I recently attended the GIE+EXPO and wanted to share with you some exciting news! We just launched GetGreenTurf.com, a new online resource and social site for turf professionals, with a client and I’m ecstatic.
The GIE+EXPO gave us the perfect opportunity to get in front of one of the audiences of the site – lawn care professionals – and create a buzz. Isn’t that what tradeshows are about?
Even though we tried to make a splash with our booth (green shoes, green iPads, green graphics, green green candy, carpet, etc.), we did have a goal for the show — to capture new users for the site and create a good first impression.
This rings true to all B2B marketers. There were two big things I learned from this show that I wanted to delve deeper into:
Engage at the booth and your brand image will gain.
Differentiation. We all struggle with it, but at a tradeshow, it’s crucial that you stand out even more. You don’t have to do this with just your booth activities, graphics or displays (although it helps); you can differentiate by taking your brand to the next level by engaging in conversation and personalization.
Regardless of the market you’re in, companies attending tradeshows are looking for information, and they want it from someone friendly and informative. Perfect opportunity! At the GetGreenTurf.com booth, I made it a point to give my spiel but also ask questions to engage my audience.
I wanted to hear more about them and their challenges. I turned it around on them in hopes of tying in our product to their needs. I tried with all my little heart to make a good impression and make their experience at our booth well worth the visit. Your brand will shine even brighter if you’ve taken on the task of extending the company image personally.
Take your leads seriously and you’ll earn back what you spent.
When I think about all the planning and money that goes into a tradeshow booth, I get a little light-headed. B2B marketers more than ever need to start thinking about how they’re going recover those costs and more. Consider lead retrieval technology, website enrollment or paper forms to get their contact info down.
The majority of the time, more will disclose their information if they have a chance at winning something. You can capture some great lead data but how you flip those is what counts. Even more, you need to nourish those leads immediately, no later than the week right after the tradeshow.
Our team was quick to get an email follow up to the attendees of the show that stopped by our booth and we thanked them for stopping by, and empowered them with CTAs to take the next step for information.
Capturing, nuturing and converting those leads into customers will ultimately drive the sales that will recover your costs, which is the obvious point here. The ROI game is possible if your marketing and sales teams work together to engage, follow up and deliver.
Tradeshows are only as successful as you make them. Set yourself up for greatness by having the right people in the booth to extend your brand image and the right lead gen strategy.
Consider calling a Canyonite to help you with your next tradeshow and we’ll help you build a pre- and post-show strategy.
I found a great 
Because of this, I believe it is imperative to get an audience to show up for a webinar presentation.
A fellow 
Gamification has been a part of the B2C industry for a while, but as you can see from the above example, B2B digital marketing strategies are starting to introduce the concept to engage prospects.
