Convention Marketing Tips You Should Know

By Dave Young, Professional Writer and Founder, Young Copy

Conventions are great for achieving success. If done correctly, you can attract customers, partners, vendors, and business leads to help you increase your revenue. With possibly hundreds of potential prospects available to you, your job is to make sure you capture your prospective customers’ attention and educate them on how you can help them achieve success by using your products and services. Remember, your prospective customers have a lot of showroom to cover and will talk to many people throughout the day. Make sure you create a lasting impression. Here’s how.

If you have been following the Young Copy blog or read the articles in the Young Copy Resource Center, you know that we start all projects by getting to know your target audience(s). Knowing your target audience – how they think, what they do, their spending habits, where they go online, conventions they attend, and much more – all lead to the number one convention marketing tip you should know.

Tip #1: Know your target audience.

You may have more than one target audience. And that’s okay. You can still market to multiple target audiences, but make sure you fully understand every aspect of your target audiences before you start your marketing campaign. Develop what we call personas or profiles of your target audiences. Learn their behavior. And learn what they want to achieve with your products and services.

At your next convention, focus on your target audiences’ top needs and concerns. Feature products and solutions that address those needs. Make sure your booth, data sheets, product folders, brochures, and presentations highlight how your products and services can help your target audiences achieve greater success.

Tip #2: Utilize pre-show opportunities.

Whether you are exhibiting, presenting, or just attending, let your customers and prospective customers know what you’re doing and when. If you are exhibiting or presenting, send a press release highlighting who’s presenting, the topic being presented, and why your customers and prospects should attend. Send a newsletter with the same information as your press release (written in newsletter format) to your mailing list.

Your newsletter mailing list should have emails of your current customers, prospective customers, partners, vendors, and anyone you think is important to the success of your business. Post a blog entry stating what you’ll be doing at the convention. You can even tweet about it on Twitter. Utilize all the communication methods your company uses when communicating with customers and prospective customers.

Tip #3: Schedule a time to meet with existing customers.

Your existing customers are extremely important to the success of your business. Without your existing customers, you would not have revenue. And you certainly would not be able to attend a conference unless you are paying out of pocket. That said, find out which of your existing customers are attending your next conference. Let them know when you’ll be there and what you’ll be doing. Let them know by utilizing Tip #2 above.

Once you find out which of your existing customers are attending, find out what they would like to learn or achieve at the convention. Tell your existing customers what your company is currently planning or doing that will benefit them now and in the future. Demonstrate new products and services you think they can use to better their daily lives, businesses, or how they can reduce expenses or any other benefits you think they can use. Most importantly, use the time you spend with your existing customers to address any issues they may have with your products and services. Now that’s customer support at its best.

Tip #4: Help your prospects experience your brand, products, and solutions.

Nothing beats a demonstration or example of your products and services. Show your prospective customers how to use your products. If possible, let them explore your product, but make sure you are available to answer questions. Utilize videos of happy customers using your products and services. The idea is to give customers a total experience from the booth design to interacting with your company representatives to trying out your products.

You only have a few minutes, maybe even a few seconds, to grab your customers’ and visitors’ attention. When they see your booth, the design and the promotional materials in the booth should get a sense of who you are and what you can do for them. Pull them into your booth through great design, great copy, and great marketing collateral. Get your visitors to stay longer by making sure that your company representatives engage them in a conversation. Make them feel welcome, make them feel like you’re really listening to their concerns, and answer any questions or concerns they may have regarding your products and solutions. Complete all these things and your brand will build itself.

Tip #5: Talk to industry publishers.

Your next convention will have media writers ready to interview. Industry related magazines and bloggers need content to fill their websites. Get in front of media writers who will write about your products and services. Any mention you receive online or in print will help develop your brand further. But make sure you have the information media writers are looking for at the convention. In most cases, media writers are looking for trends and new products and services that are launching or taking place in the industry.

If you have new products to launch or any other important news to announce, send out press releases to these publications before the conference so media writers can add your company to the list of booths they will visit.

You can also prepare press kits to give out to members of the press who will drop by your booth. When you prepare a press kit, make it simple. The last thing a media writer wants to do is thumb through dozens of pages on your product or service announcement. Ideally, prepare a list of concepts or ideas you want to be published and hand it to the media writer. Give the media writer plenty of time in advance to review your list. Then when you sit down for an interview, things will go much smoother. The media writer may even take your picture.

Tip #6: Give out your business cards and product literature.

Have your business cards ready. Have plenty of product brochures available. Don’t overwhelm your prospective customer, partner, or vendor, but give them enough information they can hold on to and remember you by for an after-show follow-up. When you have a booth or exhibit at a convention, you want to educate your current customers, prospective customers, partners, and vendors. And you want to provide as many ways possible for your contacts to communicate with you.

Every business card or product literature piece you hand out should have your contact information and information about your products and services. Provide your website address, email address, phone number, and your Twitter address. If you make it easy for your prospects to understand how you can help them and you make it easy for them to contact you, your business can achieve immediate results.

Tip #7: Ask for a business card.

Regardless of who you meet, ask for a business card. When you return to your office, update your customer relationship management (CRM) tool. If you’re not using a CRM, get one today. There are plenty of choices available (Salesforce, Highrise). A CRM will help you keep your contacts organized. And good CRMs have follow-up reminders you can set in addition to notes you can add about a contact including where and how you met, the last conversation you had, and all contact information.

Asking for a business card is essential to your marketing. People willing to give you their business card are most likely willing to talk to you at some point in the future. Whether you meet a potential vendor, partner, business acquaintance, current customer or prospective customer, ask for a business card. Customers feel a sense of trust and authority when they have a personal connection with a business owner or someone at the top (CEO, VP, VP Sales/Marketing, VP of Operations, etc.).