The busiest part of our trade show season is OVER!!! Is it just me, or does anyone else feel a little empty, tired, and sad over their trade show budgets being depleted so fast???!! All joking aside, trade shows are important, and yes, they cost money. So how do you make the most of the money you spend?? Well, first and foremost, get as much valuable information from those 6,000+ attendees! That’s a good place to start.
There’s lots of ways to do this….here’s one. A year ago, I did a direct mailer to registered show attendees. The maileer arrived about 1-2 weeks before the show….which is good seeing as the mailer was ASKING them to fill out the back (a brief survey) and drop it off at our booth. Something like this should be fresh in the attendees mind so that they 1. Remember to pack it, and 2. Remember to bring it to your booth….an incentive to do this helps.
Enter to Win at our trade show booth!
As you can see here, they could submit their card to enter-to-win an i-Pod Nano. We got quite a few cards back. The survey asks questions that our sales team can then inquire about after the show. Most of these cards don’t actually turn out to be leads….I call it “curse of the Free Stuff.” People don’t always answer honestly, but, some of the cards are truly great leads. If you can get 10 sales out of 100 cards, and 90 of them were bogus, I say it’s worth it!!
Why the Direct Mailer Survey is good….and why it’s bad: So this is where I have to look at both sides of the coin. Doing this mailer is good because…
1. It’s going to a good mailing list (which is a treat in itself!)
2. It’s an opportunity to get your company in front of them early
3. It’s convenient for them…they just answer a few questions on the back
4. Your booth number, Enter-to-Win prize and any other pertinent images are front and center!!
What’s bad about it?
1. Cost: of course. Printing a mailer + postage costs = more money than you’d like to spend.
2. The post office is involved: what if the attendee doesn’t get the mailer in time?
3. The attendee is responsible for remembering to bring it to the show….
4. After spending the time and money on this project, it doesn’t guarantee a solid lead for your sales team…
With that being said, you have to try and you have to start somewhere. In some industries, mailers work best. In others, onsite surveys work better. Figure it out, that’s what marketing people do 🙂 And don’t forget to calculate your return on investment….! Start tracking, from initial survey card lead all the way to completed transaction!
Do you have any great trade show marketing ideas?? What have you done that’s worked for you? I’d love to hear it!
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