Business-to-business Marketing At Trade Shows
Business-to-business (B2B) marketing can be extremely effective at trade shows
. Surveys show that participating in trade shows is critical for increasing profits, making new business connections and creating successful partnerships. This article will discuss lead capture/CRM and automating your follow up.
The main reason trade show participation can be so successful is the target audience. Surveys show that 75% of the attendees are those with the authority to spend company money. Many are looking to develop new partnerships, find better and/or cheaper business solutions and make solid connections with their peers (and competitors). With that in mind, you should be able to make your next trade show a complete success! Here are a few things to consider to help you do just that.
Lead Capture/Customer Relationship Management
Of course, the main point of attending the trade show is to capture leads. It will be important to train the staff members working inside the booth on the goals for this area. Also, work on the method of how leads will be gathered. Make sure the information you are gathering will be consistent and easily transferred to your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.
One of the goals of the training should be for staff to qualify the leads that come in by identifying which leads are purchase-ready and which ones need to be nurtured. Many of the generated at a trade show are not yet ready to be handed over to a sales person. Instead, they should be added to the customer relationship management system and nurtured until they are closer to purchase.
By qualifying leads you can also see trends over different shows. That's why it is important to have a CRM system that allows you to learn about the interests and needs of the prospects. Without qualification, leads cannot be prioritized and the value of the data collected at the tradeshow is almost non-existent.
Any easy way to help you generate and qualify your leads at the trade show is to incorporate the use of a system that is able to scan all badges and capture information (make sure the system integrates with your CRM system). This system should also allow you to add custom fields and transfer data to your CRM at any time, not just at the end of the event.
Lead Nurturing/Automating Follow Up
Now that you have had a successful trade show event and gathered your qualified leads, there is an important job to do: follow up. The manner in which these leads are handled will determine the ultimate success of the event.
A good lead nurturing system should be systematic, in other words, it is done the same way every time. It needs to generate consistent and predictable results. The system should require minimal physical interaction to make it run (it should be able to run on autopilot!).
There are systems available that can perform an automated follow up with direct mail to the new lead. They also will send you a reminder prompting you to make a personal connection via phone or email. This is an extremely powerful and effective tool to make sure your new prospects get the info they need as well as the personal touch needed to establish a better relationship and a better lead.
A typical lead nurturing system should include a lot of different ways to communicate with prospects - a series of letters, emails, voicemails, case studies, success stories, articles, events, white papers, webinars, videos - anything that might be meaningful and informative to your potential customers. Whatever you choose to send to your prospects should be relevant, thought-provoking and consistent. The strategy you use and the frequency with which you send it will depend on your sales process and the buying cycle of the prospect.
by: Ted Raymond
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