My nephew Andy is a farmer.  He’s wanted to be a farmer since he was a little boy.  For Andy, there’s something so special about tending the crop to harvest.

Spend a day with him and you’ll learn that farming is very hard but rather simple work.

Of course technology has made a significant impact on the farming process. Fields are now charted by GPS, seeds are engineered to withstand hardship and chemicals assist in maximizing output.    

But, the process is still pretty simple; turn the soil, plant the seed, water the field and harvest the crop.

Imagine if Andy farmed like many organizations marketed.

Here are 5 lessons that farmer Andy could teach marketers today:

1. Choose the right crop for the right field.  Market segmentation and targeted messaging allow us to focus our efforts and leverage our marketing dollars like never before.  The proliferation of smaller more targeted events, allows exhibitors the chance to tell their story to a very qualified audience.
2. Remember where you planted your seed.  What’s the point to randomly handing out or letting people help themselves to your literature a trade show?  When that brochure gets stuffed into a show bag, it’s one step closer to the trash can.  Just like the farmer controls his seed, the trade show marketer must control his information.
3. Nurture your seed as it grows.  Focused follow-up and relationship development after the show is CRITICAL!  The farmer would never toss his seeds to the wind and expect the crop to harvest itself.  Why do exhibitors think that they can show up at a show, hand out literature, give away a few pens and expect a harvest to follow?  The harvest will belong to the marketing farmer who works the field.
4. Know when to harvest your crop.  Experienced marketing and sales people know when it’s time to ask for the business.  They take a very strategic approach to developing the prospect into a customer and know when the time is right to close.  And, close they must.
5. Be a good steward of the land.  Give back to your industry.  Get involved with the associations you belong to.  Put your “knowledgeware” (your smart people) on display by getting them on the speaker’s platform and presenting at your big conference.  To be seen as a thought leader you need to act like one.

If farmers behaved more like the average marketer, this country would starve.

With the exception of field sales (interesting use of words), the trade show floor is the only marketing field where we are face to face with our market.  In this field we have the opportunity to nurture a good crop and grow your business like no other.

So put on your overalls, grab your pitchfork and get to planting. You’ve got mouths to feed!

More ways to boost your harvest from your trade show marketing program:  Click here for your free copy of the Successful Exhibiting Strategies in Uncertain Times White Paper, which includes 16 proven methods for generating greater trade show results.

I can recall hearing this phrase just before the party started.

It can take on a whole new meaning in the Web 2.0 space.

Using marketing thread to “Tie One On” today means to establish the value of your information and gain the permission (tie) of an individual (one) to enter into a discussion or dialogue that is ongoing (on).

Thus, “Tie One On” – you get a very focused marketing strategy based on Permission Marketing and Long Tail theory.

The shotgun marketing approach of old was based primarily on volume and interruption.  The more people you exposed your message to, the better chance you had to Tell & Sell.  Using Permission Marketing to tie into the Long Tail of your market, will help you create stronger connections with a broader fan base. 

Thanks to the internet, today’s marketplace is way smarter. The end user has access to much of the same information as the manufacturers/providers do. The “Great Oz” has been revealed, making true innovation and real quality matter more that ever before.  These words can no longer be used freely in marketing copy without really meaning something. 

How does this relate to the trade show floor?

On the thread we string between our company/brand and each of our prospects/customers, we will want to tie many knots.  These knots will represent contacts, discussions and/or touch-points that “tie” us together.  The more knots, the larger the knots, the stronger and more memorable our thread will be.

Remember the climbing rope in gym class?  How much easier would it have been to climb it there were knots every foot of so? 

Prior to our live events and trade shows, we need to be connecting threads and starting to tie knots.  One pre-show post card might not even have the chance to create a very small knot.  Multiple touch-point campaigns using a variety of media (social and traditional) will give you a much better chance to get face-to-face with them at the show.  The face-to-face knots have the chance to be really big knots.  These big knots represent significant touch-points and create stronger branding tie-ins.

So, let’s get this party started.  Make your guest list and start printing the invitations. 

Chips and salsa anyone?

Find more ways to touch your prospects before, during, and after the show with the 76-page book, Creating Effective Trade Show Promotions.  Click here to get your free copy.

The shepherd understands his role implicitly:  watch the sheep, keep them from wondering off, provide food so they will grow, and promote propagation.

With respect to client management and retention, business is a lot like that.  We try and keep a watchful eye on our customers so we can anticipate their needs and service them.  We continue to nurture them so they won’t wonder off due to complacency.  And we attempt to stimulate propagation by gently requesting referrals.

Our customers become familiar with your ways and as long as we do a reasonably good job of tending, they will stick around.

The trade show is a unique place when it comes to shepherding.  On the show floor, our flock has a chance to walk by all different kinds of shepherds.  Some of them offer different opportunities than we do.  Some appear to be more excited to see them than we have been.  A few have created beautiful temporary environments (exhibits) to demonstrate what life with them would look and feel like.  And still others try to garner the attention of our flock by offering fancy food, drink and treasure.

What’s a shepherd to do?

You can’t keep your customers from attending the trade show.  You can’t keep the competition from calling.  You can’t block certain web sites from their view.  And, you can’t keep another shepherd from sponsoring the biggest watering hole.

But you do have an advantage:  You are the current shepherd.

You know what they’ve been eating.  You know the results of your care for them.  Based on what you know about what the other shepherds offer, you can anticipate change and move to position yourselves accordingly.  You can reinvest in your infrastructure so your flock sees less reason to stray and you and show your appreciation regularly.

On the show floor everything happens in real time.  All the other shepherds are reaching out to pet your sheep as they walk by.

Make sure you don’t take them for granted.  Don’t assume that they’ve been getting all the attention from you that they need or require.

Shepherds Rule #6 – Don’t spend more time trying to pet the other guys sheep than you do petting our own.

Want to find out more smart moves exhibitors are doing today to succeed at trade shows?  Click here to get What’s Working In Exhibiting, your free 32-page White Paper research report that will help you boost your results and stretch your budget.

Whether or not change is good depends on how we process things.  Our ability to shape our products and services to meet the new demands that this current economy creates will be foundational to survival.  I think that’s where the phrase, “Go with the flow” came from. 

Those that have the insight to see where the flow is going are the visionaries. Those that go with the flow are the masses.  And, those who work to give the flow its direction are the pioneers.
Feel the current.  Wet your finger and stick it in the air to feel the wind’s direction.  Know that what got you here isn’t going to get you there.

 Do anything but what you did yesterday.

 Be a pioneer.

When our venturing off into the unknown causes us to feel a bit insecure and our world starts spinning out of control, we tend to reach back for our most recent piece of stable ground.  For many, it’s a trip home for a visit with the folks and some of Mom’s home cooking.

For you Minnesotans it may be a steaming hot plate of tater-tot hot-dish.

 In the marketing space, we’re all venturing off into the technology unknown hoping to grab as many eyeballs as we can.  The rapidly changing marketing platform, fueled by the internet and a legion of social media tools, can get you spinning pretty quickly.

In the middle of this frenzied technology whirlpool stands a marketing island.  An oasis for the web burdened sales professional.  A place where discussions begin and end with a hand shake instead of the letters “LOL”.

The Trade Show.
Our primal need for authentic physical interaction will never be replaced by technology.  I don’t care how compelling and interactive your Squidoo lens is.  Or, how kitschy the video is on your blog, there’s something very reassuring about walking a trade show.  The eye takes in a much broader spectrum on the show floor than it can on the small screen.  Choice and comparison are easier and not manipulated by Google’s search algorhithm.

Even though you know that many of the companies have gone to great lengths to “create” an environment uniquely suited to position their brand, you appreciate the power you have as a window shopper.

There’s a part of us that appreciates, and yearns for the opportunity to physically interact with products, services and the people who represent them.  That will never change.  What is changing is the way our market wants us to communicate with them between trade show connections.  The threads we use to keep the relationships going must be numerous and in line with the expectations of our target market.

As we all struggle to master the new tools in today’s marketing tool box, let’s capitalize on our chances to offer comfort, relevance and authenticity on the trade show floor.

Mom would approve.