For a long time, businesses thought it was enough to create exhibition spaces that built brand awareness and not much more. Logos featured on everything from apparel to rubber ducks, and everything in between. Most of the branded merchandise was discarded, or given away to friends and family. Now marketers are revisiting their strategies and replacing free gifts with promotions.
A promotion is a call to action – designed to directly generate qualified leads and drive sales.
Define Your Target Customer
The first step is to decide what you want to accomplish so that you can define your target customer. Marketers now want promotions that motivate an action instead of just brand awareness. Work our if you want to generate leads, get people to try your product, make sales, direct people to your website, or generate retail traffic?
Target Your Prospects
Once your target prospect is defined, you need to design a promotion aimed at your prospects. Simply giving something to everyone who passes by your exhibition stand is not a good idea, unless everyone is a great prospect. This will generate unqualified leads, making it difficult to find your real prospects in the mass of names gathered.
A conversation with target customers and encourages follow-up conversations or contacts is a good way to begin your promotion.
Do you require a sales incentive, a free gift or both?
Some promotions work most effectively with the use of a sales incentive – discount vouchers, gift vouchers for future purchases, a gift with purchase or any other marketing offer. Some businesses have discovered that combining a sales incentive with a giveaway is a very effective combination. Remember to obtain your prospects’ names, email addresses and phone numbers, and some details which identify the best prospects. If you decide to make use of a giveaway, take the potential leads’ name and contact information in exchange for these gifts. Don’t forget to grab the opportunity to ask a couple of questions which will make the qualified prospects jump out.
Games, Drawings and Prizes
Games and competitions engage people. Try to design a focused game or contest which appeals to qualified prospect by selecting a prize that will be of interest to a qualified prospect. Consider giving away your product or a related item as a prize. You can then increase participation in the contest by giving away a few prizes during the expo.
Track your results
Ensure you have a way of measuring the success of your expo promotions. If you used a sales incentive, use a code on it so that you can track what the expo offer generated. If you gave away a premium item, survey your customers and your exhibit team about how well it worked.
Feel free to ask our friendly sales team for ideas that may improve your event experience.