Using online tactics to get more value from trade shows
Your company spends thousands of dollars annually on trade shows – sponsorships, booths, travel, time, brochures, etc. Many people view this budget as a basic requirement for the marketing department. But for a few thousand more wouldn’t you like to convert those conversations to prospects and clients? Wouldn’t you like to be able to quantitatively measure the ROI of each show? To appear more technologically savvy than your competitors?
We believe that trade shows are a valuable time to get in touch with current customers, feel the pulse of the market, and generate quality conversations and leads for your sales force.
We help clients get the most from those conversations and gather more contacts and leads by harnessing the power of interactive technology. We’ve also found that this application of more modern methods further builds your image as a progressive company in your industry.
Over the past two years we’ve created, tested, and refined a three stage approach we call CBD ShowBuzzTM to integrate the face-to-face and interactive worlds:
Before the Show
The very first step is to make sure that you have something new and exciting to communicate! Based on that news, we’ll help set goals and objectives for the campaign, and then design a communications plan for the event.
Prior to the show, our PR team will provide guidelines to help everyone on your show team get the most out of social media – primarily Twitter and LinkedIn. They need to let all their contacts know they’ll be there, and what your company is doing. Some pitfalls and things to avoid will also be covered.
During the Show
This is where the action kicks in!
The ritual of passing out business cards, while still customary, is not a differentiator for your business. We’ll equip each of your participants with a more interesting small packet that provides some information and drives the potential customer to a microsite where they can register for information, supporting case studies and white papers. It will be built to support mobile users, too – who’s carrying their laptop around?
We can also create a special short SMS code for your booth which will allow a much larger volume of show attendees to rapidly get more information without necessarily interacting with the people at your booth.
And don’t forget to tweet and keep LinkedIn updated throughout the show! What are you hearing, who else is communicating, what’s the buzz?
After the Show
We like to set up a series of emails and podcasts after the show to build on the conversations you’ve started. The best practice here is to tell contacts up front that you’ll be furthering the conversation over the next few weeks with more information and insight. Then, we’ll work with you to make sure your communications are truly unique and highly valued.
Wrapped around all of these activities are firm KPIs and measurements. We provide regular reporting on the contacts, their engagement, and the resulting conversations and appointments.
