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.

Try it, you might like it... or not.

Our agency recently received a referral from an existing client. The new client, a retail store, is next door to our existing client. The new client, Jane had seen the success our marketing efforts had achieved for her neighbor. She wanted what he was having.

After an initial meeting of fact-finding, we returned with a strategic marketing proposal in hand. In it, were the keys to her success: goals, challenges, target markets, competitive research, and a marketing strategy with specific initiatives.

Jane was impressed and, after we fielded several questions, she nodded her head. We were sure Jane was sold. Then, just as we were getting ready to present her with our contract, she delivered those deflating words every agency dreads.

"We'll give it a try," she said with a smile. Back into the briefcase went the contract.

With the possible exception of "fine," I doubt you can find a word packed with more underlying connotations than "try."

Let's face it, when a friend says, "I'll try to swing by your party later," he knows right then he's not coming. Or, when a co-worker says "I'll try to get to that paperwork today," you can bet your job is being shuffled to the bottom of her inbox without a second thought.

"Try" provides the universal excuse for failing to do something without incurring any personal responsibility for whatever is left undone. "I tried to make it to work on time, but all the inconsiderate drivers on I-95 wouldn't let me by." Who can blame me?

Giving advertising a "try" is sort of like giving marriage a "try." Promising to "try to love, honor and cherish 'til death do us part" isn't quite the same as committing to it. Either you're in it for the long haul, or you might as well get off at the next exit.

Jane's neighbor, a client of 12 years, is in it for the long haul. For 12 years we have been consistently marketing his business through local radio advertising and it has paid off. New customers regularly come into his store saying they heard him on the radio. People who have never shopped there know the name nonetheless. The success that Jane was seeing next door was the result of a long-term commitment to advertising. She wasn't going to achieve the same success by giving advertising a "try."

Jane did sign the contract and we're moving forward, albeit tentatively. She's trying hard to keep the word"try" from sneaking its way into our marketing strategies. The honeymoon stage is going well. With any luck, we won't be serving divorce papers before our first anniversary.

Is your media rep seeing your clients behind your back?

I called a client the other day about some updates on his website and he casually mentioned that he just signed an annual deal to advertise on a local television station.

"Really?" I say, thinking it was only a couple months ago that I proposed TV advertising to this very client only to be shot down by the budget torpedo.

"Yeah," he says happily. "The station gave me a really good deal. There's even free production."

"Why didn't you ask me about it?" I inquired, trying hard to keep the petulance out of my voice.

He pauses, then reluctantly says,"They told me it would cost more if I went through an agency."

I don't recall exactly how the rest of the conversation went although I did successfully convey the fact that a) free production is normally part of an annual deal, b) the fact that the station says it is "#1" doesn't mean it is "#1" among the people you want to reach, and c) a prime rotator usually means your spot will rotate into a show that gets fewer rating points than daytime soaps.

I must confess that I feel a bit a jilted. I just had lunch with my rep from this station and over arugula and penne pasta she told me how much she loved working with my agency. How could she? I thought our relationship meant something.

In the past, I have tried to cut media reps some slack. After all, I was one of them for five years so I know the importance sales managers place on direct business. But, lately I've begun to question the cost this "sell direct" mentality has on agency relationships with the media.

No doubt the media would rather keep their 15% instead of doling it out to agencies, but they more than make up for it by cutting their reps' commissions on agency business. No harm, no foul (unless you're the media rep with the puny paycheck).

I just can't figure the rationale for this system. Let's see... the media pays their reps bigger commissions on direct business. This encourages them to sell more direct business. By and large, direct business represents substantially fewer dollars than the business that comes through agencies. So, by focusing on direct business rather than agency business, media reps can actually make more money by selling less.

Hmmmm.....

Economics was never my strong subject, but you don't have to be Warren Buffet to figure out that this is probably not the best plan. It's the only plan they've got though and darned it they're not going to keep using it.

As for my adulterous media rep, I'm completely over her now. Next time, I'll know better. I'll order dessert with my penne pasta. She can pay for it with all those direct commissions she's earned.