I sat down with a long-time colleague to be interviewed this week and to prepare I put a list together of the 5 must-do’s for successful tradeshow marketing. We didn’t go over the whole list because the conversation took its own path. But I thought – hey, it’s a good list! Here it is:
Have an exhibit that draws people in.
We could go into this in detail, but your
graphics and messaging should clearly tell people at a glance:
Who
you are
What
you do
What
problem you solve for them
Have a goal. Share that goal with your staff.
Brand awareness
Sales
Generate leads
Add distributors
Reach new markets
Launch new products or services
Find new hires
Meet current customers, partners and
distributors
Have a well-trained staff
Your staff should know how to greet people
Your staff should know the products or services
Know how to gather the proper information for a
good lead…which leads to…
Know what a lead is…
A lead is NOT a card in a fishbowl
A lead is someone who qualifies
They’re
looking to buy what you’re selling
They
have a budget
They
know when they’re going to buy
They
have the power to make a decision
Once a lead is qualified, the follow up is
critical
Follow-up:
Gather the right information
Name
and contact
When
is the follow up
Where
is the follow up
Who
is doing the follow up
What
is the follow up: sending a brochure, sample, in-person meeting?
We did get to a few of these, and they were good talking points throughout the conversation. One she produces the interview and gives me a link, I’ll make sure to include it in a blog post soon!
Webster’s defines “ruckus” as “a disturbance or a commotion.”
A disturbance can be good or bad, depending on your viewpoint and the circumstances. The word “disturbance” is non-judgmental. “Commotion” is the same. It’s not necessarily inherently good or bad; positive or negative.
But you can insert your judgment into your ruckus, into the
disturbance or commotion you make.
Nick Woodman at Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 2009
At tradeshows, GoPro’s Nick Woodman used to famously create
a commotion by standing on a table, hooting and hollering, gathering people
around, showing off the GoPro camera and give away prizes. The company’s market
cap zoomed to almost ten billion dollars before coming down to earth. Along the
way GoPro created a new category in the digital camera world. Now that’s a ruckus.
That’s one way to shake it up.
Meduri Farms decided to invest in a new island exhibit and
double the size of their footprint at the International Food Technicians Show.
Their first time with the new exhibit they tripled their leads. That’s another
way to shake it up.
Meduri Farms at IFT 2017
Dave’s Killer Bread dedicated much of their branding space
at 2019’s Natural Products Expo West exhibit to the idea of giving felons a second
chance. That’s yet another way to shake it up.
Dave’s Killer Bread at Natural Products Expo West 2019
There are plenty of ways to use your tradeshow space to
shake it up, to make a ruckus, to cause a disturbance or commotion for a good
cause. Or to double your leads. Or to grow a company.
If you’ve attended the same tradeshows over the years, no
doubt you’ve seen an interesting phenomenon: some companies attend for years
and then just stop.
Why? What caused them to disappear?
Certainly, there are a thousand answers to that question,
and much of those answers likely have a lot to do with internal dynamics as
much as the show itself.
But I’ve seen it happen frequently.
I’ve worked with some companies that have exhibited at the
same show for years, only to decide after seven or eight appearances that they
weren’t going to get anything useful out of another appearance.
Why’d you stop going? I’ve asked that question and received
a variety of answers:
“We’ve pretty much maxed out our ability to get new distributors, which is why we exhibited at that show. Our focus is on working with those retailers one on one to get more focused on giving them better products based on what their customers want.”
“The show moved a couple of weeks. Meaning it fell into a different fiscal year. And once the new company owners saw how much their tradeshow budget would be increasing for the fiscal year, they got to looking closer at all the marketing. We’ve decided to pull back and re-examine our entire marketing strategy.” This company did return to the show a couple of years later.
“We kept getting lousy locations which we couldn’t overcome. We put our marketing dollars elsewhere.” In this case, we wondered if they couldn’t have done better to market their appearance in spite of the bad location. It’s been done.”
“Our company has matured to the point that this particular show no longer works for us.”
And so on. There are a thousand reasons to continue
exhibiting at a show. And as many to decide not to exhibit again, or at least
for a couple of years.
Tradeshow marketing is expensive. For companies that are
investing in this marketing channel, it behooves them to make sure the dollars
are well-spent. And one of the questions that should be asked is: should we
really be at that show this year?
I first crossed paths with David Meerman Scott over a dozen years ago. Since then he’s written several books and been a keynote speaker at countless conferences, discussing the changing world of marketing and public relations. On this week’s TradeshowGuy Monday Morning Coffee, David joins me to talk about his just-released book, Fanocracy, co-written with his daughter Reiko Scott.
This week’s ONE GOOD THING. Actually, four of them!
These days, business owners spend a lot of their time on the internet. Many do not have actual space for office and spend their time looking for digital marketing strategies and making digital products. You might feel like you are working in a void when you run an online store, even if the work is very rewarding. You may not ever talk to colleagues or even your consumers besides over the phone and through email. Does this imply that face to face marketing has no place in e-commerce marketing?
The
answer is: no, it is not so. In fact, digital business owners can profit from face to face marketing as much as a
business owner with a physical store can.
What is Face-to-Face Marketing and Why Does It
Matter?
Face-to-face
marketing applies to any situation where you sell your business to a group or
an individual. You get to look at your customers in the eye as you offer your
angle or connect with them on an individual level. For example, you may meet
someone at a grocery store. They may ask what you do and you say that you
create online photography classes for enthusiastic.
The
conversation might change at this point. However, if the other person is into
photography, they may ask questions about your online class. You can offer your
website address or business card where that individual could discover more
about your class. This is an instance of spontaneous face to face marketing. You get benefits of this opportunity to let
them know about your store and the products you sell online.
So,
how does face to face marketing matter?
Think back to the time you last went to a retail store. You were unsure what
you were looking for but you had a basic idea. You may experience more frequently
when you buy electronics. They may know they have come here to buy a tablet,
for example, but they don’t know what features will be most beneficial to them.
In a brick-and-mortar store, you are checking the collection out, perusing the
details of every product, and the price tag also. Eventually, a store
representative shows up, asking if you need help.
You
accept their offer gratefully and they explain what the tablet is all about and
if it meets your demands. The representative might also suggest a few other
models that could be suitable for you. You are grateful for their help and it
helps you choose, and thus, more prone to buy that tablet right away.
Why
does this happen? It is because a personal connection was established between
you two. Maybe they shared a joke with you and answered all your questions. All
of these things are face to face
communication advantages. It just does not always have to happen in a
physical store. Therefore, face-to-face marketing matters because it’s a
totally diverse experience from digital marketing. You can meet prospects who
otherwise would not have known about your online business, and you can address
issues and pain points to boost the chances of a sale.
Now,
let us look at some of the benefits of face-to-face marketing.
Benefits of Face-to-Face Marketing
Here
are some of the benefits of face to face
marketing.
Produce
Better ROI
Imagine
you visit a restaurant for the first time and the food and wait staff impress
you so much that when a friend later asks your recommendation for a restaurant,
this one immediately comes to your mind. You recommend this restaurant because
of the awesome experience you had. This is called word-of-mouth marketing. When
someone likes a particular product or service, they are likely to tell everyone
they know about it.
A
similar concept works for face-to-face marketing for your online business. When
you meet people, you can create an experience that leaves a positive impact on
them. After the person becomes a consumer, you deliver an amazing digital
product that meets their requirements. Then, awed by your service, they will
talk about your product to other people.
Event
Causes Your Audience to Come You
You
probably already know that online marketing becomes more challenging over time.
It’s not a waste of time surely, but online business owners are finding it more
difficult to find audiences organically. Face-to-face marketing takes away the
scalability aspect that affects several small businesses. Events can bring you
more customers directly than just waiting for customers to find you through
customer referrals, search engines, and social media.
We
can take the example of our photographer again. They can attend a convention or
show for photographers. When they put themselves in those events, they expose
themselves to many potential customers.
Build
Credibility and Relationships
Relationships
are what make up a business. The best business owners know that generating
relationships with their customers and prospects can enhance customer
acquisition and retention. You can consider your own relationship with your
local business. You may have been going to the same bakery for the last ten
years and you can’t even think about going anywhere else because you’re very
satisfied with their products and service. Developing similar relationships
with customers online is possible.
Make
Yourself More Noticeable and Available
People
prefer it when businesses make themselves accessible. The people you help also
demand those things. If you are incapable to convey on their expectations,
you’ll possibly lose a buyer. You can utilize face-to-face marketing to ease
your prospects’ concerns. Tell them that you are both available and reliable so
that they feel more relaxed buying your product or service. Face-to-face
marketing makes you additionally more noticeable. This is particularly valid if
you talk at an event or associate in its construction.
Communicate
More Efficiently
For many businesspeople, interacting in person
proves far more comfortable than interacting online. When we communicate in
person, we appear more sincere and more natural than when we communicate online,
especially through text. They can see your body language, facial expression,
and the way you present yourself. Moreover, listening to your voices makes them
fully appreciate what you are saying based on delivery.
Summary
You can profit from face to face marketing in various ways. You can produce more ROI, profit from an identified audience, build relationships with potential and prevailing customers, increase your reliability, and interact more efficiently.
And they were all good, fun and worth your time to listen.
But I got to thinking about podcasts that actually gave you
solid actionable tips to make things happen. And there were several. Let’s
recap and give you a chance to dig in again.
Seth Kramer: Seth is a longtime professional presenter and, in this conversation, shares great tips on how to use a presenter, and how to prepare your staff for the influx of people and leads that will result. Other tips include how to gauge the interest of potential clients as they watch the presentation.
Sam Smith of Social Point: Sam talks about the many ways that games can be used to bring people to your booth and keep them there. Tips on creating an engaging activity, how to strategize to accomplish your objectives, and using new technology in tradeshow booths.
Francis Friedman: What’s happening with the Modern Digital Tradeshow? A lot! And Francis digs into how our industry is the foundation of the 1X per year event and the world is a 24/7/365 digital world.
Laura Allen is known as The Pitch Girl, and frankly, her method of distilling the essence of your pitch to a short soundbite is one of the handiest things you can have at a tradeshow when someone asks you what you do.
David Newman is a marketer’s marketer. His ideas work on so many levels, with tradeshows being just one. He discusses how to start a marketing plan, offers tips on marketing videos, how to use speaking (yes, at tradeshows) as a way to market your business and more.
Joan Stewart, the Publicity Hound. Yes, this appeared in late 2018. But hey, this half-hour podcast is probably the best 30 minutes you’ll spend if you’re trying to get a handle on your tradeshow marketing with specific actionable tips. Tips on preparation (get the show manual, try to find a speaking or panel slot), what to do at the show (make sure you have enough handouts such as FAQs, cheat sheets, quizzes, flash drives, etc.), why you should hang out a few times near the media room (get a blogger to write something about your company, let media folks know you’re an expert in two or three areas of your industry and many more), how to visit competitors booths, how to follow up and so much more. Seriously, a goldmine of actionable information related specifically to tradeshow marketing.
Hope you enjoy these seven podcast/vlog replays and find some great tips to put to use as you head into your 2020 tradeshow marketing schedule!
Back in the dark ages of technology and social media, say
2008 or so, I read many prognosticators who predicted that tradeshows would
disappear. Or become shells of themselves, simply because everyone was going
digital. I remember seeing online ‘virtual tradeshows’ where you could navigate
from booth to booth and see what companies were hawking.
Except that virtual tradeshows never really got going so
much. And the real thing is doing just fine, thank you very much.
Why? My hunch is that it’s because people are face-to-face.
In real time. In real life. Instead of interacting online over Skype or virtual
tradeshows.
Don’t get me wrong: there is a time and place for
interacting online, for social media, for Skype or Zoom.
But tradeshows are here to stay and they’re growing.
A recent (July 2019) post from Marketing Charts indicates that tradeshows have not only proven to be effective across all stages of the buyer’s journey, the channel has a projected annual compound growth rate of 4.3% through 2023.
The article shares other key points, including that tradeshows are the second largest and fastest-growing source of B2B growth. The B2B tradeshow market is expected to be a $15.7 Billion market in 2019, moving up to $18.5 Billion by 2023.
Yes, tradeshows as a method of marketing are critical to a
company’s success. The money spent on tradeshows often will take up as much as
a third of a company’s marketing spend.
There are lot of reasons that companies are successful at
tradeshow marketing (as well as many reasons they’re not successful!), but to my
mind it all comes down to the face-to-face aspect.
Not too long ago, Josh Elledge of Up My Influence reached out to me and asked if I’d be a guest on The Thoughtful Entrepreneur podcast. Sure, why not? Sounds like fun!
Take a listen:
Josh posted The Thoughtful Entrepreneur podcast complete with transcript here. Check out the main site here: Up My Influence.
Many people look to a yearly tradeshow as a single event, a
one-time experience where everything is on the line. In a sense, it’s hard to
argue against that viewpoint. So much is on the line. The booth rental space is
expensive. It’s not cheap to get your exhibit there, or the travel costs for
your booth staff.
And yes, there are a lot of moving parts. Making sure the
new product samples are ready, appointments are set ahead of time, the booth
staff is up to speed (or professionally trained), the lead generation and information-capture
system is in place. And so on and so on.
It can get overwhelming. Which makes it easy to let a lot of
things slip through the cracks. And when that happens, it’s easy to beat yourself
up for not getting the results you wished for.
Let’s take another approach, especially if you’re a smaller company with limited resources and a limited number of people that can attend the show on behalf of the company.
Learn to do just a few things really, really well!
Let’s say you have as many as 14 things that are on your list, things that are important that they get done. But because you don’t have enough people to do all of them effectively, pick just a few, maybe two or three or four things and focus on those. Give a little attention to the remaining things but pick a few and make sure you do a bang-up job on them.
Maybe you choose to focus on one in-booth activity and the
follow-up details on those interested in your products or services. Let
everything else come in after that. Yes, spend a little time, but make sure you
do those two main things as best as you can, every single time. If you focus on
those two things, you can create an in-booth activity that succeeds more than
you ever hoped for. And your attention to detail on the follow up, such as
when/where/who/how/what will make sure that each and every post-show phone call
or email or in-person follow up is exactly what the prospect expected. Wouldn’t
that be something? Wouldn’t your booth staff like that? How about your sales
staff?
And if you do more than one big show a year, carry that
concentration on just a few things to each of the other smaller shows, and then
measure your results. Once you have figured out how to do those few things with
excellence, add another item or two, such as pre-show outreach or marketing or
building a tradeshow-specific landing page or checking out the competition.
Doesn’t matter.
Just don’t try to do it all at once, especially if your company doesn’t have the bandwidth. Focus on a few things and grow from there.
This is a guest post by Ben Llewellyn of Ultimate Banners.
There’s no shortage of benefits that come with attending an exhibition, which is why it is something that a lot of event promoters and businesses do. However, that’s not to say that a successful exhibition is guaranteed without a level of planning and hard work. There are certain things that everyone should do before attending an exhibition, many of which first time event promoters don’t realise.
Things Everyone Should Do Before Their First Exhibition
There’s a lot to think about before attending your first exhibition, which can make the entire lead up stressful. It’s never a case of turning up and hoping for the best because organizing and planning is key. Here are ten things everyone should do before going to their first industry exhibition.
1. Invest in Branded Freebies – A lot of businesses make the mistake of trying to keep the cost of attending an exhibition as low as possible and though this does make sense, it is often beneficial to spend a little. After all, spending a little can often lead to you making more in the long run. Investing in branded freebies is a great way to impress potential customers and it reflects well on the business as a whole, as branded freebies are usually associated with successful brands. Giving someone a branded freebie, such as a pen or portable charger, is also an effective way to boost brand awareness. Once the event has finished, people are still going to remember who you are and the business name will be seen by more people.
2. Set Clear Goals – Before attending any exhibition, you should be sure on what your business goals are for the day. Think about whether you are aiming to sell a product, whether you are hoping to network with other businesses or whether you are simply trying to get the brand name out there. This is especially important before attending your first exhibition, as the entire day is likely to be busy and having a plan can keep you organized and on task. Make sure that your goals are realistic and that everyone is working towards the same thing.
3. Research Competitors – It’s hugely important to stand out at an exhibition, but this can be difficult when you have an abundance of competitors to contend with. Looking at competitors and seeing what they are doing is a good way to find out what works, what doesn’t and what you could do differently. Though you will want to stand out and should avoid copying them, you should always work to industry standards and showcase yourself in a similar way. If you are new to a specific industry, researching competitors is a great way to know what’s expected of you.
4. Prepare and Plan Their Exhibition Space – Attending an exhibition can be stressful, especially when you are doing so for the first time. However, planning ahead can help massively. Consider what you will need for your exhibition space and allow adequate time to source everything before the big day. You will also want to make sure you have reserved the space, allowed enough time to set everything up and have advertising materials printed ahead of time.
5. Design Fantastic Artwork – With so many competitors at an exhibition, it’s important that you make a statement and stand out. There are a few different ways to do this, but starting with designing fantastic artwork is key. It’s important for banners and advertising materials to stand out from the rest, which is why standard or generic banner artwork isn’t good enough. There’s a lot of help out there and pull up banners ten signs they are working | ultimatebanners.co has a lot of advice on creating designs that work. Artwork should grab attention, create intrigue and provide information.
6. Allow Enough Time for Banner Printing – The turnaround for banner printed is extremely quick, which means that last minute orders aren’t usually a problem. However, it’s always best to avoid leaving it to the last minute if possible. When you leave banner printing to the last minute, you’re not leaving any room for error or delays. This could mean that you are left without the banner needed for an exhibition and no way to solve the problem. Reduce the stress of your banner printing by organising everything the moment you have the artwork. It’s better to be ready too early, than too late.
7. Spread the Word About Attendance – Once you know that you are attending an exhibition and have confirmed everything, spread the word and let everyone know. You could have existing customers attending the same event, in which case they can look out for you. There could be people there who have heard about the business and want to know more, in which case an exhibition is a great opportunity for them to do so. It’s also helpful for other businesses to know that you will be there, as they may be interested in networking.
8. Think About First Impressions – There is no doubt going to be a lot of people attending any exhibition, so it’s important to think about first impressions before going as making a good first impression is key. This includes ensuring that your display looks great, that staff know what to say to passersby and that you are ready to answer any complicated questions. You should aim to appear friendly, professional and knowledgeable about the industry. Though an individual may not take you up on a service or product then and there, you will want them to have a position opinion of you for future reference.
9. Get Staff On Board – A lot of hard work and energy goes into attending an exhibition, which is why getting other staff members on board is key. Not only does this allow for work to be delegated, but it reduces stress throughout the day. Rather than one or two people attempting to do everything, a large team provides more free time for networking and building a relationship with potential customers.
Ben Llewellyn is co-founder of Ultimate Banners in Birmingham (United Kingdom). Ben loves cycling and everything tech. He works as a designer and developer working with clients in the exhibition advertising and digital services sector. Find Ben on LinkedIn.
