most prominent digital marketing agencies, helping brands connect to the audience through creative content marketing strategies.