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Business Marketing Beyond the Booth

Written by: Leanne Hoagland-Smith

Article Overview: Exhibiting at a tradeshow is only the beginning for this marketing strategy. Read what follows after the tradeshow and learn some hints for the next tradeshow.

Business Marketing Beyond the Booth

The tradeshow is over, so what's next? The answer is simple – FOLLOW-UP! Executing follow-up is probably where many businesses fail to leverage their limited resources and secure a positive return on investment.

After the event, you begin to build your nurture marketing for each prospect to create "Top of Mind Awareness" (TOMA© www.toma.com). In today's hectic business world, research suggests that you need to touch your prospect 13 times. Your follow-up efforts from phone calls to mailing literature are the second "touch." Each 21 to 30 days, you again need to touch your prospect with a postcard, fax, email, newsletter or article. Your consistency during this process is what wins the race and turns those high cost trade show dollars into real sales.

Keeping track of all sales from each trade show allows you to better determine what to budget for next year. Sometimes this data takes over a year to generate especially if your sales cycle is 6 months or longer. Reserving your space for the same conference for a second time may be based on an overall impression from the first event, but by the third time, you should know if the conference or tradeshow is a worthwhile investment.

The following tips may help you plan your next tradeshow endeavor.

Individual Tips – Before Event
 Establish goals
 Determine what you wish to learn from exhibitors
 Identify what exhibitors need to know about your business
 Create consistent tag line, elevator speech (10 seconds)
 Create after event post-event mailing piece e.g. thank you
 Establish system for collecting business cards
 Create an easy read professional name tag
 Locate booths that meet your goals
 Use map, if available, to determine how you will efficiently walk the show

Individual Tips – During Event
 Bring energized SMILE
 Seek to engage others using Active Listening Skills
 Remembers lots of business cards
 Bring name tag
 Travel light, leave coat, etc. in car
 Bring Palm and have planner easily accessible
 Dress professional with comfortable shoes
 Have map of event, highlighted with booths of interest
 Bring highlighter and pen

Individual Tips – After Event
 Evaluate goals at end of show
 Reserve next day for follow-up
 Block off next year's date if this is a MUST SHOW

Booth Tips – Before Event
 Create a draw to your booth
 Review check list for any giveaways, handouts
 Order fresh flower, candy etc for event
 Check booth for any damage or to update
 Review roles of those staffing the booth
 Practice "10 second" speeches

Booth Tips – During Event
 Note booths with creativity and high traffic
 Supply candy or "take aways"
 Utilize fresh flowers help to attract visitors
 Limit time visiting with friends or existing business contacts
 Avoid sitting
 Keep booth open until event closes!

Booth Tips – After Event
 Have enough people to quickly disassemble your booth
 Notice and communicate any damage to the booth
 Secure disc from "Electronic Swiper" or "Electronic Scanner"
 Register for next year's event

Related Articles
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  Q&A: What does excellent trade show signage look like?
  Increase Your Trade Show Sales without Renting a Booth
  Determining Your Real Exhibit Costs
  Inflatables Give 3 Powerful Advantages to Mobile Marketing Tours

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