Companies have been using collateral at trade shows for years as a marketing technique.  How effective is this and what is it hurting?  Most collateral that is used at a trade show is thrown out.

Why is this?  Well, trade show attendees are walking by all of the booths and collecting collateral from the different companies exhibiting.  They take all of this information with the best intention to read it over, but because of busy schedules and large workloads, most of this material is simply thrown out.  The only hope is that your collateral stands out among the crowd, which leads to marketing departments spending additional time and money to do so.  Also, all of your extra collateral will most likely be thrown out because it will either cost more to ship it back than it would to reproduce it or the material is no longer relevant.  The amount of paper thrown out is staggering and is obviously not good for the environment.  What does this mean to you?  It means that if you use a lot of collateral at your trade shows you are wasting your marketing dollars and hurting the environment.

I’m not saying don’t use any collateral; however use it in a way that is more strategic and effective.  Here are some tips on effectively using collateral:

1^st Don’t have a large amount of collateral at the show.
Just have a little on hand for very “hot” leads.

2^nd If a lead asks for any marketing material, explain to them that your company has eliminated a lot of trade show collateral because so much was thrown away, and the company wanted to be more eco-friendly.

3^rd Explain to the lead that you will be sending the requested information to them through email and direct mail.  This way they don’t have to carry more stuff and you will follow-up with them to make sure they got the information the wanted and answer any questions.  “Is that ok?”  This qualifies the lead, provides you with contact information, and allows you to set up a follow-up phone call.

4^th Record the person’s information and what they would like to learn more about.  Make sure you verify all of the information.

What does this mean for you?  You are sending specific information to qualified trade show leads instead of just wasting money one useless collateral.

For more helpful trade show marketing advice, contact www.TMGExhibits.com

Recently I was at the Adtech trade show at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City with “Idea Launch,” one of our new clients.  While walking the show floor I noticed two very important things that all exhibitors should know!

1^st
There were quite a few people in the isles.  It was easy to notice that attendance was up!  This is a good sign to exhibitors as it shows that companies are starting to spend money and allowing their staff to attend trade shows.  Also, it is a positive sign to the economy because the companies are loosening their money belts to not only attend trade shows, but are looking to start buying again.

2^nd
When walking the isles checking out the different booths not only to see what the companies did, but also what their trade show strategies entailed.  While doing this I ran into quite a few exhibit booth models.
Companies’ will uses these trade show booth models to attract attendees to their booth, with hope that an increase of booth traffic leads to more leads and in turn more business.  This is also a good sign in the exhibit world as it shows that companies are also spending additional marketing dollars on these trade show booth models.

Has anyone else started to see this at any other trade shows?

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.