COMMENTS
Nice. Traditional social media at a traditional trade show vs. online social media at a webinar. I like your logo change too! Can't wait to see what you do for President's day...
Lori Robinson
Director of Marketing, eCoast
Been there....... that is why I wrote a blog "Trade Shows, are they for civil engineers?" here is the link....http://www.pmpassoc.com/new-england-civil-engineering-blog/2008/06/trade-shows-are-they-for-civil-engineers/
No one in your booth is usually the result that your company did one or more of the following:
a) Didn't have a good value proposition for that event,
b) Didn't do anything to promote your existence at the event,
c) Staffed the booth with not-so aggressive people who like to sit in the rear of the booth,
d)Have a confusing, unclear booth design that cannot be deciphered in less than 3 seconds,
e) Exhibited at a event where there is not designated exhibit hall only time.
or possibly:
f) Exhibited at an event where 80% of the participants' companies scaled business travel back due to the economy...
@ Steve- Yes, I think it a joke about the economy not about best practices for tradeshows.
How about virtual trade shows. I can have my avatar come over and see your avatar at my digital booth :-)Trade shows are ok for building visibilty and checking out your competition; not particularly good for leads, don't kid yourself.
The good thing about the attendees who do attend is that they are more likely to be a serious buyer (top-level decision maker).
This is yet another area which is suffering because of the economic crisis. I am finding that I have to work harder. I just wote an article about new strategies.
http://www.marketingpr.suite101.com/article.cfm/marketing_during_the_economic_crisis
I have cartoons too!
http://pastexpiry.blogspot.com/
http://pastexpiry.blogspot.com/2009/02/cartoon-oscar-grouch.html
I did 20 tradeshows a year for over seven years in different countries / regions for multiple clients....
I have been to shows where the only business that was going on was the one between exhibitors themselves.
You would be surprised how create you become during tough times.
Stay focused, stay alert...opportunity is everywhere.
These cartoons are funny, but sometimes reflect the truth. Are they drawn in house?
Great cartoons and it holds true for not just marketing but a lot of other fields as well like in my field, editing.
Me and a friend now edit each other articles (and i hope this doesn't go on for long because i don't get paid in cash for it).
I write on mattress promotions, which mattress size would suit which kind of people and Sleep care and he writes on interviewing skills and trains people for interviews.
I think I should also add some similar cartoons to my webpage.
-John
Mattress Queen Editor
http://mattressqueen.org/
The cartoon rightfully attacks trade show booths (and not networking at trade shows).
$10k is what it costs us to ship and setup our booth at a secondary conference (225 attendees). Add another $10k for wasted staff time in maintaining the booth.
Anyone care to share what that $20k could otherwise buy a B2B company?
On the $20K expo...
Do you need to be at these expos? If so, rethink your tradeshow exhibit and booth space.
We run 10x10 or sometimes 10x20 booths, pay a few hundred dollars for shipping and have our sales reps set up the exhibit and still have great exposure.
The extra dollars are spent in pre- and post-show marketing (direct mail, emails, sponsoring educational sessions, etc). BTW - booth traffic is always excellent!
Your case might be different, but in this economy, radical changes are needed.
$10,000 in wasted staff, huh???
We look at having staff on site as an investment. They must be involved with the event somehow (attending sessions or scheduling appointments on and off site with prospective clients). Reps are active in breakfast sessions right through evening social events. It's all about networking.
So assuming you saved an easy $10k, invest that money into:
(a) implementing a social media strategy (communicating through LinkedIn)
(b) developing very useful whitepapers and other resourceful tips, etc.
(c) Implement a marketing automation program to capture and nurture leads... like Prospect Insight from
Pardot.com All three could easily be done for under $10,000 (not including your time).
Good luck!
hey Chris...tx for the info. The Pardot stuff and links i found there were helpful.
one exception: LinkedIn. As far as i can tell - good for looking for a job and hitting up friends for references, that's it. twitter/facebook is where the puck enters the net.
I have visited a lot of trade shows over the past few months before I started my own business. I sometimes wonder why companies pay a fortune to have a booth at a trade fair, when most of their staff are seating at a table reading emails, magazines or newspaper. How engaging is this?
Very funny. Expos and tradeshows definitely have their slow times. Thanks for the smile.