Show Up the Competition
Follow these guidelines to improve your trade show exhibit results.
By Marlys K. Arnold Exhibitors invest significantly in their trade show appearances, including products, displays, giveaways, travel and more. It’s important to maximize the return on that investment by strategically marketing your trade show appearance well in advance, so that by the time buyers hit the show floor they already know they want to buy from you. Less than 25 percent of exhibitors at any given show do pre-show promotions. If you do, you’re already standing out in the prospective customer’s mind.
Before you start planning your creative efforts, make sure you’ve identified your prime prospects. Once you’ve defined your audience, create a plan that will build lasting awareness of your company along with the products and services you provide. A good show marketing plan includes pre-show promotion. And one of the most targeted promotions you can do is a pre-show mailing.
Pre-show mailers can be as simple as adding a sticker to the address side of a brochure or catalog you’re already mailing out. For example, “See us at Booth #100 at the ABC Expo, April 24-26.” Postcards are most likely to be read, with more than 75 percent of people taking the time to flip them over. Order more mailers than you need and include them with all orders you ship out and invoices you mail for a few months prior to the show.
A pre-show mailing is also an excellent way to distribute coupons, contest entry forms or a package with some kind of three-dimensional specialty item inside. No matter what method you use, make sure there’s a very clear call for action, and make the piece as intriguing as possible. If your budget allows, hire a professional marketing or advertising firm to help develop the right campaign for you. Remember to include your booth number in all of your show marketing.
In marketing—as in so many other areas of life—timing is everything. Many people plan to go to a show fairly far in advance, but don’t commit to buying decisions until a short time before the show. Plan to send mailings so that current and prospective buyers receive your materials about two to three weeks before the show.
At-Show Promotions
There’s a great difference of opinion among exhibitors whether use giveaways. In some industries, it’s either not practical or simply impossible. In others, it’s almost a given.
More and more, companies are using methods other than giveaways to attract traffic, such as chair massages, handwriting analysis and caricature artists. These provide you with a “captive audience” while the attendee is interacting with the expert. During that time, you have an opportunity to explain your product or service and do some qualifying of the prospect.
Lasting Impressions
When you’re being creative with your promotions, don’t forget that the real reason you’re at the show is to create a memory for the prospects. You want to be the one booth that attendees think about when they’re back at the office.
Marlys K. Arnold, ImageSpecialist, is a Kansas City-based trade show marketing consultant and the author of Build a Better Trade Show Image. (816) 746-7888 // This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
