Tricks of the Trade Show

While trade shows can be leveraged as important venues for lead generation, product launches and one-on-one interaction with customers, prospects and the media, trade show ROI is not always obvious.

With the winter/spring trade show season upon us, consider these tips on critical aspects of successful trade show planning and execution as you detail and implement your trade event strategy to maximize bottom line impact:

Choose the right trade show. Is your company attending certain trade shows because “we always have”? Do not always assume the biggest or best attended show is the one to participate in. Rather, choose the venue best aligned with your product or service and which will draw the greatest number of targeted prospects for you.

Why are you attending? Have clear show attendance goals and develop tactics supporting your trade show objectives. There are many possible reasons why a company may choose to participate in a trade show including:

·        Generating sales and leads from attendees in your target audience(s)

·        Launching a new product or announcing an industry innovation

·        Seeking strategic alliances with other vendors

·        Performing competitive intelligence

Trade show budget tips. Trade shows can require a significant investment, but savvy businesses leverage a number of strategies to minimize costs:

·        Take advantage of discounted dates for ordering booth materials. For some shows this is almost one-half the cost compared to ordering on the “regular” deadline.

·        Rent items for your booth, such as furniture, instead of purchasing them. Furniture can be heavy, increasing the overall cost of shipping.

·        Ship to the show warehouse instead of direct to the show site, which adds
special and absolutely unnecessary material and handling costs from the show services company.

Don’t forget the trade media. Major trade shows draw a large pool of media representatives from industry publications, providing the opportunity to build face-to-face media relationships that can result in editorial coverage. Obtain a list of media attending from the show organizer and contact them about scheduling appointments with editorial representatives at the show.

Make them an offer. Obtain a list of registered attendees and send a pre-show invitation to your booth. Offer a relevant giveaway premium at your booth, but predicate the receipt of it upon first viewing a demo or filling out a lead form.

Make an important announcement. If you have important news to release or a new product/service to launch, a tradeshow is a high-visibility venue to break the news, offering your company a stronger angle for attracting the attention of attendees and the media.

Train exhibit booth staff. To maximize your tradeshow presence, every employee working the booth should have a clear understanding of key sales and marketing messages, and the goals for event attendance.

Turn leads into sales. Offer to send marketing materials to an interested prospect’s office to lighten his/her load of materials carried around at the show or the airport. As a practical matter, confirming their receipt once the prospect is back in the office gives you a legitimate reason to follow up, and follow up and follow up. Otherwise, all the work at the show is a wash. One call doesn’t cut it. Be persistent!

Jeff Barnhart

President & CEO

jbarnhart@cmasolutions.com

Win with the One-Two Punch of Branding and Marketing

Branding and marketing are different but synergistic activities. 

Your brand is what prospects and customers say and think about your business. Marketing is what you say about your business, either in face-to-face settings or communicating through various media your target audiences deem credible and informative.

Driving brand and demand. You are in control of your brand and how your customers’ experience it through the products and services you deliver, the way you deliver them, the quality of customer interactions with your products and your employees as well as the value you add to those interactions.

Try it, you’ll like it. Customers are ultimately in control of your marketing success. Based on your ability to identify and communicate your company’s relevance to customers’ needs, challenges and aspirations, marketing drives awareness and trial of your company’s products or services. Successful marketing is about near-term customer action. Successful branding is about long-term customer reaction and retention. 

Marketing: the brand evangelist. To be successful marketing and branding must be symbiotic. For one thing, both need to be consistent. A successful brand results from marketing consistency. The customer comes to expect a brand will display the same qualities and benefits at each touchpoint with the company. As a brand’s evangelist, marketing serves as a constant reinforcement of brand consistency.

It begins with you. Marketing begins with the customer, branding begins at home. Busy as your company may be, introducing a new product or banging on the door of a new market segment is vital. Successful marketing references and supports the brand, while marketing’s more immediate task at hand basks in the brand’s stability.

ROI ASAP. If marketing ROI is about the quarterly profit battle, branding ROI is about the long-term marketing war. Marketing drives awareness, interest, desire and action while burnishing the brand’s ability to inspire customer loyalty, repeat sales and cross selling within a company’s product or service line.

Differentiation makes the difference. In today’s dynamic marketplace where true product/service differentiation is rare and price advantages are elusive, the synergy of branding and marketing is a primary means through which companies can build competitive differentiation by wielding meaningful, relevant and enduring relationships with their customers.

Jeffrey Barnhart

President and CEO

jbarnhart@cmasolutions.com