Blog Post: The Jobing.com Career Expo- The trade show for employment; how great are you at branding your company?

The Jobing.com Career Expo is the largest employment trade show in the area. We encourage exhibiting employers to work with their marketing departments in order to generate as much traffic as possible, just as they would at a sales expo.

Job seekers are your target audience, so how are you attracting them to come and see you?

I found a great article on small company trade show branding. These tips can be directly applied to the Jobing.com Career Expo. Make them work for you!

From Steve Woodruff (http://www.smallbusinessbranding.com/749/branding-at-a-trade-show/)

"1. Make your booth presentation simple and uncluttered. People are drifting past, making decisions in seconds about whether your booth is worth stopping at. A graphically appealing, open, and readily understood booth presentation will tend to draw people forward. A cluttered, boxed-in look, without any clear message about who you are and what you offer, will guarantee lots of walk-bys.

2. Concentrate on one message in the (visual) booth presentation. Tell who you are and what you do - one thing! - in the booth wording and graphic(s). Many companies fall into the trap of creating panels that are essentially static PowerPoint slides - bullet points of everything they do. Remember - you are trying to grab attention in seconds, not provide a written sales pitch. Save the additional words for when someone actually stops.

3. Concentrate on one message in what you say. People will be inundated with multiple messages from dozens of companies during a very compressed time frame. Unless your message is simple, memorable, and focused, you'll be easily forgotten. And be sure to have several memorable client stories to tell - this will fasten the message in the mind of the attendee. If you don't know how to accomplish this, work with a marketing consultant who can help you; or, at the very least, read Chip and Dan Heath's book, Made to Stick.

4. If you're going to promote yourself through some sort of giveaway, make it small, and hard to throw away. Small, because attendees often have little room in their luggage (or trade show bag) for big/heavy items. And you want to multiply your brand exposure by putting your logo and/or message on something with a long shelf life. Branded candies, or large cans of popcorn, do not fall into this category! Tile coasters, memory sticks, business card holders, and other such valuable items are better candidates.

5. Above all, differentiate! You are competing for limited time and memory space. Unique colors, striking message delivery methods, booth uniforms, & cool business cards - all of these are helpful. But the most compelling differentiators is sincere caring, genuine listening, and steady eye contact. Be real, and have real people in your booth. That will end up drawing the most traffic, and getting the best long-term results. Because ultimately, that is what creates valuable business relationships."

Did you know that Jobing.com offers unique branding and traffic building opportunities for our employers at the event? Not only can employer get logo recognition on our entrance unit, event program and website, you can have your most important opening advertised all around the expo on giant wall maps, in email blasts, have a trail of stickers walking job seekers to your booth, etc.

Give us a call and ask how we can get you the qualified candidates you need with minimal effort. I am here to help!