Trade shows have long been the go-to marketing strategy for B2B marketers. 77% of surveyed marketers ranked trade shows as their primary marketing channel in a Content Marketing Institute survey. And it's no surprise. Trade shows offer businesses the chance to talk face-to-face with their prospects -- prospects who have likely paid to attend the show and who are walking right into your booth to learn more about your company.
For some B2B marketers trade shows become their only strategy. It can be so deceptively simple. Attend trade show. Get new clients. Repeat. But trade shows are expensive -- booth, design, travel, time away from the office -- it all adds up. This article is about how to expand beyond just doing trade shows and explains how some of these other marketing tactics can make your time at trade shows even more effective.
HubSpot, a marketing automation platform, calls this Inbound Marketing (as opposed to outbound methods, like cold calling, cold emailing). The fundamental strategy behind content marketing is that you use high-quality content to drive traffic to your website with the goal of collecting small bits of information to help you nurture this lead through your sales process. In the early stages, much of this happens without intervention from you (aside from setting up the entire nurturing process at the beginning) and allows your sales team to come in right at the end, when that lead has become an SQL (sales qualified lead) and needs less education, less information, less selling.
Look at all of the trade shows you plan to attend for the year. Create your content topic clusters to align with the focus of each trade show. Use your content to build your reputation as an expert and as a place to drive your prospects to find information that's relevant and specific to their needs.
Bonus Tip: Instead of just having data sheets and company brochures, print some of your best downloadable content and use it as conversation starters with visitors to your booth. They will likely find this more useful than the beer koozie.
Bonus Bonus Tip: Don't overlook your current customers in your content strategy. Creating engaging, informative content is an effective way to build loyalty.
Having a presence on social media is vital for your business. Your prospects will not only check out your website after seeing you at a trade show, they will also check out your social media profiles. LinkedIn and Twitter are generally safe bets for most B2B companies. Whichever platform(s) you focus on, it's important to have a consistent presence and to have a strategy.
Using social media in advance of a trade show can prime you for a more productive show. Let your network know you'll be there, share your booth number and give them a good reason to stop by. Reach out to people personally through direct messages and invite them to set up a meeting. You might find your team well booked with meetings before you even arrive at the show.
Bonus Tip: Don't be afraid to put a little ad spend behind your social media efforts. Nothing is ever really free and social media is no exception. If a post is doing well, boost it even more with some paid placement. But before you spend a dime, make sure your post has a clear call-to-action (schedule a meeting, download a data sheet, etc.) so you can measure results in a clear-cut way. Here are some tips on using Facebook for B2B marketing.
You probably already have a relatively large customer email list. But are you making the most of it? Retaining and expanding current customer relationships is far less expensive than acquiring new customers. Just like you can use your content strategy and your social media strategy to reach your current clients, email marketing is also a fantastic way to reach this receptive audience. Make your emails informative, give your customers tips for using your products to better than business, inform them of product upgrades and releases, share industry news they might have missed. This all establishes you as a trusted business partner.
You can also use email marketing to nurture leads. When you have content that is created for each phase of the buying process you can use email to promote that content and move prospects down the funnel.
Most trade shows offer their email list of attendees for rental. Take advantage of it! Email their list ahead of the show and encourage them to visit your booth, set up a meeting or download a white paper from your website (then you'll own the email address and the lead).
Bonus Tip: Overly-designed, slick HTML emails are not always the most effective tactic. Try sending some plain text emails, appearing to come directly from a member of your sales team and see how they perform compared to traditional marketing emails.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of marketing tactics for B2B companies. Instead, I hope this sparks some new ideas for tactics that don't replace trade shows but that do expand the impact of trade shows.
You might also be interested in this post: The 3 Key Times to Maximize your Trade Show Attendance
If all of the marketing options available to you set your head spinning, you’re not alone. That’s why we created our "Untangle Your B2B Marketing Options" infographic to help sort it all out.