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There are many marketing techniques used today by various businesses and some are more effective than others. Are you looking to step up the existing marketing plan of your business?  Businesses in every niche have been successfully leveraging their goods and services through trade show marketing. Trade shows provide invaluable face-to-face engagement and limitless opportunity for networking. Trade show marketing can be a successful route in any company's marketing plan.

Trade shows are one of the best ways of marketing today. Trade show exhibiting brings targeted customers directly to a place where you can focus on promoting your products and service. Attendees are interested in what you have to offer, so only trade shows can give you the opportunity to showcase and promote your company to those who are interested.

Through your trade show exhibit and your booth employees, you have the opportunity to show attendees interested in your product/service what sets you apart from the competition. Display your company, its products and its service as the best in the industry. A customized trade show exhibit design gives you a leg up from the competition. A customized trade show booth is an element to exhibiting success that cannot be overlooked.

Trade shows exhibits are the best opportunity to introduce a new product or service, sell existing products, meet new customers, evaluate competition and build business relationships. When done correctly, this is a marketing approach that is cost-effective where you can approach targeted customers face to face. Never assume that any type of trade show exhibit will give you the results they are looking for. A custom, effective and well done display is imperative.

For more information on effective trade show displays, contact The Exhibit Source.

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There is quite a value for many businesses in trade show marketing. However, some business are new, small, just experiencing an economic recovery, or attend only a few, specific trade shows in a year. For this reason, many companies opt to rent a trade show display rather than purchase one. But there are other reasons to rent over buy as well. Here are just a few:

1. Cost
Renting trade show displays costs less.

2. Invest Wisely
Renting trade show displays allows you to spend more of your budget on your trade show graphics and messaging.

3. Flexibility
Different trade shows appeal to different attendees. Renting trade show exhibits offers the flexibility of changing your display and graphics from show to show.

4. Overlapping Trade Shows
No need to choose between attending two important trade shows. Renting trade show exhibits means you can effectively attend both shows.

5. Upgrading
Flexibility is important to every business or organization. When you rent your exhibit, you can change or upgrade your display quickly because your resources aren't tied up. This gives you the freedom to target your marketing messaging and graphics for specific trade shows.

6. Installation and Dismantle Included
When you rent a display, install and dismantle can be included.

7. No Storage Expense
Storing a display can be expensive, getting it ready can be time consuming, and shipping it can be challenging. When you rent, there is no storage expense and there are no delivery or prep hassles.

8. Testing
Renting a trade show booth lets you test it before you invest in it. When you make the decision to purchase, you will know you have made the right choice.

For information on renting a trade show booth, contact The Exhibit Source in Newton.

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Trade shows aren't the most modern marketing platform but they can give your business a real boost in customers if you know how to present yourself.

If you are looking for a new way to grow your business, maybe it is time to revisit traditional marketing like exhibiting at trade shows. To maximize your trade show experience, here are some tips.

1. Relevance and location
Do your research and ensure that the show is targeting the right audience for your business. Visit the event a year ahead if possible, and certainly quiz the organizer on visitor demographics; quality over quantity is what you’re after. Also check how many of your competitors will be there and decide if you are comfortable to go head-to-head.

Picking the right trade show display location is important. The best positions are where people congregate and linger. Also go for the middle spots over the perimeter.

2. Marketing ahead of time
Check how the organizers will promote the show. Are there any PR opportunities for you?

3. Be a speaker
If at all possible, get a speaker slot - but don’t use it as a sales pitch. You’ll get a bigger audience if you give out objective advice and aim to educate.

4. Set targets
Trade show exhibiting is expensive so you need to be able to measure your return. Aim to generate 10 -15% of attendees into "hot leads". If you achieve over 25% it is time to celebrate.

5. Staffing
Everybody working your booth at the trade show needs to know your show objectives, what their targets are, and to be giving out the same messages.

6. Attracting attention
You need to stand out. Consider your trade show exhibit design. Get creative, have some action going on. Give a demo or talk every hour and display a schedule of what’s on.

Review your literature – is it interesting, concise and easy to identify what you do and why you are different? Does the design stand out from a distance? Use upright stands to display it.

6. Capture visitor data
The badge barcode readers supplied by organizers make this part very easy. You get all the data in a spreadsheet that can be imported into your database and acted upon.

7. Measure and follow up
This is the most critical part of the whole process. You won’t know if the show was financially beneficial until a few months afterwards. Try to convert at least 50% of the "hot leads" into customers within a six month period, of course this depends on your buying cycle. Best to contact people while the exhibition is fresh in their heads, so don’t leave it longer than a couple of days.

For more information, contact the Exhibit Source.

Real Business

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According to Marketing Sherpa, trade shows are in the top spot as the most effective B2B marketing platform. They have surpassed paid search, email marketing and websites. It is time for B2C businesses to take trade show marketing more seriously and use them to market more efficiently and effectively.

These three trade show marketing tips can help you build an effective event marketing strategy.

• Invite the attendees to join your email list so they can receive you communications. Most people at trade shows know that getting their badges scanned means they will be receiving emails from a number of vendors. After you have scanned their badges, let them know that you’ve added them to an email list which gives them a chance to unsubscribe. Attendees get bombarded with email after a trade show, you don’t want them to consider you as spammy.

• Use content that’s related to the event. When you connect with someone after the show, you have the show in common. Think about any time you meet a friend of a friend someplace: most people are inclined to say, “so how do you know so and so?” Talking about what you have in common progresses conversation naturally. An email sparks a conversation with a prospect, so make them feel comfortable by talking about what you have in common. Create live content at the event, such as videos, tweets, or session overviews, to use in emails, or use content that’s related to the topics featured at the event.

• Develop a lead-nurturing campaign, and create as much of it before the trade show as possible. Unless you attend a much targeted event, your event lead pool will be very diverse. Don’t mistake the attendees for warm leads and try to sell immediately. Nurture the leads until your sales team can effectively determine which ones are worth their time. When you build out a nurture program before an event, you’re ready to send it right after an event. In the aftermath of an event, you need to sell to your leads while the event is still hot on their minds. If you have to scramble to build emails and get approval after an event, your emails won’t be created as effectively, and you’ll lose interest from leads.

For more information or for assistance with your trade show exhibit, contact The Exhibit Source.

B2C

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