If you don’t have trade shows in your marketing plans for this next year, you might want to reconsider, especially if you are in an industry that lends itself well to these types of big events. Trade shows offer some unique ways to connect with customers that other marketing opportunities do not.

Trade shows are perfect marketing opportunities. You may have other events in your year where you are interacting face-to-face with customers. For instance, golf outings and charitable events are key marketing opportunities where you can share time with your customers. The same could be said of educational opportunities, such as business seminars and CE classes. Business often happens around these events. However, the primary focus of these venues is not sales. At a trade show, the focus is on buyers and sellers. It is a place to interact face-to-face with your target market that is centered around selling your products and services.

Old marketing vs new marketing vs human needs

The argument against trade shows as a viable marketing method is that it is "old marketing.” Those who distinguish such things would tell you that the new marketing, which uses technology as the primary marketing driver to find and track customers, is far superior to old marketing, that depended upon mass contact to pluck a few prospects. Fair enough, but there is one factor that is missing from the new technology: that is, human touch. Trade shows allow you to add this human element into the marketing mix.

I recently came across a Peppers & Rogers Group survey that polled people who had left vendors for a competing vendor. By far, the reason most left had to do with a feeling of indifference towards them, either from a sales rep or customer service personnel. (Take a look at my article Customer relationships and marketing: How well do you know your customer? ) I think most people can relate to this. At one time or the other we have all had a bad experience with someone within a company and we say something like, "if that’s the way they are going to treat me, I will never do business with them again!” Let me say that the new technology has no way to reach out and treat someone kindly. It is the Achilles heel of the new media. Trade shows, when done right, are the perfect marketing remedy to the missing human touch of technology. They allow you to invite your customers to meet you face-to-face, to give them an incentive for doing so, to discuss their needs and to show them how your products/services will fulfill their needs. It all happens looking into their eyes. It begins and ends with a handshake. All are important in making and keeping customers.

Using new tech in trade shows

Don’t get me wrong when talking about new marketing technology vs. trade shows, this is not a one-way street. New marketing mediums work very well with trade shows. In fact, I believe that new and old work best when they are integrated together. For instance, using search engine marketing and pay-per-click ads to advertise your upcoming shows is a great way to get the word out to a targeted market. So are social media ads and posts. We often use email marketing to send invitations to a customer base, enticing them to attend a show and stop by our booth. We also use the shows to update those lists. We might incentivize those who stop by our booth with a free giveaway if they add their name to our email list.

Speed is the key

Trade shows work when you are intentional about engaging with people. Look them in the eye. Shake their hand. Smile. Talk to them. Listen to them. Suggest a solution (aka your product.) These are all key ingredients to making trade shows successful for your business. But follow up is just as important, or maybe more important when it comes to successful trade show marketing. The key to follow up is speed. I tell customers they have 24-48 hours after the show to make contact with everyone who stopped by their booth or they risk losing their momentum. As soon as we can get the list of people who stopped by our booth into our database, we send out an e-blast to them. The follow up list is also divided among sales reps who do follow up calls. The e-blast analytics also factors into this. We take a look at who opened the email and feed this information to the appropriate sales rep. We want to thank them for stopping by the booth, which keeps your brand in front of them (at a trade show, one person sees a multitude of brands. Yours needs to stand out in their mind.) But we also want to move them from just a passing interest to getting them to agree to a next step closer to a sale, such as allowing you to send them a quote. This is critical to making trade shows effective for your bottom line. The new marketing technology helps you follow up almost instantly with the people you meet at your booth. I was working with a manufacturing client who built complex engineered products. They guaranteed anyone who stopped by their booth with specifications for the work they needed that they would have a quote, along with all the engineering drawings in 24 hours. That is the perfect blending of a human touch in marketing integrated with the speed and efficiency of technology. The bottom line: it meets human needs.