Question

Topic: Other

Lead Generation At An Upcoming Tradeshow

Posted by Anonymous on 8/25/2004 at 4:40 PM ET 700 Points
I coordinate my company's trade shows. Every year I try to do something to promote the show of course, but also something to target customers to generate leads for the show.

As a bit of background, it's a technology trade show targeting home theater installers. We have a 10x10 booth and our company is becoming more and more well known in the industry. Every year gets better and better. Our company sells home theater wire and cable.

For this year's show (my third) I've chosen to run two contests. One of them I advertised in two of our trade magazines with a total distribution of 65,000. I also promoted this through our website, and monthy e-newsletter (which has about 600 subscribers). The contest being advertised is for a drawing to win $2,000 worth of our products - their choice. And as an added incentive: The individual who enter's for their company and wins will receive a $100 cash bonus.

Another contest I'm running at the same time is only going to be promoted on our website, through the newsletter mailing, and at the show. I know it probably sounds cheezy and is a bit cliche, but I filled up a glass jar full of a widely used product - connectors we sell for home theater cables. The idea is of course to generate even more leads!!! We would like them to guess how many connectors are in the jar, the person closest to hitting that number will win the jar of connectors, accessories, AND a pro-tool used to assemble the connectorized cable.

Do you think these contests will generate leads?

Also, I have to create Entry forms for them to fill out. For the first contest to win the $2000 in cable products, I have asked them for their name, company, Title, Company Type(distributor, installer, dealer, or other), address, city, state, phone, fax, email and website.

I feel it is asking them to fill out a lot of info! But it's all needed in being able to qualify the good leads. I'm afraid that while the contest may appeal to them, it may not be worth their time and effort to fill out this form. This form is in the 2 magazines described above as an ad insert.

Now, I'm not sure what is asking too much!!! I'm not sure how much info I should ask for in the connector/jar contest!!!

I was thinking about asking for this: Name, Company, Title, Type of Company, Address, Phone, E-mail, and Would you like to join our e-mailing list? Check Yes or No.


What are your thoughts on this? And do you have any advice on my promotion and on generating leads at this show with out pushing away good leads because of asking for too much info.

Sorry if I am rambling here, but the show is coming up early in September, and While I should have asked these questions months ago while planning, I did not and so now I ask for your thoughts.

Thanks again!

Valerie
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Deremiah *CPE on 8/25/2004 at 5:32 PM Accepted
    Design VHL,

    If you are going to ask for I was thinking about asking for this:

    Name, Company, Title, Type of Company, Address, Phone, E-mail, and Would you like to join our e-mailing list? Check Yes or No.

    It's almost as much as you normally get off of a standard business card accept the joining our email part. Why not put business cards in the jar and do a drawing like this. Or do the guess the # of connectors and make a business card their entry into the contest. Just right off of the top of my head I believe this would be ver sufficient to at least getting a business card. Then use the card as leverage to do a follow-up phone call asking if they might be interested in being on your mail list. There are many of ways to approach this process successfully. Let me think about it and I will add some additional ideas that I know will work for you.

    Something to think about until I share additional ideas is this. What kind of prizes do you think appeal to the potential clients you are trying to target? Please share your reply so that we can have a little more understanding on who your target market is and what possible things motivate them. Thanks. Is there anything else I can do for you?

    Your Servant, Deremiah, *CPE (Customer Passion Evangelist)
  • Posted by Blaine Wilkerson on 8/25/2004 at 5:59 PM Member
    "I was thinking about asking for this: Name, Company, Title, Type of
    Company, Address, Phone, E-mail, and Would you like to join our e-mailing
    list? Check Yes or No."

    This is the way to go! The most important info is their email, name, and title. ASking for a signature isn't a bad idea (make sure you have a little privacy policy statement above the sig line.

    Your ideas are cool! Honestly, it doesn't really matter if the contect is cheesy as long as the reward is attractive enough for people to participate.

    If you want another cool idea, I have 2 of those coin drop water tanks (AquaSkill) that you see at Taco Bell. People drop a coin in the slot and try to make it land on a series of colored discs in order to win. It also comes with a plastic sign holder to the top of the unit. I can design a custom sign for each one for you.

    Instead of using money, buy some of those fake coins from a party supply store or magic shop. Or you could provide a bunch of quarters for everyone to use. In order to try, they sign a sheet with their name, email and a check box indiating they would like to receive emails. Each sign in gives them 4 tries. If they want another shot, they have to write down friend's names and emails on a separate list.

    So what do they win? You can award products, gift certificates for steak dinners, etc. And the kicker is each entry win or lose gives them a chance to guess how many quarters (or $ amount) are in the tank at the end of the show. The closest one to it wins the money!

    Send me an email to discuss the prices if you are interested. (Just click on my name). The units are brand new and the signs will be custom made to your specifications.

    I hope this helps! Good Luck!

  • Posted by Carl Crawford on 8/25/2004 at 6:12 PM Member
    hi DesignVHL,

    you might have already done this but check the past questions!!! there are a wealth of ideas that havent been used there.

    https://www.marketingprofs.com/ea/qst_question.asp?qstID=636

    https://www.marketingprofs.com/ea/qst_question.asp?qstID=2686

    https://www.marketingprofs.com/ea/qst_question.asp?qstID=1087

    https://www.marketingprofs.com/ea/qst_question.asp?qstID=1019

    if i come up with one of my own ideas i will post back later

    have a nice day

    Sweetasman01
  • Posted by SteveByrneMarketing on 8/25/2004 at 6:46 PM Accepted
    Hi Valerie,

    I would only add that when promoting contest participation at the show you don’t have to be an island. You could have somebody go out and walk the show scouting for potential contestants – hand them a contest invitation, map to your booth, fun premium, whatever it takes to get more awareness of your contest and brand.

    Just two cents,

    - Steve
  • Posted by SRyan ;] on 8/25/2004 at 7:07 PM Member
    Valerie, my thoughts for you:

    Regarding the giveaway prize, is that stuff something that the booth visitors are already likely to own? Connectors and a pro tool? Please take this with a grin and a grain o' salt, but that doesn't sound like a very sexy prize. Do you have any other product available that they might be drooling over?

    At our last two trade shows, we gave away hardware store gift certificates to draw in leads. The problem with that is that EVERYONE wanted to fill in the cards to win. In other words, if we had offered a prize that really appealed to our target customers, we would have had fewer "worthless" lead cards.

    Lastly, on our lead cards we didn't ask for too much info, but nevertheless most people left the three important qualifying questions BLANK. If I could reverse time and do it all over again, I would have made sure they understood that they would not be eligible for the drawing unless the cards were COMPLETE. It would be okay if they put "n/a" for some answers, but leaving them blank wouldn't be acceptable.

    That's it from me. Good luck!

    Shelley
  • Posted by SteveByrneMarketing on 8/25/2004 at 7:39 PM Member
    Valerie,

    " if it would be appropriate, and 2 if we would be accidently handing them out at random to people we really may not want to enter...."

    It's a risk/reward thing, I would risk on handing out to get the reward of more participation.

    Also, I agree with Shelley, a better prize would be better.

    best of luck,

    - Steve
  • Posted by Peter (henna gaijin) on 8/25/2004 at 8:58 PM Accepted
    I agree with Deremiah - why not just ask for a business card? The only thing missing would be about being on the email list, and you can get that through sending 1 follow up message after the contest is over saying who won, thanking them for visiting the booth, asking about the mailing list (and saying what value they would get from being on it), etc.

    The what's in it for me that Vevolution mentions also has to play. If the contractors are primarily small shops, then the company and the peson are often the same. But if they are larger firms, this may not be a draw.

    I do compliment you on not going the other direction and providing a very desirable, but unrelated, prize. All too often companies offer something like a digital camera or a trip which gets them lots of 'leads', but because they entered just for the prize, you get lots of unqualified people.
  • Posted by Deremiah *CPE on 8/25/2004 at 9:41 PM Member
    Hi Valerie,

    the business card idea works great! I know because I've used it before at trade show openings. Believe you me trying to get people to come back to consider security products for their business is not that exciting but we used a fish bowl and a surprise drawing every hour on the hour and people kept coming back. It works but don't take my word for it do a trail run and if it does not work scrap it but if it does work send me a big whatever you want. Valerie it's not just important to get them to stay there a long time as it is to get them to come back. I've found repetition is more powerful than a one time visit that's long. Because as people come back they become compelled to purchase. In their imagination they begin to look for a reason to open up their wallets. By doing a business card drawing you can schedule one drawing or multiple drawings to keep them coming back more than once.

    Well again Valerie, you're the boss I'm just your servant trying to offer you an idea that helped us to get leads that caused us to sell millions of dollars in security products. Just know whatever you need me to do for you I'm available to help. I'll admit I'm not perfect but the people that I've worked with love my willingness to do anything to help them become successful winners in the world of business. Read my profile, send me an email and use me for whatever I'm worth. I'm like the shop keepers ends of cloth. Is there anything else I can do for you? All it takes is one idea to make it happen.

    Your Servant, Deremiah, *CPE (Customer Passion Evangelist)
  • Posted by tjh on 8/26/2004 at 1:29 PM Accepted
    You might quickly spend a little time now for post-show functions.

    As the person that sweated the small stuff to get the leads, go ahead and take ownership for what happens with them after the show.

    Map out all the steps including getting them databased, a quick mail out (almost instantaneously), phone follow up for quals/interest, mailer profiling prize winner, etc.

    Go ahead and splurge, and enumerate at least 10 "touches" to each name. Talk with other departments and get their involvement and commitment to the plan.

    Raise hell, in nice ways (or maybe heated ways:) until all the steps are done, and the prospects are properly on their way through your sales funnel.

    Ultimately, you would personally like to know how much $ value was generated from the leads you caused.

    Also, you can analyze those that didn't make it to a buy within 90 days or whatever, and come to understand how to improve the net results.

    By and large, don't lose any of the names (unless they're obviously not related to your industry), and continue to promote to them in some scheduled way over the following year.

    As you do these post-game things, you can be obvious, vocal, and driven, while keeping other issues to yourself such as the results analysis and monitoring - until you're ready to divulge or release such data.

    Since there seems to be some laziness in your company in the past on follow up and qualification, you're completely in the right to create and insist on follow-up steps... (Just my opinion. Your in-house structural and political issues have to weighed in these actions.)

    Sounds like you're on the ball, and, regardless of the hard work, still having a good, creative time. Keep up the good work!
  • Posted by SRyan ;] on 8/28/2004 at 2:28 AM Member
    Valerie, my mistake in assuming your prize wouldn't be appealing or worthwhile to your targets. Sorry! Obviously you DO know your customers.

    A final idea, though... You should prominently display the Retail Value of your prize on the table. $2k is insanely good for a tradeshow prize!

    - Shelley
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