How do you now avoid that inevitable sinking feeling that your company sales and marketing materials are now at the bottom of the big, overflowing swag bag? Here are some ideas to maximize your efforts to follow up on those valuable contacts:
During the show, set up an interactive Welcome Station at your booth via tablets for attendees visiting your booth. In a few taps, capture their contact information, allow them to share feedback about themselves, and give them the ability to request specific information about your products/services. Attendees can opt to have your brochures and sales information emailed to them directly so they don’t need to carry items throughout the show. Also, have the traditional business card drop container, and have your booth reps start entering the information that day.
Set up an Email Blast thanking them for attending the show, embedded with links to electronic copies of your product/services; or letting them know a personalized informational piece will be forthcoming. By capturing a few simple fields at your Welcome Station, this email can be automatically triggered. This will not only save you time, but it puts your communication first in line before all the other vendors they meet.
Send postcards or emails prior to the show with PURLs that call prospects to action with pre-registration for prizes, discounts and sales information.
Bridge your booth visitors from passive to assertive media. Right after your face-to-face discussions, follow up with phone, high impact personalized mailers, then LinkedIn connections & messages, then direct social media messages (Twitter, Facebook), and finally email.
Send Pre-Show and Post-Show Personalized Direct Mailers. Include key information regarding specific benefits of visiting your booth. Follow the show with a custom variable piece that covers specifically stated interests. Include QR Codes and PURLs to make it quick and easy for them to get to your email or landing page for follow up. Using this technology will also let you track who took action from your marketing efforts.
Thank you to Debbie for her help with this posting. If you have any questions about the variable mailings, PURLs or trade show marketing in general, please contact Sean Huban at shuban@premieruplink.com