Inbound marketing is all the rage right now, however not everyone is taking advantage of it’s usefulness, especially when it comes to following up on trade show leads.  Inbound marketing then uses social media to then stay connected to these qualified leads.  Those that find your content to be of value will want to stay connected to you in hope they will get more valuable content.  This is why they follow your blogs and twitter.

At a trade show you may meet a qualified lead that is not interested in your service right now, however they might need your service in a month or a year.  Sales personnel cannot follow and stay in contact with all of these leads, nor does this lead want the sale person to hound them.  This is where using inbound marketing and social networking outlets can be applied to trade show lead follow-up strategy.  Your follow-up emails should include an invitation to follow your company on twitter, or your blogs, or facebook etc, for them receive more information of value, such as tips.

In addition to this, your company can stay in contact with them so that
even if they are not interested now, you will stay in-touch with them for
potential business in the future.

This is just one way you can use social media and inbound marketing as part of your trade show follow-up strategy.  I hope this gets you thinking of ways to get better results out of your trade show exhibiting experience.  If you do find this information to be of value, follow us!

I just went to an American Marketing Association Boston event yesterday on the importance of inbound marketing for companies.  It was said that the idea behind inbound marketing is to put out rich content that your qualified leads would be interested in.  This content is then put out through different channels of distribution such as your website, blog, facebook page, linkedin page, and short snips of this content on twitter.  The more rich and relevant the content is, the more valuable you appear to be to search engines as well as your potential clients.  In doing so, this helps your search engine optimization, which allows these qualified leads to find you over your competition and for you to stay in contact with these leads.

Hearing some of the comments from the inbound marketing experts got me thinking about how this can be applied to trade shows.

Your exhibit booth should follow many of these same guidelines:

1.  Clearly convey your message to attract people interested in what you do.

All too often I have walked trade show floors, looking at booths with absolutely no idea what they did.  Now I’m not saying you should have a paragraph of information on your booth walls, but you do need to come up with a clear and simple way to convey exactly what you do to the qualified attendees in under three seconds.

2.  Inbound marketing relies on the value of your content specific to your qualified leads.  In this process it filters through all of the people on the web and connects you to those interested in what you do.  At a trade show, exhibitors give away things of value to the attendees, but all too often what the exhibitors give away are not filtering through all of the attendees to find those interested in your services.  Who is interested in getting an ipod?  Everyone!  An ipod giveaway does not qualify any of these leads; however, if you give away something of specific value to your qualified leads, such as an extended trial of your services or helpful tips, it will help attract your qualified leads.

CEIR has reported in the past that 79% of all trade show leads are never followed up.  That’s not missing pay dirt.  That’s throwing it away.  One measurement of trade show success is cost / lead.  Industry statistics say that number should be around $200.  What would you say to someone taking two crisp $100 bills and throwing them in the trash?  Oh yeah, and repeat that for every lead!  If your staff knew the value of a lead, do you think they would throw it away or treat it with kid gloves?

Before you can follow up, maybe you need to increase qualified leads at your custom trade show exhibit booths.  Are you looking for cost conscious trade show training?  Joyce McKee of Let’s Talk Trade Shows offers a Member’s Site.  She is on a mission to know, “Are leads from 2009 trade shows being followed up?”

“Is the trend for no follow-up after a trade show being REVERSED due to our current economic conditions?”

Share with us that you have a lead follow up strategy or not?  Are you implementing that strategy?  If you need help with your process, we know how to cut your trade show budget and sacrifice nothing.  Joyce is going to compile and share the results with us all.

How can I save my trade show budget?  As budgets are parsed, there has been a lot of talk about how drayage costs kill trade show budgets.  Maxine Golding sited a specific example in Exhibiting Transparency where 1/3 of a $4 million trade show budget was spent on drayage and installation & dismantle (I&D).  That is over $1.3 million spent on something that does not generate income for your company.  Beg the question.

Are your custom exhibits designed with weight in mind?  Drayage is calculated by hundred weight (CWT).  As part of your trade show strategy, don’t ship smaller boxes because two at 50 lbs will cost double of one at 100 lbs.  Put your trade show exhibit booth on a diet, and you’ll save money on your budget immediately.  That’s pay dirt.

Did you know that you don’t have to use the show management’s I&D service?  (It’s in your show manual.  I know it’s thick, so we will even fill it out for you.)  The Moran Group has a seasoned lead man that manages the I&D of your exhibition displays.  As part of the process, this lead man reports any design improvements that could improve I&D efficiency.  That’s pay dirt.

Here are 10 Tips for Freight & Drayage at Trade Shows.

Share with us the ways you have cut drayage and I&D costs.

Do you struggle with what to have for your promotional giveaways?  Having custom playing cards for your custom exhibits is a great idea.  Jason Arakelian of The 1 Eyed Jack blogged about his Hero Decks being a good promotional giveaway at trade shows.  In his blog about using custom playing cards as part of your thank you strategy, he said,

“I know people that have the same deck of cards in their kitchen drawer for the last 30 yrs.  That being said when I give someone a deck of cards as a thank you, I know they keep it, use it and remember me whenever they use it. Playing Cards bring people and families together.”

Your message, constantly in front of people, over a long period of time – isn’t that the perfect strategy for promotional giveaways?  If you want some other trade show strategies for custom playing cards, read Novelty playing cards are trade show magic.  There’s even a Go Green idea!

Tell us how you have used custom playing cards for your custom exhibits.

I think I’m psychic!  Are you a skeptic?  TSEA confirms trade show budget cuts for 2009 by 17%.  Having looked into my crystal ball a week ago, I posted Creative imaginations avoid trade show industry casualties, and showed how you can cut your trade show budget and sacrifice NOTHING!  Based on the survey numbers, that sacrifice is $78,100.  What are you going to have to cut?  Would you rather sacrifice nothing?

The survey also states that 51% do not provide trade show training for their staff.

Those who don’t train say they face budget issues, timing issues as well as even push back from their management.

More psychic proof is found in post Cost conscious trade show training.  It sure is odd that

Sales from leads (67%) and total number of leads (62%) were the most frequently cited ways exhibitors measured their success at a show.

Wouldn’t you do better if you trained your staff?

According to the survey, trade shows will get 1/3 of 2009 marketing budgets.  Why?  Because trade shows are still very important for generating leads and closing sales.  We are here to help you get the most out of your budget; to tighten up your trade show strategy; and to provide functionally designed custom exhibits for your trade show success.

My psychic powers are tingling.  I think you’ll be calling.

Be honest, does your trade show strategy consist of putting up a custom exhibit that looks great, and then your people just stand there all day?  Do your people actually know what to do?  Are you interested in cost conscious trade show training?  The Center for Exhibition Industry Research states that 85% of your trade show success is based on your people.

If you like to educate yourself while driving in the car, ExpoVantage has put out an audio learning program called Stop Burning Trade Show Dollars.  This is designed as a trade show training program that:

…offers a realistic and simple budget conscious approach for maximizing your trade show investment.

In typical fashion there is a cool video on the page that explains the program.

My insider information tells me this is a live recording from a seminar with 50+ attendees.  Is the information helpful as an exhibitor?  The attendees’ average rating was 9.5 out of 10.  Are the presenters organized and knowledgeable?  The attendees’ average rating was 9.7.

Here are some of the testimonials from the people attending:

“The ‘PEST’ and ‘HUG’ strategies provided instant dramatic results at NO COST!” -Darcy Cook, Safety Trainers

“…no nonsense and genuine approach…brief, concise and useful…” – Robin Samora, Partner Promotions

“The lessons from your seminar were critical factors in our trade show success.” – Expert Laser Services

What is the value of you gaining just one more qualified lead?  If you apply what is taught, I expect most will double their qualified leads.  Knowing Jason and the quality of his work, for $45, this is a steal.  Buy one for each of your team members.

Tell him I sent you.  After this big endorsement, he’s going to have to buy me lunch.

You may have the best custom exhibit, but if you attend the wrong show, then you’ve wasted a lot of money.  B to B Online, a site for b2b marketing strategists, posted an article discussing a survey that states:

…exhibitors rank the purchasing influence and buying power of attendees as the top factors when deciding whether to exhibit at a given event.

I would take quality over quantity every time.

The Trade Show Calendar is a great site to find out valuable information about shows.  It also allows you to sort by many categories and add information about a show.  You’ll want to add that site to your favorites.

Make sure to qualify your business to business lead generation strategy by contacting the show management and asking for data that they have collected over the last few years.  How many people are already signed up for a show is an indicator of its strength.

Are your exhibit booths aesthetically pleasing?  Are your exhibit designs providing measurable revenues?  The business model at The Moran Group is to provide aesthetically pleasing and functional designs that go hand-in-hand with your overall marketing, sales and trade show strategies.

Seth Godin, author of Purple Cow, posted Return on Design.  In this post he talks about how design can have a negative impact:

If the design actively gets in the way of the story you tell or the utility you deliver, you lose money and share.

Godin also talks about designs that have no impact.  You may have aesthetically pleasing custom exhibits, but they have no effect on sales.

So what is your story?  What is your core message? This is where brand consultants maximize your trade show exhibit booths ROI.  In Stop qualifying leads and start qualifying you, messaging expert, Rita Coco states that we need to

…capture the value from your prospect’s point of view.

…done right, they will have already chosen you… this significantly reduces the time and effort required to close sales.

Godin ends his blog with this, and so will we:

Knowing where you stand and where you’re headed is critical.

…skimping on design is plain foolish.

Are you thinking about pulling out of a trade show or drastically cutting your trade show budget?  Do you feel like there are no other options?  Mark Wilson, VP-Corporate Marketing at Sybase had this to say:

One of the many casualties of this market has been the conference and trade show industry. …this industry had better get creative quickly.

…Despite the tightening of overall budgets and cutbacks in travel, ensuring customers and industry players are current on your offerings and well-trained on your products is of paramount importance regardless of an up or down economy.

As a trade show exhibit booth designer, here are some of the creative ways we help to keep you in front of your customers:

- Outsourced construction reduces bloated overhead costs.  It also allows us to use our expertise in choosing the right manufacturer for your custom exhibits or portable trade show displays.
- Outsourced storage reduces bloated overhead costs.  We now focus on what is best for your trade show strategy.
- Reducing your trade show budget by 15% – 20% by nearly eliminating overhead cost.
- Trade show display designs don’t just look good.  They are customized for your specific trade show strategy needs.
- A booth rental eliminates exhibit storage and maintenance costs.
- Satellite support staff available globally and virtually.
- Strategic partners that design and implement adjustments to your trade show strategy with a proven 50% – 600% increase in your qualified leads.
- Creative imaginations that make your exhibit displays stand out while protecting your buget.

What would it mean to your trade show marketing program if you could cut your budget by 15% – 20% today, and increase your qualified leads by 50% – 600%?  Would that keep you from pulling out of a show, and in front of your customers and prospects?

Don’t be a trade show casualty. Rationalizing poor trade show results MUST STOP!  Share with us the creative things that you are doing to avoid being a trade show casualty.