Using Trade Shows to Increase Your Sales

A trade show exhibit is an outstanding form of presentation designed to bring members of a certain industry together for the express purpose of showing, discussing, showing, testing, debating, studying, or learning about new products, ideas, or products. A trade show exhibit is usually held in one place for a specific duration of time, perhaps one day, one week, or even one month. Trade shows are also called seasonal displays because they are usually held every two or three months. However, no matter when they are held, trade show exhibits make excellent marketing tools.

Many businesses nowadays are marketing their company and services through trade shows. Some firms use these events as part of their marketing campaigns and others outsource it entirely. Both ways, companies that participate in trade shows can benefit from some marketing automation. The benefits include better visibility, greater exposure, increased sales, and increased awareness of your brand or company. Marketing automation can also improve productivity, which means more people working toward marketing success. Here are some types of marketing automation you can use at trade shows:

Follow-Up Call. A follow-up call is essentially an automated phone call made right after you set up your trade show booth, after the show, or sometimes even during the show. The purpose is to make sure that your exhibitor is aware of any changes or special offers happening within their booth. When using this tool, make sure to set up an appointment with your chosen vendor so that you can schedule a time to return and make changes if needed.

Live Lead Tracking. Once you’ve set up your booth, filled out your advertising documents, printed out your brochures, handed out your free promotional products, and discussed how you’d like your attendees to do business with you, it’s time to get to the meat of your job: the sales pitch. You can’t just hand out fliers or give sales speeches; you need to actually connect with your audience on a personal level. To encourage your prospects to take action, you’ll need to follow up with them afterwards. This is where lead tracking can come in handy.

CRM Integration. Many companies overlook CRM integration when promoting their business at trade shows, because the focus tends to be on the technology side. But without proper CRM integration at trade shows, you won’t be able to gather sales leads, manage your vendors, and even send messages ahead of time with more accuracy than you could achieve with software alone. Contact management software can help you manage all of your contact information, and can be used by your sales staff in the course of their work at the show to create a unified system for both your company and your tradeshow attendees.

Sales and Leads. At trade shows, the potential for sales leads and sign-ups are as good as the food at the exhibit, but there are other areas where you can improve your results by focusing on your audience. Attendees are more likely to come back to your booth if they feel welcome and comfortable, and if you’re able to make them feel like a part of something big and exciting, they’ll want to be there every day. To increase your chances of making good connections and developing strong relationships with your target audience, you need to spend some time following up with your attendees after the show to ensure that they were a good fit.