Exhibition announcements
Writing news about exhibiting at trade shows.
Industry events can create a great deal of buzz, not just when they take place but also in the run up to them and afterwards. They offer one of the outstanding opportunities to promote what you do and the press release is a cornerstone of the communications needed.
Yet, news about trade shows can sometimes melt into the background if it's not unique and newsworthy. There are likely many other exhibitors issuing news about their activities; potentially hundreds of announcements for visitors and the wider market to deal with.
First, the number one ‘don’t’:
My Company to exhibit at ACME Trade Show
My Company is delighted to announce it will be exhibiting at the ACME Trade Show on March 4-5 at booth number 262.
Alongside dozens of other trade show announcements, this announcement is no more newsworthy than:
Man gets on bus
Man is delighted to announce he will be boarding the number 9 bus.
The heart of the story is missing.
PR professionals should first identify the heart of their story: what is it about what is happening that makes it interesting? For example, what is the impact of what is happening, not just what is happening. Trade show announcements should offer much more than just that ‘a company is exhibiting’.
And ‘being delighted’? It’s inward looking and it isn’t newsworthy. The best publicity looks outwards.
The number one ‘do’:
Pick one main theme, such as a new product announcement, an innovation, a thought-leadership position, a research study, a speaker slot or presentation, support for a good cause. In almost all cases, the real interest will be in what you are doing at the event and what that means to people.
My Company to launch XYZ at ACME Trade Show
My Company CEO to argue for XYZ at ACME Trade Show
Next, the headline should work together with the synopsis to deliver the key facts about what you are doing at the event, who it’s for and how they will benefit. For example, taking one of the headlines above:
My Company CEO to argue for XYZ at ACME Trade Show
Joe Bloggs of My Company will explain at ACME Trade Show why investments in XYZ can help rocket scientists develop faster spaceships.
One main theme
It’s likely that you will have many things going on at a trade show - launching products, speaking at the conference, supporting a charity, etc. Don't be tempted to cover them all with a catch-all headline. This can lose impact. It’s better to focus the announcement on one main theme and either cover the other activities later on in the announcement or issue separate announcements about those which are newsworthy in their own right.
Q. I’m doing a presentation, should I include its date and time in my announcement?
A. These are obviously important pieces of information, but they are not part of the announcement’s ‘news value’. So include them in the main body at the end and not in the headline or synopsis.
Q. Should I include my stand number?
A. This is relevant information to include in a news announcement, but it has zero news value, especially outside of the event and should not be included in the headline and synopsis. A good place to include the stand number is in a notes section at the end of the news story.
Q. Should I include details about the trade show, its venue, date and other facts?
A. Yes, ideally in a notes section at the end and not within the headline or synopsis. Your announcement should focus on what you are announcing.
Include keywords and optimise the release for SEO
A news announcement is a powerful way to assimilate not only the main keywords for your company or product, but also wider keywords associated with your announcement's topic - such as a particular industry sector, a particular customer or topical industry news.
Don't reuse non-news pages from your web site
A press release is a topical, news announcement. Of course we all know it's a piece of publicity as well, but it will only create publicity if it's a newsworthy announcement. News should be unique: if it already exists elsewhere on your web site it isn't.
Write in the third person
Go to any news web site or news publication and try to find a piece of news that isn't written in the third person. Writing publicity material in the third person can be a challenge for those not familiar with journalism or public relations. Sales material, and articles like this one, are of course often written in the first and second person, whereas news material only exists in the third person. A good way to approach writing a news announcement is to imagine that you are a reporter reporting on the situation and the 'third person' usually comes naturally. Avoid words like 'I', 'my', 'our', 'we', 'you', 'your', and instead refer to 'company names', 'market sector names' and 'job roles' and use the 'its' and 'their' pronouns.
For example, don't say: "We are attending the ACME Trade show where you can see our product launch."
This first and second person language is fine on your own website, your own social media pages and other channels that you own, but it is meaningless on a third party news site, because people don't know who 'we', 'our' and 'you' are.
Here's the same sentence written in the third person: "XYZ Company is attending the ACME Trade Show where L&D professionals will see its product launch."
Q. Why don't news stories have exclamation marks/points?
News contains facts. Exclamation marks/points exist to enhance and facts should not be enhanced. If an author feels the need to use an exclamation mark/point in a news announcement it is likely the story is weak and, shouting louder by exclaiming, will simply switch readers off a weak story even quicker. Exclamation marks/points don't exist in news.