One of the biggest reasons why companies still choose to use Trade shows in their marketing mix is for lead generation. If planned properly then attending these trade shows as part of your marketing mix can prove quite fruitful.
We recently stumbled across a nice top 100 tick list of things to do to ensure a smooth and successful trade show; here are the ones that stood out for us;
1. Exhibit at fewer shows, putting more effort into booth staff preparation and promotions tailored specifically for each show.
2. Attend more shows as a visitor to get some insight into what works and what doesn’t.
3. Track leads and follow up immediately. This sounds like marketing advice 101 but it’s surprising to find out how much effort people go into putting on the show and next to nothing in the follow up process.
4. Pick your booth space carefully. If possible, tag onto regional groups and pick the stand with the most traffic.
5. Send out invites to your prospects to visit your booth and set up meetings in advance. Send complimentary tickets if you have them.
6. Send email invites to the show’s pre-registered attendee list for this year and the registered attendee list from last year.
7. If you’re using social media than leverage this to reach more attendees.
8. Post your trade show schedule on your website with a link to sign up for appointments.
9. Make a theme for the show and give away something that is relevant and useful, build a story around this and use in your press packs.
10. Have a contest for attendees in your booth
Obviously there’s a lot more to running a successful show than just the above, but we believe if you keep a tight control on the small things, everything else will fall into place.
Use these events as the conversation starter and keep the conversations going!
Tags: lead generation, promotional mix, trade show
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