You will see our booth just as you enter the exhibit hall.

Skyline would love to see you in our booth, #1325, at EXHIBITOR2012, March 5 to 7, 2012 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.  It promises to be an excellent show.

Many exhibit marketers have renewed their strong trade show schedules, and are looking to expand their booth spaces to take advantage of the face-to-face nature of trade shows.

But because our industry tends to lag the economic cycle, there are also exhibit marketers attending EXHIBITOR2012 who are in expansion mode, just now making up for the reductions they made during the downturn.

But all exhibitors have adjusted to the new reality:  They need a responsive exhibit partner who can augment their smaller team, boost their trade show results, all the while maximizing their highly scrutinized budget.

We look forward to meeting with exhibit marketers who attend the show, to demonstrate how we can help enhance their exhibiting success.  If you need a free pass to the exhibit hall, click here, and enter in promo code 4206 when registering.

5 Reasons To Visit Skyline At EXHIBITOR2012:

Free Trade Show Seminars

Skyline will host 12 “bite-sized” seminars in our booth.  You can get the best nuggets on insights about 6 popular trade show topics such as promotions, social media, booth staffing, exhibit design, and more.  We will present each 10-minute session twice during the show, every hour on the hour that the show hall is open.

Here’s our free seminar schedule (you may want to print it and take it with you to the show):

Expert Advice
After each seminar we will take Q&A from the audience, answering questions about the session topic or any trade show or marketing questions you have. You can also visit the booth at any time to talk with our experienced staff.

Useful, Elegant Gifts
Attendees to our seminars will receive a cool, aluminum-clad notebook.  The elegant notebooks give you a place to jot ideas and reactions to our seminars.  The aluminum covers also evoke the clean, elegant look of our metal exhibit systems.

Chocolate
To complement our “bite-sized” seminars we’re offering bite-sized chocolates.  Stop by anytime during the show when you need a boost, and get a crunchy, creamy nugget of Ferrero Rocher chocolate.

Meet With A Trusted Exhibiting Partner
Whether you are an existing Skyline customer wanting to see what’s new, or an exhibit marketer looking for new ways to achieve trade show success, you can request a meeting with us.  Just click here to ask for a date and time to meet, or stop by to visit us in booth 1325.

Trade shows are a valuable marketing medium.   But they’re also hard work.  You need help you can depend on to succeed.  We hope to see you at our booth at EXHIBITOR2012.

Again, if you need a free pass to the exhibit hall, click here, and enter in promo code 4206.

The Indianapolis Convention & Visitor’s Association recent Indy’s Super Bowl Shuffle caused quite the stir in Indianapolis when it was released this week. 

Most of the outcry was due to those who thought the video was unoriginal and reflected poorly on the city.  Admittedly when I first viewed the video my reaction was, well…the same.  But when I learned of the context of which it was to be used I gained an appreciation for the video.  ICVA removed the video and posted the following on Twitter:

 @visitIndy Nov 30, 8:33pm via Seesmic

We decided to remove our SB Shuffle video.  It wasn’t intended to be a promo for indy- it was to introduce our sales team @ an industry event

The video was actually intended as a pre-show promotion for the Holiday Showcase trade show in Chicago coming up on December 15. While the roll out of this video was flawed, if we look at the video for it’s intended use, it really hits the mark for trade show promotion!

1. Have fun:  Be willing to laugh at yourself!  The ICVA produced a cheesy parody based on the 1985 Chicago Bears video.  With the chorus of  “We’re so bad, we know we’re good,” it’s obvious they were even poking fun at themselves.  Being able to show your fun side and willingness to laugh at yourself makes you more approachable on the trade show floor.
2. Promotion:  The video was posted to YouTube and an email was sent to the meeting planners directing them to the page.  In this case, this is where the execution of the promotion falls short. Consider using the unlisted video feature on YouTube to make your video viewable to the audience you provide a link.  Also, in creation of your video really tailor your video to your audience. Hindsight being 20/20, I’m sure if the ICVA had thought about creating some type of introduction to the video to make clear that this was for an industry event and not intended to promote the city, it would have been received entirely different.
3. Drive Traffic:  The piece was created in a fun way that would give the ICVA great visual recognition at the show and even talking points.  Creating a fun video that gets people talking will also get people talking at your trade show booth providing opportunities for engagement and relationship building.
4. Highlight your products/services: The ICVA did a great job of encapsulating some of the great hotels in our fair city.  Give your audience a tease of what they will get to see at your trade show appearance.  This can also be a great way to roll out a new product or service.

Using video and fun parodies to promote your next trade show appearance is a great tool to drive traffic.  Just make sure you consider ALL of the posibilities when it comes to creation and promotion.

To do your trade show promotions the right way, pick up the Creating Effective Trade Show  Promotions guidebook.  Get your free copy of this 76-page guide that takes you through the entire process from setting goals to execution to measuring results by clicking here.

Trade show promotions drive more traffic to your booth.  Yet, there are nearly an infinite number of promos and giveaways, and almost as many ideas about how to do promotions better, too.  So what should you do first?

These 10 tips are the hidden gems, secrets, and guideposts that I’ve uncovered in the 20-plus years I’ve been doing, reading, and researching trade show promotions.  Follow these best practices to ensure your trade show booth a hub of meaningful activity:

1. Invent a great product demo to do in your booth, to pull in attendees, get them involved, and start valuable conversations.
2. Giveaways are worthwhile because they get more people to enter your trade show exhibit and help you be remembered after the show, but can attract the wrong people if their appeal is too broad and beyond your target market.
3. Set client and top prospect meetings in advance if at all possible, by offering them something of value such as a gift, access to decision makers, or exclusive information.
4. Promotions are great conversation starters — but your booth staffers have to keep the conversation going, rather than let the prospect walk off.
5. Discounts and show specials help you close the deal when you get rare face-to-face time with hard-to-reach prospects.
6. It’s a guy thing: Choose giveaways and promotions that appeal to the demographics of your target audience.
7. Assertive, friendly, and persistent crowd gatherers are worth their weight in gold-dipped foam stress balls.
8. Before the show, reach out to attendees at minimum with email that offers something of value, potentially with direct mail, and for top prospects, by personal telephone calls.
9. Put more effort into social media for trade show promotions — but only when you are already maximizing traditional pre-show and at-show promotions.  Your social media efforts should be proportionate to the social-media adaption rate of your target audience.
10. Giveaways that tie into your marketing message are much more memorable after the show.

I hope you get more attendees into your booth eager to engage with your booth staffers thanks to these ideas.  What is your own top tip for trade show promotions?  Please share it with us in the comments box below.

I hope you get more attendees into your booth eager to engage with your booth staffers thanks to these ideas. What is your own top tip for trade show promotions? Please share it with us in the comments box below.

This article is one of a series on Top 10 Tips for various key trade show topics:

>Top 10 Tips For Trade Show Booth Staffing

>Top 10 Tips For Trade Show Lead Management

> Top 10 Tips For Trade Show Exhibit Design

 Find more of the most effective strategies and tactics exhibitors are using today in the What’s Working In Exhibiting white paper. Click here to request your free 32-page copy. 

The busy season is over and you’ve just exhibited at the same trade shows that you always exhibit at, year after year.  Which can make you too easily fall into the “same old, same-old” mindset: Same competitors, same booth staff, same exhibit, same promotions, same city, same products, same, same, same.

Be careful. That complacency can dangerously slip into irrelevancy.

To keep your edge, try to see trade shows with fresh eyes.  Give yourself some time at your next few shows to get re-inspired.  All you need is your eyes, your feet, and an open mind.

Question everything

When you next walk your show, give yourself permission to question everything.  Put your curiosity on steroids and let it run off the leash.  As you walk down the aisles, ask yourself these key questions – and don’t stop walking until you’ve witnessed the answers for yourself:

• What trade show booths are getting more traffic?  And why?
• Which booths seem to not only attract visitors, but put them at ease to the point they look like they don’t want to leave?
• Look for booth staffers and visitors truly engaged in meaningful conversations — what did they do to get there?
• What at-show activities are generating a crowd, and keeping the right people in the booth?
• What new trade show exhibit designs are you seeing that are catching your eye (and getting more attendees)?  Is it their messaging, shape, color, products, or something else?
• How are booth staffers dressing, more relaxed or more formally?
• Where in the show hall are the hot spots of traffic — and did that change during the day?
• Follow some attendees (at a discreet distance!) and watch what catches their eye, and what they blow right past.

Gain crucial booth staffer insights

I walked a show last week with many of these questions in mind.  Within an hour the difference between good and bad booth staffers was visible; in two hours it was obvious; and by the end of the day it was astonishingly appalling.  Some booth staffers were great and others had me shaking my head asking, who would wreck their entire trade show program by bringing these horrible staffers?

Try it yourself: walk your trade show and see who does a good job engaging you, and who ignores you — even when you walk into their booth!  Who pays attention to all attendees as they walk by, and who is on the phone, even when you reach for a business card on their table?  Who is friendly even at the end of the show, and who looks like they need a trip to the spa?  Who offers a friendly engaging question and turns it into a meaningful conversation, and who says “Hi,” and then shuts up?  By the end of this walk you will have a burning desire to put far greater emphasis on the choosing and training of your booth staff.

You may also notice, depending on the industry your show is in, how incredibly valuable a simple, yet clear product demo is, in stopping and keeping interested booth visitors.

And what else will you find?  That’s up to you to find out; when you get re-inspired with the fresh set of eyes you’ll get after your walk around your next trade show.  You’ll come away with an overflowing list of new things you want to try next year.  And that sure beats the same old thing any day!

For more tips on what to look for and do at your next trade show, read the What’s Working In Exhibiting white paper. To receive your free copy of this 32 page book, click here.

Done right, promotions increase tradeshow booth traffic, make positive impressions, deepen relationships, and boost memorability.  Done wrong, they can waste booth staffers’ time, be a drain on your trade show budget, and erode your reputation.

Here are 8 wrong ways to use trade show promotions that exhibitors unfortunately do again and again – and how you can avoid making these same mistakes yourself:

1.  Get the cheapest giveaways possible

That thing you bought to give to booth visitors?  It has your company logo on it.  Do you want people to equate your brand with cheesy, cheap, and poorly made?  And when it breaks in two weeks, do you want your logo on it?  Nope, I thought not.  So invest in quality, as befits your quality brand.

2.  Pile giveaways in your booth – then ignore the people they attract

You heap an enticing stack of giveaways on the edge of your table, and lo and behold, the trick-or-treaters appear.  They grab and dash, and you feel helpless.  Instead, either put the giveaways further in your trade show displays, or out of sight altogether.  Better yet, guard them with a capable booth staffer, who can quickly qualify attendees with a single question.  You may find your giveaway trap is worth it, if you can find enough qualified leads amidst the treasure hunters.

3.  Offer giveaways that have no tie-in to your message.

Is your strategy to buy the latest cool gadget as a giveaway?  While people will love it, that gadget will not help them remember your competitive advantage.  Want to be remembered for the right reasons?  Find a giveaway that is appealing AND that you can memorably hook into your marketing message or theme.  That way, you create a deeper, more meaningful impression your booth visitor will remember after the show.

4.  Don’t tell your booth staffers about your promotions

Skip telling your staffers about your promotions.  Then, have that awkward moment when an attendee hands your staffer your pre-show mailer inviting them to come get your at-show giveaway, only to be met with a blank stare.  Feel how your company (and professional) reputation takes a hit.  Unprepared staffers won’t know about contest requirements, fulfillment expectations, or how to tie your giveaways to your marketing messages.  So train them.

5.  Offer a prize or raffle – without qualifying entrants

Want a big list of people who just want an iPad?  Raffle it off at your next show.  Unfortunately, that list will be pretty useless when you get back to the office – unless you are an iPad salesperson.  Instead, require attendees to answer a few qualifying questions on an entrance form first, so you know who are the good prospects right away.  Better yet, only do a broad-appealing raffle like this when most of the show attendees could be prospects for your products.  Otherwise, you waste a lot of time talking to non-buyers.

6.  Treat your customers like strangers

Don’t reward your customers for their loyalty.  Give them the same $1.29 giveaway you handed over to everyone else.  Let them feel how special you think they are for giving you their valuable business.  Don’t like the way that feels?  Then have a second, higher-level giveaway stashed away that’s only for clients.  A welcome bonus – you’ll be surprised how often when you give that to a client while thanking them for their business, that they answer you by saying, “You know, we do have this new project coming up…”

7.  Hire a celebrity, then ignore the line

Celebrities, especially those within your industry, can draw a crowd.  But that crowd is worthless if your staffers ignore the line waiting to meet the celebrity in your exhibit.  Staffers can engage attendees by talking about the celebrity, but then also ask them about their needs, and record their answers.   So your staff will know who the qualified leads are before they get the celebrity’s autograph.  The same applies to other entertainment you hire that gets a line forming.

8.  Give a great gift – but then don’t follow up

After you’ve invested $5, $10, $20 or more on a high-quality, memorable gift with your best prospects, you let those valuable opportunities die on the vine by not calling them after the show.  Sure you can hope the gift alone will compel them to pick up the phone and place an order with you.  But their desk will be cluttered with work that piled up while they were at the show.  Instead, be sure to prioritize your leads by quality, so your sales force can reach out to those top-level prospects while they are hot.  And tell your sales people what giveaways the leads received, so the sales people can refer to the gift in the follow up call, and tie the goodwill of the gift to them.

Promotions are a powerful tool for trade show marketers.  But like all tools, they need to be used the right way for full effect.

What other wrong ways have you seen exhibitors use trade show promotions?  Share with your peers in the comment box below.

Learn more ways to do trade show promotions the right way! Click here to get the 76-page Creating Effective Trade Show Promotions book, filled with articles, worksheets, checklists, and ideas to boost your booth traffic.

Exhibit designers make a big deal about how trade show exhibits are 3-dimensional – they have length, width, and height.  That 3D perspective creates much greater visual impact than 2D marketing mediums.

Yet exhibits are actually 4-dimensional, the 4^th dimension being time.  We exist in three spatial dimensions and in one temporal dimension, which combine to be called spacetime.

During a trade show your static 3D exhibit can be transformed into an interactive 4D exhibit attendees experience through the activities you host in your exhibit.   4D trade show exhibits create greater impact than a 3D exhibit that looks the same during the show as during non-show hours.

Here are 7 ideas to transform your exhibit into a 4-dimensional marketing time machine:

1)  Demos  According to research from CEIR, demonstrations are one of the most effective at-show activities you can do to make your exhibit memorable.  Demos create movement and get attendees involved with your products and services.  The best demos help make explicit the advantages of your products, and give attendees irrefutable visual and experiential proof of your claims.

2)  Presentations  When you host a presentation in your trade show booth, it signifies to attendees that there’s something special about to happen.  It’s a bit of the “show” aspect of trade shows, with a professional presenter, backdrop, and amplified sound.  Attendees know they’ll get a concise, informative, and maybe even entertaining few minutes that will allow them to get valuable info, without having to commit to declaring themselves a prospect.  You can schedule presentations as often as every 10 minutes, and pull in crowds to hear what you’ve got to say.

3)  Meetings  This is the pinnacle of planned activities you can do in your booth – previously scheduled meetings with clients and key prospects.  It guarantees you activity throughout the show, and creates visual interest, as nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd.  Have a person on-site who is the master of the schedule, and keep track of attendees who don’t show up on time, so you can call them and try to re-schedule.

4)  Entertainers  You can hire entertainers, such as magicians, dancers, celebrities, and more to get attendees to stop – and stay – in your booth.  Entertainers create motion and intrigue to lure in attendees.  The better ones know how to weave your marketing messages into their entertainment, to help convert attention into action.

5)  Contests and games immerse attendees in a fun activity.  Go beyond a generic putting green and make it an interactive game that reinforces your marketing message and creates an emotional connection with your brand.  At one show we gave attendees the chance to win 2-foot long remote control semi-trucks, emblazoned with our marketing messages (such as lower shipping costs), by competing in time trials.  We had a line all show long, and staffers were able to qualify attendees while they waited for their turn.

6)  Audio/Visual Technology  The use of AV has increased as the price of flat screens and high-powered projectors has decreased.  Short, energetic videos help you compete for attendee’s attention.  They can quickly state your competitive advantage, or help prove your claims.  But don’t ask video to do too much – you still need to rely on your booth staffers to have real conversations!

7)  Moving exhibit  Your actual trade show exhibit can be the 4D element in your booth, when the exhibit itself moves!  Larger island exhibits will sometimes have a rotating hanging sign above it to signal your company’s location from a far.  Movement catches the eye, so a rotating sign gets attention long before attendees get to your booth location.

You don’t need to be a physics major to see the benefits of 4D thinking.  If your exhibit looks the same during show hours as it does outside show hours, then you’re not taking full advantage of the 4-dimensional nature of reality … and trade shows!

Another great use of your time is reading all the best exhibiting practices in the What’s Working In Exhibiting White Paper.  Click here to get your free copy.

Skyline hosted webinars called “Social Media for Trade Show Promotions” on June 15th and 16th, 2011.   Thank you so much for your participation and your questions about the various main social media sites, and how to leverage them to get more people to your trade show booth.

As promised, here is the pdf of the actual presentation content.  (If the pdf viewer is not loading on your browser, you can go to the actual pdf file by copying and pasting this URL into your browser window: skyline.com/images/Social-Media-for-Trade-Show-Promotions-by-Skyline-Exhibits.pdf

During the seminar we offered several items.  Click to request your copies:

• The Evolving Role of Exhibit Marketers White Paper
• What’s Working In Exhibiting White Paper
• Info on Skyline’s portable displays and modular inline exhibits
• Info on Skyline’s custom modular island exhibits

We also mentioned three blog posts that you may find useful:

• YouTube Videos for Trade Show Promotions
• Overcoming The 3 Biggest Hurdles To Using Twitter
• How To Write Your Social Media Plan In 8 Steps

Thanks again for attending!

Correction — We gave the wrong URL in our presentation about how to find the directory for conference groups in LinkedIn.  It’s actually www.linkedin.com/groupsDirectory with a capital “D.”  Also, you have to be logged into your LinkedIn account to see the searchable directory.  Sorry for the confusion!

Pre-show promotions are one of your best methods to get people to visit your trade show booth.  And you need that help, because the average attendee only visits about 20 booths – while the average trade show has about 400 exhibitors!

Pre-show promotions are direct marketing for trade shows.  You use direct mail, email and telemarketing to invite trade show attendees.  And while you have other pre-show promotional methods (ads, social media, room drops), exhibitors have told us in surveys that these three are their favorites.

It’s an old saw for direct marketers that the success of your direct marketing relies first on the list, second on the offer, and third on the creative.  Since list building is the most important (and probably the least discussed!) we’re going to cover it in this blog post.

To build a great list for your pre-show promotions, get names from one or more of these 5 sources:

1. The Show Organizer: This is your best list source, as they know who is actually coming! Get both the list of this year’s pre-registered attendees and last year’s actual attendees, and merge them together.  Order only the part of the list that matches your prospects, filtering the list by industry, job title, company size, and whatever other choices the show producer gives you that help you target your audience.  Filtering the list is more important if you only want to reach a small portion of the attendees.  Most importantly, don’t order the names of your competitors.

If the show organizer doesn’t give you the ability to segment the list before your buy it, consider getting the whole list and then manually deleting at least your probable competitors.  If it’s for direct mail and you have an expensive mailer, take even more time to weed out the wrong recipients.

Append email to your list if the names of the attendees were given to you without emails.  You may have that person’s contact name already in your company database, but knowing they’ll be at the show you are exhibiting at makes them even more valuable.  Even take the time to visit their company website and figure out what the email pattern is for your targets – is it first.last@company.com or is it flast@company.com?

Do this especially for the very valuable list from the show organizer, but you can also do these steps after you’ve gathered names from all your list sources (show organizer, company marketing database, sales, and other sources).

Some show organizers will not allow you to directly receive their attendee list for your promotions, but will send your promotions for you.  In that case you send them your email and they forward it to their attendees, or you send your mail piece to a mail house, and they mail it for you.

Timing on when you get the pre-registered list is tricky.  Get it too early, and you won’t get the names of the people who will register closer to the event (and that proportion is higher than it was a few years ago).  Get it too late and you risk your mail package arriving after the attendee has left for the show.  (And don’t mail your pre-show promotions standard/bulk rate – send them first class so they get to attendees before the show!)

2.  Your Previous Leads From That Show: Many people attend the same show year after year.  So go back to your own leads database and pull the previous leads you collected from the show over the last three years.  Those same people may be further along the sales cycle and you will have more success with them because they already know you, having visited your trade show exhibit.

3.  Your Marketing Database: Your marketing department may have also built a database of likely prospects, too.  So ask your marketing department (if that’s not you!) to get you a list of clients and prospects that live in the show’s geographic region or who are in the show’s vertical market.

4.  Your Sales People. Your sales people probably know more about the best prospects than your marketing database reveals.  So tell your sales people you are exhibiting at the ABC show, and ask them to set up meetings with their existing clients and best prospects that will be at the show.  Those can be some of the most productive meetings you’ll get from the entire show!

5.  Other List Sources: If you can’t get lists from the show organizer and your company database is anemic, you can also buy names of potential attendees via a list broker.  Ask to get names of people who fit your target market: Industry, company size, job title, and location.  They’ll get the names from the top industry publications, associations, and list compilers.  You may even get names from the media company or association that owns the show!

Combine the lists into one file, and take out any obvious duplicates, so you don’t mail them the same invitation multiple times, which is annoying and expensive.  Check the list for completeness: Put the whole list into Excel and sort the list by various fields, such as state or city or email address.  Find the names that are not complete, look them up on Google, and fill in the missing data.  If you don’t have the time and experience to merge/purge the list, work with a mail house who can.

One last point – almost certainly you have received these names from the show organizer or the list broker for one-time use, the trade show.  If you are going to send multiple waves of pre-show promotions, get permission up front, and pay for that.  But don’t add any rental names you did not already have into your company database.

It can take some finesse to build a strong pre-show promotions list.  But it’s worth it!  You’ll have a much better chance of attendees receiving your great offer and creative promotion, and then visiting your tradeshow display.

How else have you built a great list for your pre-show promotions?  Let us know in the comment box below.

Learn more about pre-show promotions and other key trade show marketing best practices with the What’s Working In Exhibiting white paper, yours free by clicking here.

If you’re really serious about improving your pre- and at-show promotions, there is no better source than the 65-page book, Creating Effective Trade Show Promotions.  Get your copy by clicking here.

I love great demos.  Especially those that accurately tell the brand’s story in a fun, interactive, innovative way.

I ran across a great example of this a couple years back at the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago.  The demo was staged in a small (10×20) display booth space, tucked away among several larger, more impressive (and expensive) exhibits.  Yet, it was constantly full of people, and quickly became a big part of the “buzz” around the Exhibit Hall.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here’s a look at the “Dissolve-A-Way Derby”.

Participants lined up and shot huge water guns at plastic storage tubs on a wall about 5 feet away.  Exactly like the old carnival game where you shoot water guns at the clown’s mouth to be the first to pop the balloon.  The Dissolve-A-Way Derby’s objective: completely obliterate a small label affixed to the storage bin.

Why a small label on a storage bin?  (Here’s the brilliant part.)  The company makes an adhesive and paper that will easily dissolve in water, like when washing the bin in a dishwasher.  This is a remarkable breakthrough for restaurant owner/operators who must label their product stored in bins like these to assure freshness and proper product usage and rotation.  However, as you use the bin over and over, most adhesives will build up an ugly residue, a mixture of adhesive, paper, and grime which takes time and effort to remove, stealing valuable productivity away from other tasks.

This message was delivered exactly and memorably to these participants who had fun at the same time.  They also connected the company’s message to the fun they used to have as kids at the carnival.

What is the key to coming up with demo this good?  I think it starts with a thorough understanding of your product/service and the benefit it delivers.

Another reason this particular demo was so effective: a good number of the trade show attendees were either influencers or buyers of their product.  Theirs was not a “find the needle in the haystack” kind of situation.

The next time you see a carnival-type game being deployed in a trade show exhibit, see if the brand message is woven as cleverly and completely as it was done here.  Chances are, it will merely be a game for its own sake, attracting mainly sales people from adjoining exhibits.

If you can make your demos as dynamic as the Dissolve-A-Way Derby, you can soak your competition, and soak up some buzz from the Exhibit Hall as well.

Learn other powerful at-show promotional tactics with your free copy of the Creating Effective Trade Show Promotions book, a 76-page guide that takes you through the entire process from setting goals to execution to measuring results.  Click here to get your free copy.

Connecting with potential customers, website visitors and past clients becomes easy with email marketing. Unlike any other tool, this resource allows a company to gather emails and then use that contact information to announce new products, invite people to future events and introduce upcoming developments. During every part of a convention or trade show, e-marketing can boost the results of a trade show booth.

Gain Interest Prior To The Trade Show

Leaving the advertisement of the event to the convention’s promoters does not guarantee success of your individual trade show booth. Because the promoters for the convention must focus on bringing people into the exhibition, they are not focused with the success of each business that participates.  Although it’s good to have a large crowd, people who come in the front door may or may not even see your trade show booth.  To get visitors to walk over to your booth, you must stay on top of the competition and reach out to people through email marketing.  This low-cost method will easily lure attendees to come by your booth while they are at the event.

To collect email addresses before the convention, consider having a subscription option or newsletter sign up form on your website.  When people agree to receive these notifications, take the opportunity to keep them updated about upcoming events.  Since they requested the information, they want to stay informed.  By writing friendly and short emails, you will stir up hype before the event even happens.

Gather Data During The Trade Show

Once you have built up interest and drawn people to your trade show booth, make sure to seize the opportunity to get their email address. Gathering emails from every single visitor should be a priority since not everyone who stops by knows about your company.  Because email continues to be one of the most commonly forms of communicating along with Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, instant messages and other social media, it’s a premiere advertising tool.  When sending out newsletters, email is the best choice.

Follow Up After The Trade Show

After the convention ends and you pack up your trade show booth, follow up with prospective customers through all the email addresses you received.  E-marketing is less invasive than calling someone on the phone and it gives individuals an easy way to respond back.  In addition, emails can quickly be forwarded to managers and business owners who must approve purchases.  Contacts typically are more receptive to emails then snail mail or phone calls because they can open it at their convenience and aren’t interrupted during an important meeting. Most people don’t even see snail mail that is delivered to a workplace.  Numerous executives have their assistants sort out the solicitations before they bring them the mail.  Most likely, the intended boss never knows that you sent them anything.  Put the hard work of collecting emails at the convention to use and gain great results.  When used correctly, online marketing can be a highly effective marketing tool for any company.

Learn about other successful pre-show and at-show promotion ideas in the What’s Working In Exhibiting white paper.  Just click here to get your free copy of this 32-page report.