Discover Trade Show Marketing Tips Used by the TOP trade show marketing Pros to drive scores of visitors to your display, acquire tons of qualified leads, close more sales . . . and save a bundle doing it.

From the desk of Mitch Tarr

Wednesday, November 15, 2013

Dear Fellow Marketer:

You’re looking at trade show marketing ideas for an upcoming trade show.  They are all around you.  You see them in brochures, at the show, or hear from show sales reps.

The question is:  “Which trade show marketing idea will work for you and your business?”

Maybe you are looking for your first show to exhibit at.

You may have even tried exhibiting and preparing to quit because you haven’t got the results you expected

Or even worse, you think everyone is writing orders like crazy from trade show marketing but you aren’t.  You think you are being left behind and don’t know where to look to solve this problem.

You have probably spent more money on trade show exhibiting than you need to without even knowing it!

You are not alone in this.

Many companies plan and execute trade show strategies, without even thinking about them.  Many spin their wheels making common mistakes and not even knowing it.

But let me ask you this.

How much money do you expect you should spend at a show?

And what should happen as a result of spending that money?

You would be surprised how many companies continue to go to shows with a terrible return on their show investment  simply because they have an impression that their customers will think poorly of them.  They go back year after year.

Is that you?

If it is, you are not alone.  When I ask people why they are exhibiting in a particular show they often answer; “because we always have.”

You don’t know what you don’t know.

Should you spend $1,000 or $5,000 or $50,000 for your show budget?

It seems when it comes to shows, the same payback that is expected from other marketing resources like direct mail, online marketing, and print advertising goes out the door.

Specifically. . .

What is the measurable result you will get by going in a show?  Be specific.  List it out.

You might be surprised how hard this is to do.  If it is, you may not be as clear on your show goals as the most successful exhibitors.

I was just like you.

In my career as a VP Marketing or VP Sales, my teams attended dozens of shows.

We did it the hard way.

We sent the booth, worked the floor, and had oodles of cards to show at the end of it. We spent a fortune.

Also, like many others, we had a weak follow up plan, we missed deadlines because we were busy, we didn’t capitalize on each opportunity to maximize the results, or we got too busy on the next event to make each one deliver better and better results.

We handed the leads over to sales and waited for the results.   Often they were disappointing.

Then, I discovered a framework for making trade show ideas for marketing work. I read everything I could from the ‘experts’.  I talked to exhibitors at show after show.  And I found what works.  I discovered it was even possible to exhibit at a trade show, and not spend a dime!

I found where people wasted way too much money.  I found where companies were focused on the wrong things.  I learned which show services you should use-and which ones to avoid!

I learned how to use the show to create buzz, to make a trade show into an event, to use the media to get your message out.

After that, every show we did, we were the talk of the show. We had people coming to our booth saying they were directed here from other booths!

Increased trade show marketing skills equals increased sales!

If you simply learn how successful exhibitors do it, you can improve your  results.  You do not need to increase your show budget to do this.

Trade show marketing is what we love now. These are the lessons I learned that transformed the trade show result for my companies.

For example. . .

We were able to go from finding 823 unqualified leads which turned into nothing to finding the 42 QUALIFIED leads that turned into business!

A success story.

I was the VP marketing for a software company and we exhibited at Comdex in Las Vegas in a 20’ by 50’ booth.  We sent 14 people to Las Vegas for 7 days.  We had a custom booth designed and printed $5 corporate brochures by the thousands.

You can imagine our booth as we had the staff scanning badges and handing out brochures as fast as they could for 5 full days.

The net result… we returned to our office with a database of over 823 contacts.  (That means we also handed out over $4,500 of brochures)   We took the list back to our office.

The very first step we went through was to start calling each and every name on the list in order to qualify them for our sales process.

You know how this story ends.  We called and called and called and got tired of calling and had poor results.  These hot leads got cold real quick.

Very simply they weren’t qualified.  The next year, we made one change.  We instructed the booth staff, that they could only take a business card if they met someone that met three very important criteria.

In other words, we QUALIFIED our prospects on the show floor.

We received 42 qualified leads.  We contacted them immediately after the show and our conversations were very focused.  What were their specific needs and could we meet them?

Increased sales.

Guess what?  Our results were dramatically different.  We now had prospects in the funnel.  We made sales!  Sooner rather than later.

Why?  We did the one thing that most people don’t plan on doing and therefore don’t get around to doing.

We qualified our prospects . . .at the show!

Not only did we spend less money ($4,500 on brochures, the cost of the scanner, but most importantly the 823 phone calls from our most expensive resource-blue suit sales reps) but we got better sales results.

That’s why I wrote this book.  To distill this type of experience down into a series of building blocks that will tell you specifically how to plan, execute and measure the results of trade show marketing.

Here’s what’s in The World’s Greatest Trade Show Marketing Guide.

• You get 114 concise pages of specific action items and real-life  examples to add to your planning.
• “How To” strategies to handle pre, post, and during actions to save you time, money, and energy. 
• Discover the 10 obvious things NOT to do at shows . . . and 5 not-so-obvious ones that are killing your results. 
• Learn where to find shows that meet your needs.
• 3 things you have to do in order to plan for your show.
• How to calculate the right amount to spend on a booth and on a show..
• Learn ways to save money on executing your show — and not pay any unnecessary late charges.
• How to beat your competition to the prospect.
• Learn why you have to qualify your prospects and the best way to do it for your audience.
• Discover what a ‘trade show Swiss army knife is” – and why you need one! 
• Learn the most important design criteria is for your display signage and how to stop people in their tracks. 
• Learn the awful truth about draw prizes – and why they shouldn’t cost you a dime.
• Make sure you are not one of the 76% of people that do NOT follow up after the show by doing this.
• Learn how to get the most preferred location you can from the event manager-and increase your foot traffic by doing so.
• Learn how to get the media to drop by your booth-and interview you when they get there.
• Discover how to meet the top VP’s on your prospect list.
• Get an easy to follow guide to what to do to prepare for an upcoming show..
• Why you shouldn’t break down your  booth one second before the closing bell.
• Find out if your are spending up to 10 times too much on your printed marketing materials.
• Evaluate whether to rent or buy your trade show booth.
• Learn If used trade show booths could work for you.

 . .  and there’s more . . . MUCH MORE!.

• Which factors to consider when choosing a location
• What tools to use to attract crowds to your booth
• When to use hospitality suites
• How to use your executive to make more sales
• How to exhibit at a show FOR FREE!
• When you should consider not even taking a booth
• Why to consider taking booth space – last minute to save money
• Trade show ideas to qualify clients effortlessly
• How to remove the ‘time wasters’ that can’t buy your product
• How to keep your staff ‘up’ for their booth duty
• Why you should make your sales reps take coffee and lunch breaks

How much is this information worth?

So how much would you expect to pay to learn the secrets of the best and most successful trade show marketing execs on the planet?

If you increased your number of leads by 10% how many more leads would that be?

What if you doubled the number of leads you could get?

What if you determined to not exhibit at a show that gave you little to no sales results?  How much would you save?  $1,000? $10,000?

Could you save $1,000 in a year by using ONE of these trade show marketing ideas?

What if you were able to close 10 more deals from follow-up skills learned in this book?  What would that be worth to the bottom line?  To you making your annual quota?

What if you could double your number of leads AND double the number of closes from those leads?

The second edition of The World’s Most Powerful Trade Show Marketing Guide is available on Amazon.com

Just one tip from this ebook can pay for itself many times over.

Never before have these proven tactics and strategies been outlined so clearly . . so concisely . . .  as they are in this offer.