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Marketing Basics Target Marketing Tradeshow Campaigns Marketing Budget Drip Marketing Online Marketing Look Professional Camera Plus Customers Referral Program Advertising Media Experts Social Media Secret Pay Per Click - written by: Galen Sonntag Sign up to receive our monthly Outfitter Marketing Tips notice. How to Make a Tradeshow a Campaign Tradeshows are considered by many to be a lot of effort for a chance to hand out a few brochures and take a few names. This is largely because most people begin planning a tradeshow too late in the process and miss the key opportunities for success, before and after the show. Consider the following Tradeshow Success Formula: Show Selection * Pre-show Marketing + Show Execution * Post Show Marketing = Sales Success The best opportunity to increase your success usually sits in the Pre-show and Post Show Marketing. We'll discuss all four aspects, with special attention on these two. Send this article to a friend. Recommend this article. Add a comment. This article has been recommended 90 times. Gear Shop Special Search Engine Marketing Made Easy Show Selection Selecting a tradeshow should be pretty basic, but you must consider both the cost of the show space as well as all the additional costs that you may incur such as costs to produce a booth, brochures, travel costs, meals, and possible accommodations. Most important in your show selection is to ensure that the show attendees are of high calibre. How do you find out? check out last year's exhibitor list, usually available online, and call them to get their opinion. Ask them if they plan to exhibit again. This will be your most telling answer. Secondly, does this show fit with your business plan? Does it fit with the financial plan you have put together? Will it help you fill your hunt calendar? Does it fit with your own personal calendar? Not sure if it's a good investment? Try "walking" the show this coming event and spend some time talking with the exhibitors and the visitors. Don't forget to bring your own brochures as you may be able to line up a few customers by circulating during the show. Don't be afraid to drop a few brochures while walking the show near the high traffic areas such as the restaurant and washrooms. Pre-show Marketing The purpose of pre-show marketing is to get people who are coming to the show to come to your booth as a destination on their agenda. Imagine the difference between the lead quality of someone who is walking down the aisle, sees your booth, and decides at the moment to stop and see what they might find. Contrast this with someone who shows up at your booth, with your name, an invitation in their hand, looking to get more acquainted with you. I'll take 5 of the personal invite visitor over 100 of the stop in visitor. So how do you get them invited? First you need the list of the right people to invite. Just like in the article on Target Marketing, if you can find the right people, who are interested in your offer, you are much better off than trying to convince everyone. Where do you find these people? There are two top sources. The best place is your own database of contacts from the area. If you do not have your own customer/lead database, the you will need to find a business who sells to the customer profile you are looking to market to and negotiate a deal to gain access to their list. The best place is to find a list marketing partner like this is from past show exhibitors. Look for a gun club, a sporting goods show, a wildlife federation, etc. And offer them something of value in exchange for their customer list. Perhaps you will share the cost of a direct mailing campaign with them. Perhaps you will offer a free guided hunting adventure in exchange for the co-marketing. Make sure whatever you do puts you company name in front of likely show visitors with a personal invitation to visit your booth at the show. Offer to set up a personal appointment, at a pre-arranged time. Make sure you give them your booth location, phone number, email address, and website so they can show up with as much pre-meeting information as possible. Some tradeshows will have pre-registration of attendees and visitors. If they do, spend the money to buy this list. Show Execution Unless you have something very unique to offer customers, you are not likely to stand out at a tradeshow. Yes, you have the best service, and the best and biggest game, and the most comfortable lodging, but that's nearly impossible to prove with your booth and pictures and brochures. If you were to walk around to all other outfitters at the show, take their brochures, and check them out after the show, you would realize that you don't really stand out from the pile of brochures you have just gathered. So do something memorable, something to attach yourself to the show, to stand out as bigger, better, and more professional than the other exhibitors. Stage an event at your booth, hold a competition, create a contest to associate your name with winning, with added value. Create a promotion with another show exhibitor to give away a combined prize. Perhaps you and the local sporting goods company could give away a free trip with all the outdoor clothing to go with it. Hold an elk bugling contest. Make sure whatever you do has a connection to what you offer your customers. A lead scoring system will help you with follow up later, determining who is a hot prospect and which you will need to nurture for a while. Give your contacts a score rating with a range of 1 (weak prospect) to a 5 (hot prospect). With each name and set of contact information you gather, keep a list of the names and write a quick number beside them for easy reference later. Post Show Marketing Now that you have a number of contacts in your hand, it's time to become top of mind for them as they consider their choices. Your contacts will range from those who have placed a booking with you (ideally with a deposit paid) to the casually interested brochure gatherer. Use the scoring system from Show Execution described earlier to determine the time, effort, and money you will spend on follow up. If you have customer bookings without deposits paid, these are your priority. How long should you wait to follow up after the show? Try using the 5/10/20/40 follow up plan. You should aim to have something on your prospect's table within 5 days of the show. That means it should hit the post office within 2 days of the show close. Guess what, you need to have your follow up plan figured before the show so all you need to do is address and send. Why 5 days? You want to get back in their hands while your name is still fresh in their minds and other life priorities have taken over. More importantly, with a follow up after the show, you go from your brochure being in the middle of a pile of many to being on the top of a pile of one. Within 10 days of the show, and knowing your prospect also has a mailing from you, follow up with a phone call to get a good sense of their interest and willingness to make a commitment. 20 days after the show, make sure they receive a follow up letter based on your phone conversation, addressing any requests they mentioned or any reservation they may have. After 40 days, get on the phone again and see where they are at. By now they have received a mailing 5 days after, a phone call 10 days after, a personal letter 20 days after and a phone call 40 days after. You should have a pretty sound sense of whether they belong in your hot prospect list or in your long term marketing file. Looking for a show? Here are a few to consider: All Canada Show Back Woods Show Eastern Fishing & Outdoor Exposition shows International Sportsmans Expositions Michigan Outdoor Shows St. Cloud Sports Show Advertise on S3Outdoors.com Add a comment Comments:

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