The Ultimate Guide To Exhibition Marketing

Part 3 – Post Show Follow-up

The most important phase of your marketing efforts and possibly the one least looked after; is post show follow up - converting all that hard work or any late decision makers into actual business.  Read on to see some of our tips for making the most of your hard work as a team.

POST-EXHIBITION MARKETING TIPS

Making the most of your Leads

According to CEIR, 81% of trade show attendees have buying authority. That means that you are getting right in front of the ideal decision-makers in your industry by attending an exhibition. Whilst meeting the right people is the first step, ensuring you have thought through plan and process on how to collect their contact details, categorise and follow up is key.

Be sure to collect them

The reality is that an exhibition day is long, and when stands are crowded, your teams can lose sight of the overall goal of lead acquisition. If you are using scanners, make sure that you order one per staff member to avoid waiting around.

If you are using a lead capture app or are directly entering details into a CRM using iPads or laptops, arm your team with chargers and make sure that you have a strong internet connection on your stand.

Make visitors want to leave their details

Take the pain out of lead collection by enticing attendees with a prize draw or exclusive offer. Make sure your prize or offer is relevant and compelling for your target audience and be original.

Have a clear post-event sales strategy

Creating a clear post-event customer journey is key to maximising ROI. A simple follow-up email is not enough. Consider creating a specific sales funnel designed with your exhibition attendees in mind. Is there something of value you can offer them post-event, such as a training session or content piece that will make them engage with you further?

You may wish to categorise your leads by how relevant they are. Should hot leads receive follow-up phone calls while the rest go into your sales funnel?

According to HubSpot, it takes on average eight touchpoints for interest to turn into a sale, so think about how you can lead a prospect through a process that will convert them from a warm lead to a customer.

GDPR

Be sure to consider how you collect data at a trade show or exhibition. The old habit of business cards in a fishbowl would not meet GDPR compliance standards and could land you in hot water.  Instead, choose tech that enables an opt-in to follow up safe in the knowledge that you are compliant. Read more from our partners at ExpoStars, exhibition staff providers, for best in class guidance on data capture for lead generation.

Return on experience vs Return on investment

When the event is finished and your leads have been contacted and nurtured; it’s time to consider what effect the event has had on your business. While hard metrics will give you a clear overview of return on investment, it’s also important to consider the return on experience.

Attending an exhibition can have benefits beyond initial lead capture and help you grow in the medium and long term.

Brand awareness

A prominent and exciting exhibition stand will make your brand memorable for all of the right reasons and can get you noticed.

The combined drip approach of prominent branding in your industry across your exhibitions, social media, website, and printed materials will make you a “familiar face” with your ideal customer and are key marketing tactics within a comprehensive marketing strategy.

Measuring tools for brand awareness include social listening, mentions online, press coverage, and brand recall uplift.

Brand authority

By attending an exhibition, you show that you are a serious contender in your space. If you’ve had the opportunity to speak at the event, the return on investment can be even higher. An experiment undertaken by Contently showed a 10.5% ROI on speaking engagements alone.

Even the value in the content created by attending an event can last well into the future. Photos of your stand, listings on event programmes with backlinks, and contacts made with potential collaborators all drive long-term ROI.

Last but not least; Get Feedback from your team

What worked well, and what was more hassle than anticipated? By having an open and honest debrief meeting with your team post-event you can learn the snags from the people on the ground and ensure any learnings are rolled into future events to keep improving for both your customers but also your internal stakeholders.

Summary

Overall, exhibitions are a key part of any marketing strategy and by carrying out planned and thought-through marketing activities you can ensure that they provide a return on investment.  Contact one of our dedicated account managers for further information on how Tecna UK can help, or just send us a scribble.

We hope you enjoyed this series, part one and part two are also available.