Trade Show Essay Research Paper Trade Shows — страница 7

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visit your booth while at the show. Include a neck tote imprinted with your company logo in the package, and your targets will be sure to stop by your booth to thank you for the helpful service, and the useful gift. You might also want to consider presenting your targeted prospects with a personalized gift when they stop by your booth. One PPAI case study showed a 63 percent response from a pre-show mailing where recipients received a portfolio, imprinted with a message inviting the recipient to stop by the sender’s booth to receive a personalized nameplate for the portfolio. By showing up to get their nameplate, the recipients could cover up the sender’s promotional copy with the plate and have a presentable, functional portfolio to use. Besides sending traditional

promotional items in pre-show mailings, Weisgal suggests sending something that will add even more spark and excitement to your promotion. Use creative packaging for your pre-show mailings, such as tubes that look like sticks of dynamite, plastic wine bottles, Chinese food containers and more. Inside of these unusual mailing containers put something fun that the recipients can use in an interactive way once they reach your booth. Weisgal’s personal favorite is pieces to a jigsaw puzzle that the recipient brings to the booth to fit into a puzzle that is set up there. If the recipient’s piece fits he or she wins a prize. Make sure the prize is a promotional item imprinted with your company name, and make sure that it fits the theme of your promotion. Other interactive ways to

draw qualified attendees to your booth include contests, drawings and games, such as basket shooting, golf ball putting, etc. Invite targeted attendees to take part in these activities before the show by sending them appropriately themed products — logoed golf accessories, mini basketball keytags, tickets for the drawing attached to an imprinted magnet they can keep. You could also put together your own game based on the products or services that you have to offer. Invite prospects and clients to participate in a Jeopardy-style game where they answer questions about your products/services to win imprinted merchandise. Limit booth overcrowding by pre-qualifying attendees before inviting them to join in the games. By making the activities more exclusive you cut out unqualified

buyers and make the qualified ones more likely to participate next year. Whether you choose interactive booth activities, unusual mailing packages or halves of gifts, pre-show promotions are the most effective way to draw the right attendees to your booth. Plan a pre-show promotion that’s right for your company and its show objectives, and carry that same promotion through your entire trade show marketing campaign. Just make sure that you reach your target audience with your message before they reach the trade show floor. For more ideas on tradeshow marketing, Margit Weisgal of Sextant Communications can be reached at #301-871-6523. Steve Miller of The Adventure of Trade Shows can be contacted at #253-874-9665. Alyson Hendrickson Wentz, CAS, is a freelance writer specializing

in articles about 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. What Message are You Sending at Your Booth? Recently, at two separate seminars, I heard the same information presented — the results of a research study into how people are perceived. Applying it to trade show exhibiting was simple because of other data I already possessed. Fact: You have four seconds to attract someone to your booth. In the past, this information was applied to the booth set-up, its graphics, its design and layout. But is there more to it than that?

Most definitely, yes. We all make snap judgments. Our minds are computers which take in information, process it thoroughly based on experience, and spew it out before we even realize it. The most common way in which you become aware of this phenomenon is when you walk into a new situation involving new people and immediately decide that you like a person (without saying a word). Or, conversely, you decide that you dislike someone (and don’t know why). Our judgments are made up of perceptions. And lots of different things contribute to those perceptions. In a trade show booth, you have four seconds to grab someone’s attention. And if, in those micro-moments, you are perceived in a negative fashion, then both you and your company will lose. In those four seconds, your booth