At-show Marketing: Earn a Place on your Attendees' “Must-see” List

Issue: 
Vol 2, No 7
Author: 
Linda Musgrove

There are a number of at-show marketing activities that can draw prospects to your booth. But first, we need our well-documented audience profiles to evaluate and select the right mix of at-show marketing options, and then decide what you want to achieve with them. The most common objective is to get more people from your target audience to come to your booth during the show. Here are several examples:

  • Advertising in show catalogs or show publications
  • Airport advertisements
  • Billboards (including mobile ones – such as signs on show buses or taxis)
  • Hospitality events
  • Breakout sessions or sponsored presentations/speeches
  • Hotel TV, in room brochures, room key advertising
  • Show hall banners/ads
  • Items included in the attendee kit/bag
  • Show publication PR (specifically for media published during the event)
  • In-booth promotions

Since many of those options have a very broad audience, you may wonder why the target prospect profile is important. Of course you need it to target your message, but you can also use it to find the most cost-effective placement. For example, your target audience might be more likely to stay in 3 Star hotels than in 5 Star hotels or vice versa. Your target audience might be more likely to drive to the event than arrive at the airport. Your targets might be more likely to attend specific lunches or networking events than others. Check any marketing opportunity you have against your target profile and consider the likelihood that your advertising will be seen and noticed by your target audience and what the cost per eyeball – or pair of eyeballs – is. Being noticed and being paid attention to is obviously mission critical, so take into account what other distractions will compete with your advertising at that time. For example, there is only space for one advertisement on a room key, while many pieces of promotional material will be in the attendee bag. Or it might sound like a good idea to sponsor and present at a show lunch since most attendees will be there, but can you really compete with everyone’s desire to just eat and catch up with colleagues or business partners?

In addition to creating more awareness for your exhibit, there are also marketing opportunities to better promote your products once people come to – or at least by – your booth. Popular marketing ideas include celebrities at a booth, contests or drawings, giveaways, live entertainment, or live presentations. However, many of those run the risk of attracting too broad an audience, and your trade show ROI will almost always be higher with fewer quality leads than a large number of more or less randomly collected attendee information that does nothing but simply waste your sales team’s time.

Once you have the right attendees in your booth, you have to provide the marketing material that is relevant for them. When you create brochures or data sheets, make sure to focus on the benefits your offering provides and don’t get to hung up on features or technical specifications. That information is often required, but don’t lead with it. While this kind of material is usually a necessity, realize that we are all trained to be suspicious of marketing material. Research shows that third-party article reprints or case studies appear much more credible to readers than any traditional marketing pamphlet. Especially case studies with customer quotes that cover an attendee’s industry or specific application of your product or service are very powerful tools and you should select those carefully to match the targeted audience at the show.

You also need to consider your post-show media and PR marketing strategy while you are at their show. Unless you are working with a daily news media, odds are any coverage of your company, products, or services will happen after the show. But it is during the show that you have the opportunity to pitch to members of the media and convince them to cover the information that you provide them. It is usually a good idea to participate in event-sponsored PR activities; you should make sure you have something to announce and provide that information in the press room. Not unlike the printed material discussed above, being able to produce real-life customer information is usually much better than a press release or media pitch. Odds are that some of your good customers will be at the show. See if some of them are willing to attend a few media meetings. You will find that this makes it much easier to get media attention and your customer is often happy about the opportunity to talk about their business to the media. However, not unlike an attorney in a court, you need to know what your witness is going to say.

To create your most effective at-show marketing options, make a list of at-show marketing opportunities that are targeting your prospects and fit within your budget. Rank them based on cost/benefit ratio. Go through your show collateral and make sure you have third-party testimonials whether case studies or article reprints.

About Linda Musgrove, the TradeShow Teacher

Linda Musgrove is President of the Trade Show Training firm, TradeShow Teacher. She focuses on teaching companies to significantly improve Trade Show Results through strategic, customized Trade Show Training for individuals, departments, or entire teams. Musgrove also presents customized training programs for Trade Show Producers to offer exhibitors. Most recently she authored  “The Complete Idiots Guide to Trade Shows.” Learn more at http://www.tsteacher.com and sign up for the FREE monthly Trade Show Tactics newsletter. Follow on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/tsteacher. Send an invite to connect on LinkedIn (email is: linda@tsteacher.com).