Avoid Falling Victim to Horror Movie Clichés
Download the E-Book Today!
When planning your trade show exhibit, it’s easy to fall victim to habits that would make any good horror movie scream queen proud. We’ve discussed in Parts 1 & 2 of this series a few other horror movie clichés that marketers commonly fall victim to when planning a trade show experience.
If you’ve made it this far, congratulations – you might just make it out of this alive. But there are still two more trade show marketing survival tips to read before you can guarantee your spot in the sequel (no promises what happens after that).
Do You Think We Got Him?
Characters in horror movies always fall victim to the same mistake: they take one shot and assume the bad guy is dead. Similarly, many companies assume that interaction at the booth is enough to secure a lead, failing to put in place proper follow-up strategies to develop trade show leads into actual customers. Your lead nurturing campaign should be swift, thorough, and tailored to your audience. If your follow-up campaign doesn’t include anything past a single blast email, you didn’t “get him,” and he may just get back up like the walking dead and take his business somewhere else.
- Utilize the double tap: Companies who send multiple follow-up emails receive double the results for a little extra work and money.
- Protect deliverability and compliance by authenticating email with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, which helps inbox placement and sender reputation. Include a clear unsubscribe and a valid postal address for CAN-SPAM, document GDPR consent, and honor opt-outs across systems.
- A whopping 45% of companies do not track trade show and event leads as they progress through the sales cycle, making it impossible to determine ROI.
- Opt for variable data wherever and whenever possible, using your marketing automation platform to assign sales reps to specific contacts and create customized email senders.
- Use lead scoring to assign lead rankings based on specific qualifying behaviors.
- Sync badge scans and forms to your CRM or marketing automation with campaign IDs and UTM tags for accuracy. Report on pipeline created, conversion rates, and revenue attribution, and map campaign members to stages for clear visibility companywide.
Running Upstairs
While it may be comical to watch a character in a horror movie run upstairs to escape a murderous villain, it’s not that funny when you do the same thing with your trade show exhibit. If your booth has fallen victim to most of these horror movie clichés, it might not be in your best interest to continue what isn’t working. Rather than “running upstairs” and getting yourself into even more trouble, it might be time to completely reevaluate your strategy.
- Sometimes it’s not enough to make small, measured; you may need to throw out your entire booth and start from scratch.
- Use QR codes, NFC badge scanning, and lead-retrieval apps to cut manual entry and enrich records in real time. Trigger same-day, personalized emails that keep building pros engaged while interest is high, and route hot leads to sales.
- For many B2B companies, securing even a couple high-quality trade show leads who become customers pays dividends.
- Working with a B2B marketing firm that can look at your business differently gives you a greater chance of creating a fun, unique, and memorable experience that will make an impact on potential leads.
With these tips in hand, you have what you need to escape bad trade show marketing—something that kills sales every time. To learn more, download our free e-book: “Killer Booths: The Horror (Trade) Show Survival Guide.”
