Trade Show Essay Research Paper Trade Shows — страница 4

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marketing with promotional products. She spent six years on the editorial staff of The Counselor magazine, the preeminent publication for the promotional products industry, and earned the Certified Advertising Specialist (CAS) designation from the Promotional Products Association International. Turning Leads into Sales after the Trade Show By Alyson Hendrickson Wentz, CAS Imagine planning a huge party and sparing no expense to do it right. You’ve hired the best caterer in town. Bought out the most elegant florist. Sent engraved invitations to all of your friends and colleagues. And then on the day of the party, after you’ve spent months planning it, you change your mind and call the whole thing off. You wouldn’t do that, right? Of course not. But, that’s just what some

exhibitors are doing when they spend months of planning (and thousands of dollars) to make a splash at a trade show, and then don’t follow up with the prospects that they went to the show to meet. They’ve wasted their time and money. They might as well have stayed home. The Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR) reports that 80 percent of exhibitors make no attempts to follow up on their leads from trade shows. In a study conducted by the University of Massachusetts Center for Marketing Communications, 43 percent of prospective buyers reported receiving materials that they had requested at a trade show after they had already made a buying decision. Another 18 percent said that they never received the materials that they had requested. “Unfortunately, the longer you

wait, the less likely you are to close,” says Jay Conrad Levinson in Guerilla Trade Show Selling. There are three components to effective trade show marketing — pre-show, at-show and post-show. Without the post-show component, the marketing strategy is not complete and often the sale is not made. Therefore, developing a creative and effective post-show promotion is just as important as, or even more important than, your pre- and at-show promotions. According one a government-funded study, when service is perceived to be immediate, 95 percent of customers will do business with you again. So, follow up right away. “Just as you scheduled time before the show for planning and preparation, reserve time immediately after the show to manage your new leads,” Levinson says.

“It’s your company’s responsibility to keep the promises that your exhibit staff made to visitors. Send visitors what you promised, when you promised. Call them. Visit them. Don’t ignore them! Follow up your hot leads within two to three days, and tend to the rest within a week.” A tough timeline to meet? Not if you plan ahead. Before leaving for the show, make up the sales literature packages that will be sent out when you return, or have them made up while you’re at the show. You can also have several form letters prepared that can be customized with the pertinent client name and information when you return from the show. Make sure that all of the letters are signed, and write a longhand note on the envelope — “Here’s the information you requested.” You’ll

also want to choose an attention-getting promotional product to include with your follow-up literature. It should follow the same theme or idea that your pre- and at-show promotional items did, and it should tie in with your products and/or services. Another study by CEIR indicated that the triple gift approach to trade show promotion resulted in the greatest increase in awareness of the exhibitor’s identity, product or service. It also resulted in a 70-precent increase in preference for the exhibiting company compared to no gift. In the article Reaching Buyers At The Trade Show, we discussed a North Carolina heating and air conditioning company that gave out imprinted money clips at a trade show to tie in with the idea that its services would save the prospects money. After

the show, the company followed up on qualified prospects by sending them a dollar bill encased in Lucite to further drive home the savings angle. The program had a 15-percent success rate. Along with including a promotional product, another way to make sure your follow-up package gets opened is to make the package something special. Send your literature and promotional item by Federal Express, UPS Red, Airborne or Express Mail. Better yet, send it in unique packaging, such as a tube, a wooden crate, a Chinese food container, a bottle, etc. Custom packaging gets your package noticed and opened. “One guerrilla sent a box with a picture of a large aspirin tablet and the caption, ‘Headache Relief Kit.’ Inside were three different types of pain relievers and the requested