PPB October 2018

have three seconds for someone to decide whether they will come step inside your booth or not. Captivate them. Themore interaction, the better. And keep on promoting during the show and after, using social media to follow up on leads. Yes, it’s a lot of work. But it can lead to a lot of new business if done right. You want measurable ROI? Prepare in advance. Call or write key prospects to invite them to your booth and make appointments when possible. Just make sure you’re staffed to meet with people when they show up. Yes, this really works the majority of the time. Confirm appointments and send Outlook meeting times. Prepare discussions before you go. Have a folder for each VIP. Review their sales. Set up specific discussion points. Track responses. Then follow up promptly on your meetings—those who showed and those who didn’t. Watch what it does to your sales when you follow up. And make sure you and every member of your sales team enter copious notes from show conversations in your CRM system so you have a baseline for follow-up. MARY ELLEN SOKALSKI, MAS Owner The Scarlet Marketeer PPAI 175744 Think about what sets your supplier business apart from others. What is the main message you want your distributors to know about your company? What are the demographics of the distributors you hope to do business with, and how can you help them utilize your firm’s products? Mail distributors who meet your criteria invitations to your booth. Is it expensive? Sure. But, if directed to an officer of the company, it will reach its goal and cannot be ignored. Plus, if the invitation is clever, it will be shared with others in the office, pinned to the break room bulletin board or mentioned in the company newsletter. For example, I remember a series of pre-show pieces showing up in our mail from Souvenir Pen and Pencil. The series featured the introduction of a new marking pen that was called “Mark-it.” The company wanted to prove it would write on anything. The first piece delivered a small pane of glass with “Mark-it” written on it. This was followed by an athletic sock. The third piece was an actual coconut. Written across that shaggy surface was the word “Mark-it” and the tag said, “See, we told you it could write on anything!” MARGARET CUSTER FORD, MAS Founder MARCO Ideas Unlimited, Inc. PPAI 106680 From this distributor’s perspective, here’s one pitfall to avoid: talking or texting on your phone. Put your phone away. I can’t tell you howmany times I’ve walked by a booth at a show where the person staffing the booth is on their phone. If you’re bored, do something with your products that invites people into your booth. If you need to place a call or send a text, then take a break. Don’t spend all that money and time on a booth and then shoot yourself in the foot by not being present. DAN KAUFMAN President DKG Promotions PPAI 191413 Trade show marketing is about having a strategy from end to end. It is about understanding what your objectives are three months before the show and the first 30 days afterwards. It is about having a clear and concise goal as to why you are at that show and what you are trying to achieve. Everyone in the company, from the secretary to the CEO, needs to be on board with why they are going to the show and what the objectives are. Email signatures should be changed to communicate to everyone outside the company when the show is, where it is and in what booth you will be. If you can post a link to a video that promotes your participation in the show, even better. You need tomake sure that the booth— and those who will be in it—are prepared for that particular show, including clothing that speaks to the theme, concise graphics with a singular and specific call to action, and a giveaway that speaks to your objective that also has a specific call to action. When designing booth graphics, the three-second rule needs to be in effect: It takes three seconds to walk from one side of a 10-foot booth to the other. If you have not captured the attention of the passersby in that amount of time, they will move on. Invitations need to be sent to key clients and meetings established in advance to make sure that the right people come to your booth. A direct mail campaign that brings people to your booth for a specific purpose can also be developed. There must be people inside the booth whose sole job it is to capture information and make sure the data is ready to be turned into a direct marketing piece as soon as the show is over. Sales people need to book two to three days off after the show to go through notes, business cards and scanned information to make sure that follow-up is relevant and immediate. Cell phones need to be turned off and put away while on the show floor. Engagement with the present audience is your only focus. Get off the floor if you need to take a call, but better yet, have people back in the office handle things for you when you are not available. In short, no one wins the trade show game by accident. It is a planning process that takes time and effort, and detailed execution is the difference between achieving specific goals and wastingmoney. BEN BAKER President Your Brand Marketing PPAI 384130 | OCTOBER 2018 | 13 INNOVATE