Lead Generation Ideas for Trade Shows

Welcome to SalesFish Experiential Event Marketing and Sales, California’s most strategically-biased event planning, event management, event marketing, sponsorship sales, exhibit sales, telemarketing services, and event marketing agency.

We serve Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, Portland, and Seattle. We are very much at home in all 50 United States. Partner with a client centric B2B Market Agency that puts skin in the game… from strategic Telemarketing Services to Experiential Event Marketing.

Today’s Event Marketing post comes to us from Mike Thimmesch of www.skylinetradeshowtips.com.  Mr. Thimmesch offers great advice on lead generation for your trade show:

100 Trade Show Lead Generation Ideas

May 01, 2010 | Mike Thimmesch

For most exhibitors, lead generation is their #1 reason for exhibiting at trade shows.  Exhibit marketers want leads to replenish their sales pipeline, bring in new and repeat customers, and generate sales revenue.

So to help stoke the lead generation fires, here are 100 ideas to get you more leads at your upcoming trade shows, divvied up among 5 main areas:

Get more trade show leads by how you select shows

  1. Go to more trade shows outside your local region
  2. Go to more trade shows, in your best vertical markets
  3. Go to more trade shows, in foreign countries
  4. Go to fewer trade shows, but put more effort into booth staff preparation and promotions for each remaining show
  5. Exhibit at trade shows where your buyers are
  6. Track leads to determine and expand in the shows with the best ROI
  7. Evolve show selection to match changes in company’s best vertical markets

Get more trade show leads with your exhibit design

  1. Get a bigger booth
    1. Get a booth space closer to the hub of traffic, or by a bigger competitor
    2. Get a corner booth space
    3. Backlight your trade show display graphics
    4. Design your exhibit to more boldly and clearly say why attendees will benefit from working with you
    5. Put fewer elements on your exhibit, but make the remaining images and messages bigger and more concise
    6. Use graphics with images and benefits that appeal more directly to attendees at your vertical market shows
    7. Put benefit statements on your trade show exhibit graphics
    8. Replace your tired old display with a new trade show exhibit
    9. Make your exhibit architecture more inviting to enter
    10. Pick more exciting colors on your exhibit
    11. Bring fewer products, such as only your most popular products, to minimize clutter
    12. Get a taller exhibit
    13. Add more lighting
    14. Put messages on your flooring
    15. Avoid an exhibit that looks like everyone else
    16. Keep your booth neat and clean throughout the show
    17. Move interesting equipment and technology to the outside of the booth
    18. Use a theme that gets attention and memorably ties into your competitive advantage or offering
    19. Match your exhibit message to your other marketing materials

Get more trade show leads with pre-show promotions

  1. Send an inexpensive postcard offering a free gift in your trade show booth
    1. Run a banner ad on the show website
    2. Send a pre-show email blast to your clients and top prospects located close to the show location
    3. Put stickers with booth location and show info on all outgoing mail
    4. Email invitation to a pre-show microsite with targeted messages and offers
    5. Have your sales people invite their prospects to visit your booth and set up meetings in advance
    6. Send an email invitation to the show’s pre-registered attendee list for this year, and the registered attendee list from last year
    7. Use social media to reach more attendees
    8. Send half of something of value to attendees before the show, and promise to give the other half in your booth
    9. Contact your industry press and tell them about the innovative new product you will be introducing at the show
    10. Put your booth number on all your pre-show promotions: email, mail, ads, website
    11. Design more creative and compelling pre-show promotions to cut through the mailbox clutter
    12. Invite top prospects to lunch or dinner at the show
    13. Send a pre-show promotion offering a more valuable gift in the booth, but not to the entire list, but only to the subset of show attendees that match your target audience
    14. Send free tickets to the trade show to clients and best prospects
    15. Post your trade show schedule on your website with a link to sign up for appointments
    16. Ask the show for additional promotional opportunities

Get more trade show leads with at-show promotions and activities

  1. Introduce a new product at the trade show
    1. Add motion to your exhibit
    2. Offer food, especially if it smells good, like baking cookies
    3. Offer drinks to your booth visitors
    4. Give your attendees something entertaining and fun to do
    5. Do an engaging demo in your booth
    6. Get your client to hold your product
    7. Go beyond sight to appeal to attendees’ sense of smell, sound, taste, and touch
    8. Add interactivity
    9. Run presentations or video loops on large video monitors
    10. Offer healthy food, not just candy
    11. Put out a candy or chocolate dish to slow down attendees long enough to engage them
    12. Offer in-booth massages
    13. Give a free sample of your product
    14. Give a free sample of a product made with your product
    15. Hire a celebrity for your booth, where the celebrity is popular with your target audience at the show
    16. Hire a celebrity lookalike for your booth, where the celebrity is popular with your target audience at the show
    17. Giveaway something useful to your target audience
    18. Hire a performer, such as a magician, to attract attention to your booth
    19. Have a raffle, sweepstakes, money machine or a game
    20. Hold a press conference if you have newsworthy news
    21. Sponsor something highly visible at the show
    22. Have a contest for attendees in your booth
    23. Get signage in the show hall promoting your booth presence
    24. Offer a show special or discount
    25. Get someone from your company to be a speaker at the show
    26. Give presentations or educational sessions in your booth
    27. Do door drops that target only show attendees at their hotel rooms
    28. Pay to include an invite or a gift in the official show bag each attendee gets
    29. Put an ad in the show book
    30. Brand your staffers with outfits or similar attire
    31. Offer one really big prize (worth thousands of dollars) to get more attention

Get more trade show leads with better booth staffing

  1. Bring more booth staffers
    1. Bring booth staffers who actually want to be there
    2. Hold a contest to reward the staffers who take the highest quantity of qualified leads
    3. Leave your wallflowers at home
    4. Train your booth staff how to work a trade show booth
    5. Communicate to your staff the company’s goals and your expectations of them in the booth
    6. Don’t use booth staffing as a training ground for brand-new employees
    7. Ask visitors open-ended questions and listen to their answers
    8. Get faster at recording each lead by not writing down every visitor’s name and address, but instead using a badge scanner
    9. Have enough badge scanners to avoid lines with your booth staffers in busy times
    10. Bring crowd gatherers (not booth babes)
    11. Smile
    12. Keep your booth staffers fresh by giving them regular breaks
    13. Learn to more quickly disengage with unqualified attendees
    14. Thoroughly train your booth staffers on the new products you are introducing at the show or just introduced recently
    15. Make friends with your neighboring exhibitors, and refer attendees back and forth
    16. Bring your top management to booth staff, and tell attendees they will be there
    17. Get staffers out of the bowels of your booth and out to the edge of the aisle
    18. Don’t sit down in your booth, unless you are talking with visitors
    19. Don’t hide behind tables
    20. Instead of giving away literature, offer to mail it to attendees, and get their contact info
    21. Prepare your booth staffers with several good engaging questions
    22. Arm your booth staffers with answers to common objections

100.Train your booth staffers to know your products and how they solve your clients’ problems

Which of these 100 ideas will you choose?  Perhaps you are already doing several yourselves.  Some can be combined to be used simultaneously.  It’s a long list, and there’s no way anyone can do all 100.  Some of them even contradict each other.

Yet as Bob Milam advises, while knowing a lot of tactics is useful, knowing which tactics to use and when to use them is even more useful.  Determine your strategy first, then choose among these trade show tactics the most appropriate ones to support your strategy and generate more leads.

Also, while I’ve listed many tactics to get more leads, of course you need to also strive for getting higher quality leads.  And if you can do both, go to the head of the class.

Stay tuned for future relevant Event Planning, Event Management, Event Marketing, Exhibit Sales and Sponsorship Sales content.

We at SalesFish Event Marketing & Sales thank you for joining us in our commitment to unwavering Strategic Event planning, Event Management, B2B telemarketing, B2B Tele-Sales, B2B Inside Sales, Sponsorship Sales, Exhibit Sales, Audience Acquisition, Brand marketing and Execution.

The SalesFish team brings more than 30 years’ experience, and more importantly, extreme focus in each of the following disciplines:

  • Event Management, Planning and Marketing / Advertising: Positioning, Branding, Brand Identity Marketing, Creative, Public Relations, Advertising, Direct Response, Multi-Media, Interactive Media, Promotional and Web Design
  • Event Strategy, Logistics, Event Planning and Event Training
  • Experiential Event Marketing
  • Comprehensive Event Registration (online/onsite) and On-Site Event Production (lighting, sound, staging, talent)
  • Pre- and On-Site Real Time Statistical Data and Market Research
  • Event Sales Activities and Fulfillment (reporting, Sales Activities, B2B Tele-Sales activities, B2B telemarketing services, Audience Acquisition, Exhibit Sales, Sponsorship Sales and Post-Show follow-up)

We welcome the chance to cast your net in the area of Event Management, Event Branding, Event Marketing, Event Sales, Event Promotion and Execution.

Call today and Catch More!

 

 

Sponsorship Sales & Exhibit Sales Agency

Welcome to the blog for SalesFish Experiential Event Marketing and Sales. We are California’s most strategically-biased event planning, event management, event marketing, sponsorship sales, exhibit sales, and event marketing agency.

We serve Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, Portland, and Seattle. We are very much at home in all 50 United States. Partner with a client centric B2B Market Agency that puts skin in the game… from strategic Telemarketing Services to Experiential Event Marketing.

If you’re planning an experiential event marketing whether it’s a trade show, user conference, workshop, road show or sales event, without a doubt you must decide how you’re going to SELL your event.

If you’re a first time or fairly new event, how you sell will be even more critical. The old adage, “Build it, they will come,” does not apply to any event. You must gain the trust of your target audience over time, by continuing to give them a world-class experiential event marketing experience.

If you’re a new or mature event, it’s a great idea to tie your event to a worthy cause and give a portion of proceeds to that cause (this is called cause marketing). It’s also a good idea to be prepared to give away landscape as well as opportunities to marquee brands and/or companies.

In regards to audience acquisition, exhibit sales, or sponsorship sales, do you trust in your marketing alone? Do you have an elite Telemarketing Services team to tap into?

When selling an event, it’s never a good idea to represent yourself. There’s a reason Hollywood stars or professional athletes have agents. It’s not just for negotiation purposes but to further reflect how special they are.

There’s something about having an intermediary that “brands” targets minds that your event is special.

Don’t go it alone when it comes to selling your event, whether it’s for audience acquisition, sponsorship sales or exhibit sales. That’s our strong and strategically-biased opinion.

Stay tuned for future relevant Event Planning, Event Management, Event Marketing, Exhibit Sales and Sponsorship Sales content.

We at SalesFish Event Marketing & Sales thank you for joining us in our commitment to unwavering Strategic Event planning, Event Management, B2B telemarketing, B2B Tele-Sales, B2B Inside Sales, Sponsorship Sales, Exhibit Sales, Audience Acquisition, Brand marketing and Execution.

The SalesFish team brings more than 30 years’ experience, and more importantly, extreme focus in each of the following disciplines:

  • Event Management, Planning and Marketing / Advertising: Positioning, Branding, Brand Identity Marketing, Creative, Public Relations, Advertising, Direct Response, Multi-Media, Interactive Media, Promotional and Web Design
  • Event Strategy, Logistics, Event Planning and Event Training
  • Experiential Event Marketing
  • Comprehensive Event Registration (online/onsite) and On-Site Event Production (lighting, sound, staging, talent)
  • Pre- and On-Site Real Time Statistical Data and Market Research
  • Event Sales Activities and Fulfillment (reporting, Sales Activities, B2B Tele-Sales activities, B2B telemarketing services, Audience Acquisition, Exhibit Sales, Sponsorship Sales and Post-Show follow-up)

We welcome the chance to cast your net in the area of Event Management, Event Branding, Event Marketing, Event Sales, Event Promotion and Execution.

Call today and Catch More!

 

Sacramento B2B Marketing, Web Design and Digital Marketing

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If your company or organization is looking for a “disruptive” and results-oriented Marketing, Web Design, Digital Marketing and B2B Telesales and B2B Telemarketing agency, look no further.

Welcome to Sacramento’s premier Marketing, Digital Marketing and Web Design Agency serving as the most strategically biased Marketing, Digital Marketing and Web Design Agency. We gladly serve Sacramento and all 50 United States Partner with a client centric B2B Market Agency that puts skin in the game… from strategic Telemarketing Services to Experiential Event Marketing.

If you landed on this page, we’re confident that your company or organization will find our Marketing, Digital Marketing, Web Design, B2B Telemarketing, B2B Telesales and Telemarketing model extremely compelling.

SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales has been serving the Sacramento business community for over a decade as a leader in Sacramento Marketing, Interactive Marketing and Web Design.

With Sacramento businesses, SalesFish devotes itself to providing a return on investment (ROI) for every client every time. SalesFish’s brand promise is to Improve Your Net. Our promise holds up because as a “quantifiable” marketing and sales agency, we offer incredible ROI for our clients.

What differentiates SalesFish from other Sacramento Marketing, Digital Marketing, and Web Design Agencies is our FULLY integrated marketing and sales model.

As a world-class marketing and sales agency assisting Sacramento B2B organizations and all West Coast B2B companies seeking world-class B2B Marketing, Interactive Marketing and Web Design agencies, SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales provides over 60 billion dollars in quantifiable sales for their Clients.

We know of NO other Marketing, Interactive Marketing and Web Design Agencies serving the Sacramento area that can make such outlandish claims. Learn first hand what an elite Telemarketing Services team can bring to your B2B Lead Generation goals.

How can SalesFish Brand Marketing and Sales make such boastful claims?  As Sales, Web Design and B2B marketing agencies go, we also provide B2B Telesales, B2B Telemarketing and B2B Sales activities. That’s right, we execute high-touch B2B sales activities for our clients.  Our clients appreciate the power we give them to completely integrate allowing for sales and marketing track ability, accountability and bottom line SALES.

We know in a down economy, sales sell and clients look for returns on their brand marketing and sales investments.

Sacramento Marketing, Web Design and Sales NET of Services:

  • Market Research and Strategic Marketing Planning
  • Public Relations and Media Relations
  • Branding and Corporate Identity
  • Creative Design and Creative Writing
  • Direct Response and Advertising
  • Media Planning and Media Buying
  • Multimedia and New Media
  • Digital Marketing
  • Experiential Event Marketing and Event Management
  • Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing and social media marketing
  • Trade Shows, User Conferences, Road Shows, Sales Conferences, Workshops and Seminars etc…
  • B2B Telesales, B2B Telemarketing, Telemarketing Services, Sponsorship Sales and Exhibit Sales

 

Stay tuned! We at SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales, B2B Marketing Agency, Advertising Agency, Interactive Agency, Digital Marketing Agency, Web Design Agency, B2B telemarketing, B2B Tele-Sales and B2B Insides Sales thank you for joining us in the commitment to unwavering strategic B2B marketing and sales.

Call today and our “high-touch” dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals to tailor our B2B Telesales, B2B Telemarketing and Telemarketing services to your specific needs.

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Welcome to the blog for SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales for California’s most strategically biased B2B Tele-Sales, B2B Telemarketing, B2B Inside Sales Agency and B2B Marketing Agency serving Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego and all 50 United States. Partner with a client centric B2B Market Agency that puts skin in the game… from strategic Telemarketing Services to Experiential Event Marketing.

In today’s virtual Sales 2.0 world does it make sense to outsource your B2B Telemarketing, B2B Tele-Sales or B2B Sales activities?  YES! But you still commit to the process of integrated marketing with your B2B Telemarketing, B2B Tele-Sales and B2B Inside Sales activities.

Outsourcing your B2B Telemarketing, B2B Tele-Sales and Inside Sales activities requires an organization to have strong internal marketing leadership and include strong sales acumen.

Given that your organization has such strong leadership, then it is prudent to outsource your B2B Telemarketing, B2B Tele-Sales and B2B Inside Sales activities to a trusted B2B marketing agency partner. Learn first hand what an elite Telemarketing Services team can bring to your B2B Lead Generation goals.

Carefully consider the decision to outsource and vet a qualified partner. Include a partner who is strategic in their sales approach and fundamentally understands integrated marketing.

Stay tuned for more relevant content on creating world-class B2B Telesales, B2B telemarketing and B2B Inside Sales strategies.  We at SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales thank you for joining us in our commitment to unwavering strategic planning, B2B brand marketing and B2B sales execution.

Call today and our “high-touch” dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals to tailor our B2B Telesales, B2B Telemarketing and Telemarketing services to your specific needs.

SalesFish Net of Sales Services:

  • B2B Direct Sales, Channel Sales and Marketing Strategies
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  • Cold Calls and Appointment Setting
  • Online Presentations and Webinars
  • Product Awareness and Announcement Calls
  • Primary Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Surveys
  • Experiential Event Marketing
  • Pre and Post-Event Calls
  • Audience Acquisition, Exhibit Sales and Sponsorship Sales

 

Exhibit Sales & Sponsorship Sales

Welcome to the SalesFish Experiential Event Marketing and Sales blog for California’s most strategically biased event planning, event management, event marketing, sponsorship sales, exhibit sales, and event marketing agency.

We serve Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, Portland, and Seattle. We are very much at home in all 50 United States. Partner with a client centric B2B Market Agency that puts skin in the game… from strategic Telemarketing Services to Experiential Event Marketing.

If you’re planning an experiential marketing event like a trade show, user conference, workshop, road show or sales event, you must decide how you’re going to SELL your event.

If you’re a first time or fairly new event, how you sell is even more critical.  The old adage “Build it, they will come” does not apply here.  You must gain the trust of your target audience over time by giving them a world-class experiential event marketing experience.

If you’re a new or mature event, tie your event to a worthy cause and give a portion of proceeds to that cause.  This is known as Cause Marketing.  Also, be prepared to give away landscape and opportunities to marquee brands and/or companies.

Regarding audience acquisition, exhibit sales, or sponsorship sales, will you trust in your marketing by going it alone?

It’s not a good idea to represent yourself when selling an event. There’s a reason Hollywood stars or professional athletes have agents.  It’s not for negotiation purposes but to reflect how special they are. An intermediary “brands” your event as special.

This is our strong and strategically biased encouragement: Don’t go it alone when selling your event for audience acquisition, sponsorship sales or exhibit sales. Learn first hand what an elite Telemarketing Services team can bring to your B2B Lead Generation goals.

Stay tuned for future relevant Event Planning, Event Management, Event Marketing, Exhibit Sales and Sponsorship Sales content.

We at SalesFish Event Marketing & Sales thank you for joining us in our commitment to unwavering Strategic Event planning, Event Management, B2B telemarketing, B2B Tele-Sales, B2B Inside Sales, Sponsorship Sales, Exhibit Sales, Audience Acquisition, Brand Marketing and Execution.