Ideas for a Smarter, Faster World

Digital ideas to help you sustain attendance (and look smart in the process)

It’s been an unpleasant year for the tradeshow marketer. No one is traveling (ouch) and attendance levels have dwindled as a result. Nice knowin’ ya, Vegas boondoggle.

In response, tradeshow marketers are scrambling to find new ways to reach members, buyers, prospects and exhibitors. Some have even have migrated their content entirely online (cool!). But let’s face it. There’s no replacement for the personal interaction that occurs on the tradeshow floor or at the hotel bar.

EDITORS NOTE:  There’s one shining star in the virtual tradeshow world. TED does a wonderful job of making you feel like you’re really there. But don’t overlook that TED, at its core, is still an in-person show.

What follows is a quick reference guide on tradeshow tactics for the digital age. CAVEAT: Strategy comes before tactics (but that’s not the promise of this post).

Learn from what you have

Most trade associations have an email database. Auditing and cleaning that list is the first step. Failing to reconnect with lapsed members is a HUGE oversight. Next, separate the wheat from the chaff, and focus on share of member, not share of wallet.

If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it

To improve content maintenance, achieve better data integration, and enable measurement on and offline, associations should invest in a contact/content management platform like Conversen or Eloqua (there are dozens on the market). This is so rudimentary but so many associations rely on antiquated legacy systems that fail to deliver the insights needed to inform smarter strategy.

Print drives to web, and vice versa

On demand printing has changed the way we think about brochure collateral and direct mail. Why not personalize it? Or use pURL or QR (quick response) codes that drive to a personalized space online?

Smarter, more relevant email marketing

Most tradeshows send a major communication per month to generate awareness. That’s fine. But once a potential attendee is in the communications stream, the goal should be to hit this person with the right message at the right time, and in the most personal way possible.

Incorporate video

People are lazy. And video continues to be the best way to engage the lazy web user. If you have any video whatsoever that’s relevant to tradeshow topics, develop a branded YouTube channel (it’s free!) to house this material. Then use the embed code (also free) to incorporate those vids into your website and other communications. Also, buy a flip cam to document the show.

Make content more shareable!

Forward-to-a-friend functionality is a nice idea. But have you ever used the forward-to-a-friend function to actually forward to a friend? Me neither. We’d suggest standardizing shareability of all web site content on social networks through tools like http://sharethis.com/ or http://www.addthis.com. Everything should be shareable.

Jazz up the press release

When’s the last time you read a press release? Yawn. We’re encouraging clients to develop more social ways to engage the press. Consider an interactive news release template—which includes shareable photos and videos and provides easy ways to connect with traditional media as well as bloggers and trade journalists. Much of this content can be re-purposed from existing assets like your magazine. Clean out the attic of assets you already have and make them start working harder on the social web.

Make smarter media placements

Unless you’re targeting contextually, behaviorally or re-targeting the folks who have visited your site already, forget about buying banner space. Also, go running for the hills if someone tries to sell you a run-of-site placement.

Grab the low-hanging search engine fruit

Paid: buy keywords by industry, by issue, by speaker, topic and test performance. Then optimize on the fly. You’re only paying for clicks  Unpaid: to improve organic search performance, look at member surveys to inform keyword strategy. Open-ended answers on surveys are great indicators of what’s of interest. Optimize each page: title tags, image tags, metatags. Launch a link building effort to enhance organic optimization. The more videos and the more shareable content on the site, the better you’ll perform on the Google.

Socialize it

• Use social media listening tools to learn what are people saying, where are they saying it, then tailor your show’s programming accordingly
• Use SKYPE or other videoconferencing tools for planning calls with speakers and exhibitors—speakers will think you’re fancy and high tech.
• Use Google docs to assign tasks, meetings and make the calendar and information sharing more collaborative.
• Short on budget? Use EventBrite or another shareable, transactional registration system.
• Create a Facebook event—promote the event (ask us how)
• Create a Facebook group—promote the group (ask us how)
• Create a LinkedIn group—promote the group (ask us how)
• Create a YouTube channel-promote the channel (see the theme here?)
• Create an open blog for the conference. Tap association employees, exhibitors, and key members to lead the conversation, and promote the blog. Enable this blog for mobile phones. (ask us how)
• Shamelessly promote and post social media communication leading up to, at, and after the event.
• Callout the website URL in everything you do (duh).

Got a question? Disagree? Bring it on. Leave a comment!

By the way, thanks to DG at the National Association of [REDACTED] [REDACTED] for inspiring this post. You should hire us, DG.  All this thinking is worth it.

Tags: associations, Digital, marketing, one:one, Social Media, tradeshows

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 at 8:50 pm and is filed under 1:1, General, Usability. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.