With the current focus on inbound marketing, traditional methods such as trade shows are getting a bad rap. Sure, it costs a bomb to be at a trade show, but it’s important for your standing in your industry, right? Even if all you bring home are a couple of leads, it’s about far more than just that. So if you’re going to be there anyway, why not turn it into a useful experience that generates real, qualified leads as well as preserving your reputation?
Here’s how to combine your trade show participation with inbound marketing principles to deliver more bang for your buck:
Know What You Want to Achieve
It’s vital to know what you want to achieve by taking part in a trade show. This gives you the direction you need to develop the right program and materials, as well as useful criteria for measuring your results afterwards. It’s not enough to determine that you want leads, for example; identify the value or the number of leads you want and break them down by the day, or even by the hour. That way, your staff will know just what the goals are for each shift they work. And if you offer real incentives for them to achieve them, you’re going to see the results.
Start Early, Do It Well
We’ve all been there. You decide two weeks before the event that you’re going to take part. You get a booth and rally round a few troops to man it, and bundle together some old junk you can give away. Don’t waste your time and money! Rather ditch this event and plan to be there next year in style. It takes time to do it properly, and to get the exposure you need and the results you want it’s essential to have very specific marketing collateral developed for the show.
Start well before the time and do comprehensive pre-show marketing, such as sending out effective email communications to your database and promoting your participation on your blog and social media profiles. Get visitors to pre-register by signing up online for a giveaway that they have to call in person to collect, or arrange a live demonstration during the show for attendees who put their names forward.
Do Something Different
It’s pretty difficult to stand out when you have a booth in a row of other booths. Everyone has a shell scheme, a booth table and chairs and perhaps some space to hang up posters and pictures. If you want people to stop and show interest, you need to make yours different somehow. Get creative; put a water feature in the center, or have young staff doing handstands. The more curious your display is, the more likely people are to stop and give you the chance to talk to them. Do in-show marketing to drive traffic to your booth. Special events, announcements, prize draws are all great ways of reminding the attendees that you exist.
Create Convenient Content
Content marketing is just as important for a trade show as it is online. Create marketing collateral that you can hand out at the booth, which educates readers about your products and services and provides them with useful information and problem-solving ideas. Yes, the same type of material you have on your website and blog! Brainstorm the type of questions prospects usually ask and develop white papers, eBooks and infographics to answer them, then have these available to give out--on paper on flash drives and on CD.
Work with the Web
Just because it’s not an online venture doesn’t mean you shouldn’t integrate with the web. Make all your trade show content available online, on mobile and on paper, so prospects can get it any way they want it. Use QR codes so users can scan them and access your content as they walk away from your booth, then even if they don’t have time to stop they know how to find it. And be sure to SEO your online content as you would normally, but tag it with the name of the trade show. This way, users looking for information before or after the show will find it, too.
The CTA Is the Key
Collecting real leads always depends on the strength of your call to action (CTA). This is the key to whether your prospect just gathers information or whether he becomes a part of your sales funnel by giving you his contact details. Plan your CTA and use it properly by making it part of the overall strategy for the trade show. Incorporate it into everything you display. Make sure you have a clear CTA on every piece of marketing collateral you use, whether it’s hard copy or online. Use mobile-friendly CTAs so users can access them directly from their smart phones and tablets while they are still walking around or at your booth. Direct users reading your handouts to your website to sign up for a competition entry, a special promo offer or a discount. Then take them to your landing pages to do so.
No Lame Landing Pages!
No, you absolutely can’t use your standard landing pages for this. The visitors to your booth at the trade show have had a “wow” experience (if you’ve done it right, of course!) and a mediocre post-show experience isn’t going to keep them enthralled. Create new landing pages with pizzazz for each and every CTA you’ve issued during the show. Include questions on the landing page that supply the intelligence to help you know where the prospect fits into the buying cycle, so you can qualify how hot the lead is. This helps you to determine the urgency of the clients' needs and your response.
There’s no reason why your trade show booth shouldn’t be a great lead generator for your business. It just takes a bit of work, a lot of imagination and sticking to the proven principles of inbound marketing practice.
