In the next
issue of the Claymanite...
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Next issue we will discuss how to keep the buzz going once the trade show is over. Stay tuned...
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Welcome to the Claymanite
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Greetings!
Thank you for the warm reception to our inaugural issue of The Claymanite in February. With all of the challenges all of us face, we've decided a quarterly e-newsletter is just not enough to deal with all that is going on. So we are going to publish bi-weekly to share as much information as we can and to hear from you as well.
With that being said, we've decided to build a theme per month touching on a number of key issues. This month's theme is "Tradeshow Fever."
Let us know if you find these e-newsletters helpful. That is, after all, our goal. And as always, we welcome your input and suggestions.
Sincerely,
Clayman Advertising, Inc.
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"Business buyers generally plan their tradeshow time in advance. Research from the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR) found that 76% of attendees use pre-show information for this purpose."
-Ruth P. Stevens, "How to Quadruple the Results of Your Tradeshow Marketing." |
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If You Build the Buzz, They Will Come 
For many industries, Spring is the beginning of tradeshow season. This year, perhaps more than ever, it is essential to capitalize on any face time you can schedule with customers and prospects.
Tradeshows, conferences
and meetings remain reliable ways to achieve those goals. However, just as Kevin Costner learned in the movie Field of Dreams that he had to build it for them to come, exhibitors know that they must build buzz and excitement for the attendees to come.
This issue of the Claymanite focuses on ways to build that buzz and excitement without breaking the bank.
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"Showing the long-term, intangible benefits of an event is very important. Most likely, attendees will need to make an argument about attending. Helping them talk about it with the people who approve their attendance and making that individual very aware of what the benefits will be is a good idea...."
-"Survival Skills: The Importance of Event Marketing in a Down Market," BtoBOnline.com, March 9, 2009.
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When Planning for Tradeshows, Think An
A.P.P.L.E. A Day...
As tradeshow attendees wrestle with ever-increasing travel expenses, exhibitors must make their show worth the investment for customers and prospects. Beginning the planning process for tradeshows early is a key step towards accomplishing this goal.
We hope that this checklist, summarized by the acronym A.P.P.L.E., comes in handy and helps you think of new and successful ways to approach your tradeshows this year.
Advertise: In the past, one of the best ways to drive booth traffic was to advertise in the pre-show or show issue of relevant trade publications with a "see us at booth #..." message on the ad. This is still a viable option, but the variety and impact of alternate or additional sources has expanded. Today, e-newsletter sponsorships and website advertising programs reach the same desired audience. These newer options are trackable and in the case of an e-newsletter, you know your ad is being seen by people who have requested that content.
Promote: "If you collect names at tradeshows, whatever you do don't call them leads and don't distribute them...not until you've sent an e-mail to these people."
-Russell M. Kern, "How to Solve Direct Marketing's Five Biggest Problems."
Russell Kern brings up a valid point. It's easy to assume that anyone that stops by a booth is a "lead." However, until you have created a channel of communication, people that visit your booth are just that -- visitors.
As technology continues to advance, it is becoming easier and easier to rent lists or segments of lists tied to tradeshows or conventions. This list can be the golden goose for your show experience. Instead of just sending a postcard inviting someone to come to your booth, make your pre-show mailing (whether direct mail or e-mail) something interactive. Consider a survey. Your customers want to tell you what they think and they get excited when they believe you also want to know their opinion. Mailing something as simple as a postcard or a 2-panel mailer with 4 or 5 survey questions can be an effective way to get your target audience to pay attention and get involved. But don't let it end there.
One of the advantages of mailing or e-mailing a survey is that you are also creating a way to measure trade show Return on Investment (ROI). Ask your recipients to bring their survey cards to your booth at the show and announce that a card will be chosen at random on the final day of the show to win a prize. On the survey, include questions that will allow you to follow up with the attendees that visit your booth. Do they want you to send them a sample? Do they want to receive literature? Have they been visited by someone in your sales force before? These and other questions have value that extends beyond the timeframe of the show.
Pop-Up Banners: Ideally, booth graphics would be updated every year. It may seem easy to cut this expense, but using the same booth graphics year after year sends the message that you have nothing new to say. In tough times like these, there are easier, more affordable ways to spice up your booth. Pop-up or table-top banners are effective, low-cost attention-getters. Literature pieces or advertisements can be adapted for these purposes. According to the 2009 TSEA (Trade Show Exhibitors Association) Survey, 40% of those who purchased a new booth over the last year invested in a pop-up banner, and 28% of those who plan a purchase in the next year are planning to purchase a pop-up banner rather than a custom booth.
Literature: "Travel lightly; avoid the urge to pick up samples and literature from every booth, until your "must see" business has been completed."
-Society of Manufacturing Engineers, Tips for Trade Show Attendees.
Some exhibitors may feel that visitors to the booth pick up literature as a courtesy and drop it in the trash as soon as possible, and truthfully, that may be the case for some visitors. The key is that now more than ever, tradeshow attendees are going to make it a priority to visit booths that are important to them, and in doing so, they will pick up literature that has information they want and/or need. Therefore, having literature at your booth is important to provide for those quality leads. Bringing just 100-200 copies should suffice if you hand out literature selectively.
This does not have to be the sole purpose for your new sell sheets. Literature can also be used as part of a pre-show campaign (it can also be used after the show, which will be covered in our next issue). Let your prospects and customers know what products you will be promoting at the show by sending them literature to look at in advance. Educate your customers and enhance their understanding of the products you'll be talking about. Doing so will help them choose going to your booth to learn more...a better prospect for you.
Elevate your products: "There are times when either you can't reach your audience through print, broadcast or the Internet, or you need to supplement your media program. That's when you need to think about face-to-face marketing - placing clients directly in front of targeted audiences through informational events structured around their interests."
-Judi Schindler, "Face-to-Face Marketing: When Media Alone is Not Enough."
In the past, companies viewed tradeshows as the ideal way to get the word out about a new product. This is no longer 100% true. Your customers can now learn about your new and existing products by going to your website. If they are visiting your booth it's because they want to hear your message directly from you. They want to put a face to the name or brand. They want to hear from you, in person, why your product is the best in the market. They want that human touch. And remember, your products will always be brand new to a prospective customer. Putting together a press kit showcasing your new products in advance of shows is a great way to remind your target audience what you do and what they can look forward to seeing at your booth. Be proud of your brand!
Remember, the early bird gets the worm. The earlier you start building the buzz about your plans to exhibit at a show, conference, or meeting, the greater likelihood that attendees will include your booth on their priority list. That's the real core of the issue.
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Brave New Virtual World
This past month, Clayman Advertising and one of our clients delved into the world of virtual tradeshows. While one browser window was being used to help "man" the booth, a separate browser window was running a WebEx meeting on a lead generating opportunity with another publication. The shift towards virtual meetings, webinars, and now virtual tradeshows has been building steadily over the last two to three years. Travel expenses and time away from the office that trade shows necessitate all explain why Events Planners are looking for something new.
Virtual tradeshows, much like the first banner ads that appeared in the wake of the dotcom boom and bust, are touting themselves as lead generators right now. Indeed, in the case of our client, the virtual booth, which included several deep links back to the company website and literature that was ready to download for "visitors," received over 300 click-throughs over a 2-day period. But, in parsing out the list, only about 30 seemed to be high quality leads. How can one compare the relative importance of this kind of a lead versus a lead from an actual show? It is too early to tell.
Still, there are a lot of good things about these new kinds of online experiences. Whether or not the leads were hot, the contact information for all of those people is now available to our client because attendees had to register with both a "snail mail" address and an e-mail address. Also, appearing in a virtual tradeshow environment shows that you are open to new trends in the marketing world. Finally, now is a good time to participate in virtual tradeshows because the events themselves receive a lot of attention if only because they are so new.
Charlotte Woolard, in her article titled "Economy Drives Interest in More Complex Virtual Events (BtoBOnline.com), writes, "Virtual events give marketers a host of benefits, from cutting costs to increasing reach and even reducing carbon emissions. But at the end of the day, events need to start a dialogue -- an area where marketers said virtual events still have room to grow."
It's hard to tell right now whether virtual tradeshows will continue to increase in occurrence across many different industries or whether their fate will continue to be tied to higher fuel and travel costs like those of the Summer of 2008. They are, of course, very popular already in the high-tech world, and the particular one we attended was for the healthcare market. The idea of a virtual expo as a way to incorporate webinars into a tradeshow type environment holds a lot of merit, and it is something Clayman will be keeping an eye on over the coming months and years. More to come.
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Continuing Blogs from a Mad Man...
Larry has been continuing to blog on a wide variety of topics. So far this month, Larry has talked about the concept of "self-identifying" and how that new trend is causing a shift in approaches to marketing. Towards the end of March, Larry also blogged about views of our country from a global perspective and the new generation gap -- newspapers versus digital news.
Stop by www.larryclayman.wordpress.com to get an inside peek into the mind of Larry Clayman.
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Celebrating 55 years of Marketing Service!
Sincerely,
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