Trade Show Display Marketing Tips and Advice

Sales success largely depends on routines. There are only so many hours in a day to sell -- the more practiced salespeople are at completing everyday tasks, the more time they can allocate to high-value activities like meeting with prospects or learning new skills. But sticking to the same process isn’t always a good thing. If you rely on the same prospecting methods and never try anything new (like participating in a trade show event with a booth), you’ll miss out on valuable opportunities. After all, many buyers will never get on your radar via traditional channels.

Maybe they haven’t changed vendors for 20 years and would only switch if a trusted business partner referred them to another supplier. Or maybe they’re unaware of their problem in the first place, so they’re unlikely to download your content or seek out a salesperson. To find these high-value prospects, you’ll need to try add some creative prospecting techniques to your arsenal. Use these six ideas as inspiration.

With so many options available in physical stores and online, keeping customers loyal to your brand is no easy task. For small businesses in particular, it may seem difficult to keep customers coming back without spending a fortune on marketing. Here are the 15 best customer loyalty program ideas to keep customers happy and business booming:

By now, you may have heard of a musical called Hamilton.  In you haven’t, here’s a rundown: Since its Broadway debut in August 2015, people can't get enough of it. They're paying upwards of $500 for crappy seats, and close to $3,000 for good ones. It won a Pulitzer, a Grammy and 11 Tony Awards. Its composer and original star, Lin-Manuel Miranda, is now a celebrity.  In other words: People are listening to this stuff.  Seeing the way Hamilton captivated such massive audiences -- in less than a year -- fascinates me. How the heck did this thing blow up?

Watching the progress and near-instant success of Hamilton is really a lesson in why people listen -- not just to a hit musical, but to a person, a podcast, or anything, really. A lot can be learned by looking into those reasons, especially for marketers. To what and whom do people listen? Why? And how can we get them to listen to us? 

To answer those questions, we did some research on the listening process, our motivations for listening, and more.

Cold calling used to be one of the best -- and only -- prospecting strategies salespeople could use.  But in the past 40 years, a variety of more effective alternatives have emerged like a good trade show event.     A good prospecting strategy is: Consistent: It reliably generates new leads, High-return: It generates a high number of potential customers for the amount of energy and resources required, and targeted: It connects you with the right prospects, not just any prospects.  Why doesn't cold calling fit this criteria?

When I was a beginning exhibitor, I’ll never forget how I learned the importance of attendee promotions at one particular show.  It was a local event which was open to the public, but took place over Mother’s Day weekend so it faced a lot of competing events around the city. On top of that, it was a new show, so hadn’t yet built a loyal following who looked forward to coming year after year.  So while exhibitors had been promised a crowd of several thousand, it turned out to be more like a few hundred over the course of the multi-day event. My neighboring exhibitors were all grumbling about how pathetic the turnout was, yet traffic in my booth was somewhat steady.

Emotions are a powerful thing.   Prospects make decisions based on potential ROI, ease of implementation, and likelihood that a product will help them achieve their work goals. But emotion is the undercurrent of these decisions. Fear (that they will fail), hope (that business pain can be fixed), and frustration (that things aren't great right now) -- these emotions are just as important to a purchasing decision as facts and figures. Make no mistake -- logic matters in buying decisions. But there are a few conversational tricks you can use to appeal to your prospect’s emotions and their intellect. For example, use short, basic language instead of complicated phrases. “There’s more” is more effective than “additionally,” while “better” trumps “superior,” according to the graphic.

We’ve all heard of trade shows, and you may even frequent them for your business. But where do trade shows fall in the current world of inbound marketing? Have they grown with the changing times? And, more importantly, should your business be dedicating time to them? 

Four states legalized recreational use of marijuana in November—California, Massachusetts, Maine, and Nevada—bringing the total number to eight plus Washington, D.C. As these laws go into effect, and attitudes toward the drug begin to soften, expect to see everything from cannabis-infused food and beverages to rolled marijuana cigarettes at events such as festivals, weddings, and more.