How to Combine Trade Show Marketing and the Web
How to Combine Trade Show Marketing and the Web
Trade show marketing and the Web usually aren't mentioned much in the same sentence, but they should be. That's because trade shows are an established way to market a small business. And the Web is, well, the 900-pound gorilla when it comes to small business marketing. When put together, they provide a great way to integrate the online and offline worlds to get more marketing clout and bring in new business.
What's more, if you do the job well, you really only need attend a couple of trade shows a year in order to see nice results for your efforts.
Here are 5 ways to combine the Web and trade show marketing to bring in new business:
1. Give out memorable material by creating a special online offer
Every single piece of your trade show marketing material should be memorable AND serve to drive people to a Website. Once they are on your site, you present them with a special offer in the form of an informative downloadable report (perhaps a white paper) or a hot discount coupon or some other creative offer just for them.
The lion's share of marketing material given away at trade shows (and there's tons of it) offers little in the way of making the prospect feel special. And it's not at all memorable. It looks the same as everybody else's, which is why 90% of it ends up in the trash bin right there on site at the trade show's venue.
2. Set up a special, easy-to-remember URL or landing page specifically for those lucky trade show prospects
In order to make it as easy as possible for people to get to your Website in the midst of all the busy marketing noise they are being bombarded with at the show, you need a special Web page address (URL).
It needs to be something that really sticks. That way, once people throw away your marketing material, there's still a chance that they'll remember the page's address.
Imagine that you're putting it on a billboard by the freeway and you want people passing by to remember it.
If you can't get a separate domain (which you redirect to a landing page on your main site), you should at least come up with a unique and easy-to-remember ending for your current domain that ties into the trade show. For example:
UnitedWidgets(dot)com/NYTradeShowSpecial
And, as mentioned above in point #1, your landing page needs to have a special offer or giveaway. You also need to have a form on your landing page that captures their email address in exchange for access to the special offer. That way you can build your list and follow up with them later.
3. Collect your trade show prospects' email addresses or other contact info on site in as many ways as you possibly can
At your show's booth you need to have as many ways as possible to gather people's contact info.
There are many ways to do this, but perhaps one of the most endearing ways is to have a contest or raffle sign-up sheet. Oftentimes people who are "just browsing" will stop and sign up for a chance at a prize, even if they won't engage with you more deeply.
You absolutely must collect people's contact info. Every successful trade show marketer I've met has said that their real money comes from follow up rather than from on-site sales. While presentations and the like are also a very important part of trade shows, the real money is in the follow up. And you can't follow up without your prospects' contact info.
Getting full contact info with street address and phone number is always going to be more difficult than just getting an email address. And of course, following up via email is going to be a lot less expensive than following up by direct mail or telephone.
4. Create an email follow-up campaign aimed specifically at your trade show leads that will continue the conversation and bring them into your business's story
For each trade show you attend, you need to set up a separate email follow-up campaign. This can be as simple as a series of 7-10 relationship-building emails that you load into an autoresponder with a notification that you have updated your blog and a link to your latest blog post.
Plus keep in mind that statistics show that most purchases are made only after 7 (or more) exposures to a marketing message.
The idea is to keep the conversation going and bring them into your business's story, while building credibility and giving people an opportunity to take the next step with you.
This follow-up process also allows you to bring your business's social media presence strongly into the picture. You can and should have your social media info in view at your booth (flyers, biz cards, banners, etc.), but keep in mind that due to the hardcore information overload that people experience at trade shows, it may be too much to expect them to remember your Facebook fan page address, Twitter handle, LinkedIn profile name, etc. among all that info they receive.
A custom sig file (or even a P.S.) in your follow-up emails is a perfect place to mention your social media sites.
5. Rubber stamp your strategy and customize it for multiple trade shows
Depending on how much time you have, and what kind of metro area you serve, it may be possible to attend 3 or 4 or more trade shows per year. And once you have a campaign set up for one show, you need only make a few adjustments in order to use that same campaign for the next show.
Some business owners do ONLY trade show marketing and spend the rest of their time on non-marketing related aspects of their business. If you enjoy getting out there and meeting people, and don't like the logistical hassles of traditional advertising methods, trade show marketing can be a great and enjoyable way to do "guerilla marketing".
And when you combine trade show marketing and the Web, you create a leveraging effect that will save you money in the long run, plus serve to brand you as a forward-looking business owner who understands that the Web is here to stay.
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