Cha! Ching! Attracting and Driving Prospects to Your Exhibit! Post #2
Ted
in Marketing Management, Trade Show Marketing, Trade Show Planning, Trade Shows
Reading time: 3 – 5 minutes
In the last post we talked about goal setting and planning to get the most out of your participation at tradeshows. The primary goals of most trade show exhibits are to get immediate sales and obtain leads that will result in sales in the near future. As a small to medium sized business, how can you break through all the marketing noise made by the large companies to attract prospects to your exhibit? Over the next few blog posts, let’s look at some economical tactics that can be used to move people to your exhibit.
Market noise is a big problem for small to medium sized companies leading up to trade shows. For example in the ophthalmic market, Alcon, Heidelberg Engineering, Carl Zeiss Meditech, Novartis, Topcon and Abbott Medical Optics generate multiple e-blast campaigns, buy up large swaths of advertising and conduct a lot of direct mail prior to ophthalmic congresses. Some of these companies have an e-blast hitting the market every other day during the weeks prior to the congress. You can imagine that one e-blast from a small company could get lost in all that noise. Or, one one-half page advertisement in a medical publication will not stand out in a journal that is twice its normal size due to all the extra pre-show advertising conducted by the big companies.
Over the next few posts we will cover several tactics you should seriously consider to get your share of the prospects’ attention leading up to and at the trade show/medical congress. I would love to hear ideas from my readers. And, hear some success stories.
- Today, I have some pointers on trade show promotions.
- Tomorrow, I will blog about using your sales or distribution channel.
- Monday, I will post some of my thoughts on e-blasts and e-newsletters. They are a great medical device marketing tool.
- Tuesday or Wednesday, I will cover print ads and direct mail.
- Next Thursday, I will finish up with Twitter.
Promotions/value proposition/offer – offer something of value to motivate a prospect to come to your exhibit:
- Special show pricing – don’t put the price in your ads. This will tip off the competition. Instead, indicate a very good discount that is only good during the show.
- Risk reducing offer – 30 day trial
- Giveaway contest idea #1 – have a raffle to give away an iPad® every day. Prospects qualify for the raffle if they fill out a lead form and participate in a product demonstration. This achieves a goal of educating prospects and gives your sales people time with them. Always check trade show rules regarding giveaways and state laws.
- Giveaway contest idea #2 – Consider giving away one of you products every day. If the pricing and gross margins are acceptable this can create a lot of traffic. Yes, you will have people come back every day to register for the contest. That is OK. It helps to cement a relationship between you and the prospects. One concern with this contest is that no one will buy anything in hopes of winning the product.
- Giveaway in place of discount – If you have a product with a high price and reasonable margin, you could give away a Kindle® or Nook® or Flip® Camera with all purchases.
- Education – doctors love to get educated on a new device, technique or procedure. They enjoy hearing a Key Opinion Leader speak about products. If you can afford a large enough exhibit to have room for a small education theatre, you may want to offer several KOL presentations each day. This can get costly….honorariums to the speakers and the audio/video gear…but it is classy.
Once you know what the promotional offer will be, you can decide on the tools you want to use to communicate this offer to prospective attendees of the medical congress.
Tomorrow, we will lead off with one of the most underutilized tools at your disposal, your sales or distribution channel.
