Remember your first tradeshow? When it was all shiny and new and exciting? And you came home with a bulky bag of schwag?
When I was growing up I was fascinated by the idea of the tradeshow. My dad, who worked in the defense industry, would go to conferences and come back with all kinds of bizarre defense industry schwag. Back in the day, it was things like pens, pencils, little fluffy guys you could stick onto your window sills- schwag in the truly random and meaningless vein. The funniest part is that it would be a little stuffed animal thing, but the slogan would be about some complicated technology, like, “We’re just WILD about the RX2247 Tomahawk Missile Processing Centers!” I’ll have to ask dad if he kept any of that stuff, a few photos and it would make for a great post on its own.
It always struck me that you can promote just about anything at a tradeshow- we do it now for keynote speakers, dad did it for defense products, well just about anything under the sun will show up on a tradeshow floor at some point, even if it never makes it in the long term. Though I think my favorites are the fancy food and gourmet items. Sample frenzy!!!
I have a friend who is launching her own line of bath and body products. She just bought her first tradeshow space. It’s interesting watching her go through the learning process of how to promote her business- she’s extremely talented, great business sense, and she’s an artist as well, so she’s got a great foundation. It helps that her products are beautiful and well-made. But I know she’d appreciate your tips, so I’d like to know, what do you wish you’d known before your first tradeshow appearance? If only I’d…
My advice is to resist the urge to go armed with corporate marketing materials. Instead, create a special report that’s specifically targeted to the audience you’ll encounter there. For example: “Peer Insight Report: What 13 Executives from {Insert Industry} Say About {Insert Topic} And Why You Need To Know About It Now!” Compared to a run-of-the mill corporate brochure, the special report will fly off the table like hotcakes, and spark some meaningful, memorable discussions with prospects.
And for consumer audiences… the special report angle can be modified into a “Consumer Awareness Guide” which talks about relevant issues/concerns related to using those types of products.
Interesting idea Pete!
key to success at a trade show is making connections. establishing relationships, or at least laying foundations for building relationships. and the difficult part is starting meaninful conversations in the madness of a tradeshow full of schwag-hunting showgoers. she should have a clear idea of what differentiates her products from the competiton, be able to communicate that differentiation and what it matters in less than a minute (elevator pitch). Hone it, speak it and believe it.
I’ll be her products are natural, sustainable and not tested on animals. So stick to a green theme. Don’t hand out anything that uses a lot of paper. Perhaps make a few “trading card” sized handouts. Each with a photo of one of products or lines, with a few lines of benefit driven copy. Think the size of a monopoly deed or baseball card. Pocket sized. Simple.
Free samples are fun but expensive. But using lotions, fragrance or other consumables, perhaps offer to soothe the dry hands of showgoers and truly connect with the power of touch… not that you have to touch the showgoer, but you get the idea.
Finally, in this era of social media, it’s important to be able to follow up. Once you’ve got a prospect engaged and the foundation started, use an iPhone app like MadMimi or MailChimp and capture that persons details. With these apps, your friend can have a follow up email, nicely designed (HTML) that will immediately be sent to them. Plus, the email is captured and it’s already opt’d in. She will be able to track how many people opened that email, which should be littered with links leading to her website and/or blog, twitter, facebook etc. And with the analytics provided by these services she’ll know how many people, and who, opened the mail and what they clicked on.
Best of all, it’s all green. She hardled killed trees cause her trading card product support materials were printed on recycled paper containing massive amounts of post-consumer waste.
I think this might be a good first show effort, goes a long way to making connections and building relationships. Even better, the cost and effort is minimal yet potentially very effective.
Good luck!!!