Competition is fierce for business. From consumers with less disposable income to companies operating with much smaller budgets, marketing and sales departments put in the extra work to increase sales and ultimately the company’s bottom line in more creative ways.

If your company is paying the money for the space rental, the purchase of the trade show display and related sales collateral, along with paying for travel, accommodations and more, they should be spending the time to promote their trade show marketing event on their blog. It’s a cost-effective way to extend the life of your trade show marketing.

I’ve got three tips to help your company start using their blog to build some buzz for your next trade show event.

Bring Your Camera

Take pictures or videos at your trade show booth. Visuals are a powerful part of your company’s marketing message. People are likely to be drawn into reading your blog article with a high quality photograph. Whether it’s a shot of your trade show booth, a winner of a contest your company has running, the more pictures taken, more chances your company has to share what’s happening at the trade show.

Write Fresh Content

Don’t wait until the trade show is over to write the article. Write while the experience in the company trade show booth is still fresh. As part of the process of breaking down a trade show after it’s over, staff should be writing up a short review of the day’s events, any exciting announcements, winners of your contest (you did take their picture didn’t you?) should be included in any blog article.

Pssst ... Don’t forget the basics of blogging: write to your audience for what the audience wants and needs, answer their questions. Don’t write for the search engines.

Use Social Media

Every business should have a Facebook and Twitter account at the very least. Hopefully your company also has a Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram, Google+ account to keep your message, products/services and brand in front of people.

For example, you can write an article on your blog sharing the news of a create Facebook only event where people tag themselves in one of your photos, or share one of their own at your trade show booth and offer them something for free. Remember those pictures you’ve been taking? They can be uploaded to Instagram or Twitter with your trade show hashtag and posted in an article. You can host an Instagram contest for attendees who are sharing pictures at your booth with a special hashtag. Make it a contest. There are a number of effective ways to use social media to market your trade show.

With the results of your social media work, you are then able to craft an article that draws people in with pictures, tweets and comments from the social media channels.

There are definitely more ways than these that your business can use the company’s blog to boost your online presence. What ways are you and your company using your blog to drive traffic?