Tips for Successful Marketing at Tradeshows, Conferences, Sales Meetings and Other Business Exhibitions

Exhibiting your product or service at an industry event seems straight forward. But unless you prepare a solid game plan in advance, you can spend big bucks with no appreciable impact on sales. Here are some tips to think about:

1. Establish a solid reason for participating in the first place.
In this economic climate, money is tight for even the most successful companies. Exhibiting at a tradeshow or other similar event because “you always have” doesn’t cut the mustard anymore. Clearly define and focus your objectives and determine if the show is worthy of the time and money to exhibit.

2. Select appropriate events.
One of the goals of an event planner is to get as many businesses as possible to participate—i.e. sell booth space. Unless you’re RJ Reynolds trying to exhibit at an American Lung Association tradeshow, chances are the show is going to let you in. Make sure you really need to be there. Is it a consumer event or B2B? What percentage of your customers will likely be attending? Will your competitors be there? What kind of impact might result if you don’t attend?

3. Set a hard budget and allocate it specifically.
Big events with lots of industry colleagues together all in one place tend to take on a festive quality, which can lead to lapses in judgment. Whipping out the corporate credit card for unexpected expenses—from big unplanned dinners with associates to last-minute promotions pushed by the show planners, etc.—may be money you wouldn’t spend under different circumstances. Unless something comes up during the show that really makes sense on which to spend additional funds, stick to the budget.

4. Market your business prior to the event.
Be sure to market to current and potential customers well in advance of the event. Direct mail, ads in trade publications, blurbs on your website, blog and Facebook business page, etc. that broadcast your booth number, specials for writing business at the show and basic reminders that you’ll be exhibiting are effective at enticing your customers to visit you during the event.

5. Create a clean and simple exhibition.
Tradeshows and the like promote a lot of competition for your customers’ attention. While flashy often attracts at the outset, the business message can easily be lost. Certainly try to pop among the throngs of exhibitors, but don’t confuse your customers. Keep the design and navigation simple.

6. Create and promote some type of hands-on customer participation.
If at all possible, put your product or service into the hands of your customer to try out. Signage, looping videos, displayed product, take-away literature and sales speak are all great, but every exhibit at the event has them. Stand out from the crowd and create some type of live interaction between your customer and your product. If you manufacture fishing lures, create an area where customers can cast them. If you’re a locksmith, let customers cut keys.

7. Be sure your exhibit is comfortable to approach and enter, and that your sales technique is appropriate.
Put yourself in the shoes of your customer. Does your exhibit draw in visitors naturally or is there some kind of metaphorical hoop through which to jump; and is it your plan to allow visitors to warm up to speaking with a representative or to immediately pounce on them with your ten-second elevator pitch? Eliminate barriers between your exhibit and your customers and customize your sales pitch for the type of customer attending the event.

8. Take adequate notes and record contact information during the event, and always follow up with your customers immediately afterward while your company is still fresh in their mind.
Whether phone calls, emails or direct mail, always follow up with your visitors. They’re the hottest lead for new business that you have at that time. And every day that passes following the event, cools off the lead dramatically.

Tradeshows, conferences, sales meetings and other industry events are a great way to directly reach your market in one fell swoop if you approach them correctly. At Ryan William’s Agency, we’ve been helping small to midsize businesses not only market and advertise themselves through the unique use of print, online, social media, and radio and television, but we’ve been preparing them for the “Big Show” as well, and we can help you too.

How much should you spend on advertising?

Ahhh, the age-old question, and when the answer is being provided by an ad agency, you might feel a bit suspect. Wary or not, however, there are guidelines to advertising expenditures; the numbers are tangible and the concepts behind them more black and white than you might realize.

While there are, of course, many variables—including industry, business size, growth rate desired, etc.—both the Counselors to America’s Small Business (SCORE) and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) define an adequate small-business advertising and marketing budget to be between 2% and 10% of sales.

Sound like a lot? It is. And frankly, most companies under-spend, believing that not to spend is to save. Unfortunately, this strategy can backfire. You’ve heard the old adage “you have to spend money to make money” right? Well, when it comes to your advertising and marketing efforts, the money you spend does directly affect your revenue. It’s a tough concept to swallow, but during lean periods like the recent economic downtown is not the time to cut back.

Too often businesses estimate their annual sales, subtract overhead and inventory, etc.
and then allocate anything left over to pay for advertising. When you consider that you must advertise to generate those sales to begin with, you can begin to see why this strategy may not be such a good plan after all. A better strategy is to consider your advertising or marketing a fixed budget item on the front end of your accounting, not a number that waxes and wanes depending on how business is going.

The key is to spend your money wisely and carefully tailor your campaign to fit your market and fulfill your goals, and that’s where your ad agency comes in. We can’t determine your budget. But we can, based on your budget, your market and your goals, determine the best way to allocate your marketing dollars to keep those sales high to pay for all that great advertising!

Behavioral targeting: Innovative marketing or invasion of privacy?

In the quest to get more targeted with advertising messages, behavioral targeting seems like the answer to many frustrated marketers’ prayers. Some consumer groups disagree, though, calling this new targeting method more like Big Brother than the next Big Idea.

Behavioral targeting mediums track consumers’ habits and then offer advertisers the ability to serve up messages that correlate to these habits. Imagine that you are thinking of buying a new car. You fire up your computer, go online and start surfing websites with information about the car you are interested in buying. All of sudden you start seeing ads for car insurance. How did that insurance company know you were looking for a car? Well, little did you know you were leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for a behavioral targeting company to follow.

Most consumers don’t realize their online behavior can be tracked and used for marketing purposes. Needless to say, a fair number of them might be a bit uncomfortable knowing their habits are being cataloged.

Behavioral targeting is now getting even closer to home. Not only are behaviorally-based ads being served up on your Facebook page and in your e-mail, banks are now offering advertisers the ability to target their customers based on their purchasing habits. The next time you use your debit card at McDonald’s, don’t be surprised to see a coupon for the McRib the next time you log on to your online banking page.

How far behavioral targeting will go before consumers or the government takes a hard look at the privacy issue remains to be seen. For now it offers marketers a great way to get more specific with their ad messages and their target markets.
And, hey, if you can save a buck on your next drive thru order, who’s complaining?