One major distinguishing benefit of our events is that each one attracts a specific target audience. For example, we produce two shows a year for the baby boomer generation (50+ PrimeTime Living Expos). We’ve got a shopping show just for women (Girlfriends Expo & Getaway), one for homeowners wishing to remodel or redecorate (the Mid-America Remodeling & Design Expo), and another for healthy choosers (the Body Mind Life Expo).

When we examine the attendee demographics after each show, the overwhelming majority of people who walked through our doors are part of our intended target market. The benefits to our show sponsors and exhibitors are obvious: they know ahead of time that most of the attendees will fall within specific demographics.

To make this happen consistently for 12 years, we’ve had to be very good at target marketing.

Target marketing is when you focus your promotional campaign on a specific market segment. It might be all people within a certain geographic region, people within certain age groups, or people who share a common interest.

Creating a target marketing campaign for your events

To create an effective target marketing event, be smart about where you reach you reach your audience and what you say to them once you have their attention. You should have a good idea of what will cause them to sit up and take notice, and what will make them want to make plans to attend your event. Reach them on intellectual and emotional levels.

Here are just a few of the components we use when promoting our targeted expos:

• We customize our messaging for the media. While it may be tempting to promote the show as having something for everyone in an effort to increase foot traffic, that tactic can easily backfire. While we want people to enjoy themselves at our events, we don’t want them walking through our doors simply because they were bored and looking for something to do with the kids. By carefully crafting messages that hit home with our target audiences, we stand a better chance of attracting people who are seriously looking the type of for products and services that our exhibitors will be selling.

• We include targeted media in our publicity campaign. While placing media stories in major TV and radio stations, and in major newspapers is valuable, we also realize the importance of finding special interest media targeting the same audience as our expo.

• We support the events on the Internet. Our expo websites and social media pages are created to speak directly to members of the target market.

• We have marketing tools in place for our event participants to use. We make it easy for exhibitors and sponsors to attract their own sales prospects to the show, and to draw the attention of new prospects through our promotional channels.

Results speak for themselves

Here are some highlights demonstrating how effective these tactics can be:

• 85% of 2011 Body Mind Life Expo attendees told us that they buy organic and/or eco-friendly brands.

• 58% came to the Body Mind Life Expo to find new ways to get physically fit.

• 97% of our Fall 2011 50+ PrimeTime Living Expo attendees were age 50+.

• 73% of attendees at the 2011 Girlfriends Expo & Getaway made a purchase.

Kocina Branding & Marketing Companies specializes in targeted marketing campaigns. With our expos, it’s particularly fun to see all of the results come together in during each two-day event.