When preparing for a tradeshow, many of us in the fresh produce industry focus on several main components: the booth, the theme, selling points, product displays, and maybe promoting your presence through trade ads, sponsorships and social media posts. And considering the frantic nature of attending any tradeshow and the full plate we know you have, it’s no surprise that valuable marketing tactics can fall by the wayside. But with PMA Foodservice, a more intimate a close-knit show just around the corner, there is no better time to implement these smart BUT easy to execute marketing tactics.
Here are 6 marketing moves to make during your time at PMA Foodservice 2014:
1. Send Personal Email Invitations Inviting Prospects to Your Booth
If you’ve been collecting contacts into a database of any kind, you will be able to create and send an email inviting them to visit your booth. But don’t just invite them to come – give them a compelling reason to stop by! Pre-tradeshow emails work best when they tell your audience what problem you’re going to solve for them if they come to your booth.
2. Update Your Website with Relevant Selling Points
Our personal experience at DMA and with our clients is that attendees are seeking information on exhibiting companies online prior to and after a tradeshow. We know this from the tell-tale traffic spikes we experience around shows like PMA Foodservice and Fresh Summit each year. Prepare your website and digital assets to address customer pain points so that they are already aware of your portfolio of solutions before they arrive.
3. Publish Helpful Foodservice Related Content on Your Company Blog
If you have a company blog (and you should) it is smart to create and publish content prior to a tradeshow that corresponds to the selling points and messages you want to get across in your booth. Start solving customers’ problems prior to their arrival at PMA Foodservice and they will make visiting you a priority during the show. Write about 10 ways your featured product will solve a problem or highlight the unique solutions you can offer foodservice companies.
4. Issue a ‘Call-to-Action’ Before, During and After the Show
A ‘call-to-action’ or CTA gives your audience specific direction on what you’d like them to do – and the goal should always be to get your audience to do something. For example, a good goal to start with can get prospects and/or customers to complete a form on your website so you can ask them what information they would like from your company. Your call-to-action would ask them to “complete the form and get…” or “complete the form for a chance to win…” and can be promoted pre-show via email, during the show in the booth (with an iPad or smart phone) and post-show via email follow up. We recommend trying this out with a giveaway or a contest element to it, which has great results in attracting traffic to your booth if the prize is valuable.
5. Know Who Has Visited Your Website Prior to the Show and Connect
Have you been tracking the people who are visiting your website? Prior to any tradeshow, we recommend creating a spreadsheet of the contacts that are visiting your website and separating them out by customers, competitors and prospects. Armed with this information on the show floor you can make meaningful connections with the people you know have been looking at your site and what you have to offer.
6. Listen and Connect to Attendees Using Show Hashtag #PMAFSC
Social media networks offer you a megaphone to connect and broadcast your message to a wide audience during a tradeshow. Use the show hashtag #PMAFSC not only post your messages, but find other people using #PMAFSC and respond to their messages as well, inviting them to connect. We recommend having someone dedicated to actively searching for connection opportunities on networks like Twitter or Instagram during the show. This person can even be working from the office at home and not attending with you – as long as they are engaged and aware of the messages being pushed in the booth!
BONUS: Amp Up Your LinkedIn Presence for the Show
Making connections is critical to success in marketing, and we’re big believers in the power of LinkedIn to make those beneficial connections. Before leaving for the show, take a moment to update your LinkedIn profile and then set a goal for yourself to connect with 10 new people on LinkedIn that you met during the show. Take a look at the LinkedIn Guide for Produce Professionals to get up to speed on this B2B social platform.
With these smart tactics in place, you will leave for PMA Foodservice even more prepared to tackle the show floor than you ever have. Incorporate these ideas now and ask yourself a few critical questions so that you will be positioned to make these tactics a best practice for future tradeshows and have additional opportunities to measure success. See you in Monterey!
