How Do Smart Marketers Scale Customer Success at Trade Shows?

What the eyes see, the mind believes to be true. Taking a leaf out of the book of Steve Jobs to create a reality distortion field, smart marketers that scale success at trade shows leverage the power of storytelling and visual narratives to make the audience believe in a brand.

Ace marketers create and use great visual impacts to convince customers to buy into the theme that the brand resonates. A trade show is a powerful medium to communicate the message of a brand to visitors, offer credible evidences of solutions to business challenges and generate sustainable brand recall.

Some of the factors affecting brand recall are stand-out creative designs, unique looking trade show displays, a customer-centric behavior of the participating marketers and follow-up action of the sales team during and after the show.

There are smart ways to generating a high brand recall and inducing visitors into buying the appeal of a brand. How do smart marketers convince visitors at trade shows that their brand is worth buying?

Develop and Rehearse the Script

Recall that the late Alfred P. Sloan, the iconic automobile industry heavyweight always asked his team to ready an elevator pitch.

What is the first thing that you say to customers at your booth in the trade show? Great marketers develop a script, edit and rehearse it multiple times to engage with the customer.

They even prepare for a scenario when the customer refrains from a conversation and yet the brand conveys its message with the strong visual appeal of trade show booth rentals. From the corporate label on the t-shirts of marketers to the bottle of water offered to customers, multiple touchpoints placed inside the booth follow a script.

Speak the Language of the Audience

Not everything is spoken in words everywhere. In Japan, customers like to pause and think through their decisions in the middle of business conversations with marketers.

A Japanese customer may ask for a ten minute break before resuming the conversation if he is interested. Smart marketers will allow their customers a break instead of rushing through a dialogue.

Be conscious of the space, time and local culture.

Run Tests to Decide on Trade Show Displays

Trade show displays are symbolic systems specifically aimed at the end-user. Smart marketers run thematic apperception tests (TATs) to determine the user experience delivered by trade show display rentals before the event, form insights from the data and rent the best one that resonates with a great brand image.

From the color code, logo design, to desk space to accommodate a laptop on a table at the trade show booth; the ambiance inside the booth is designed to create customer delight.

Identify the Products to be Put on Display at the Trade Show

Ace marketers put together a product-objective matrix for trade shows.

First, there are new products in the launch phase that need to be promoted aggressively.

Second, there are existing products that ought to be pitched for sales.

Third, there are concept products that need further market insights for product development. Ace marketers always prioritize the product line for display at the trade show, while being mindful of the objectives of participation.

Empower the Customers with Freedom to Own the Experience

Great marketers allow customers to own the experience. They allow customers to walk through the space inside the booth and look around the trade show displays, product samples, and brochures.

It is advisable to occupy only 20% of the booth area and leave the rest free for the visitors to walk through and absorb the experience of being there. Keeping the walkways inside the booth free of inventory allows comfortable movement.

Cover all  to Create an Omni-Channel Marketing Approach

It is essential to ensure that the engagement with the customer extends beyond the trade show. To this extent, smart marketers integrate digital marketing efforts with activities like trade shows.

An all-encompassing marketing approach shall include communicating the date, time and venue of the trade show to the target audience through the brands’ website blog and social media platforms in the pre-show stage, sharing customer engagement stories during the show and finally email marketing to the leads after the show for one-to-one conversations.

In the final diagnosis, pulling off a great trade show performance to scale customer success in the modern business landscape calls for leveraging the best brand communication ideas, creating powerful visual impacts through the use of world-class trade show booth and using a healthy mix of digital marketing to complement the action happening on the ground.