How To Maximize Your Trade Show Investment Via Search Marketing
**
**
by Andy Komack
**
For B2B companies, exhibiting and participating in trade shows can be
a significant expense.� TradeShow Handbook estimates that the average
cost of exhibiting
<http://www.tradeshowhandbook.com/trade-show-costs.html>
at a show is $10,000. This might be an underestimate if you bring in
a full team of sales and marketing personnel to work the show. You can
use this online trade show cost calculator
<http://www.mcmag.com/article_ektid26452.aspx>
provided by Meetings and Conventions Magazine to estimate your own
costs.
That said, trade shows have proven to be a cost-effective method of
generating leads and closing sales. Meetings and Conventions Magazine
provides a quick summary
<http://www.mcmag.com/article_ektid26360.aspx>
of findings from The Center for Exhibition Industry Researchs
study, The Cost Effectiveness of Exhibition Participation (a two-part
study that can be purchased here Part I
<http://www.ceir.org/store_products.view.php?id=1249>
& Part II <http://www.ceir.org/store_products.view.php?id=1255>
).
The data indicates that the average cost of generating a sale from
exhibiting at a trade show is $2,188.� This is 42% less than the
$3,102 average cost of closing a sale.
Every trade show marketers goal is to maximize their investment in
exhibiting, and lower the cost of lead generation and closing a sale.
There are a number of ways that you can use SEO, PPC, and Social
Media to maximize your investment when exhibiting at tradeshows.
SEO your events calendar
If your Web site does not already have a section for Events, add a
dedicated area for this content.
Use basic Keyword Research, Page Tagging, and SEO Copy Writing to
frame the context of your Events section.� For example, if you provide
data storage technology products and solutions, you may want to
structure the main page to target the keyword data storage trade
shows. You might use an HTML page title like Data Storage Industry
Trade Shows Your Company Name . The page heading would be either
identical to the first part of the page title, or a variation of that.
A summary paragraph at the top would mention that below is a list of
upcoming data storage industry trade shows where Your Company
participates.
You will have to keep the list of shows fresh. All too often, Events
pages are left stale and list past events in the upcoming events area.
There is a way to leverage your participation in past trade shows in
the overall section. Below the list of upcoming shows, you might have
a section for recent trade shows attended. Each of the mentions of
past shows should contain a link to a page dedicated about the show.
As with the main Events page, you should make sure to use appropriate
keyword strategies and tactics for the pages for individual shows
(e.g. Storage Expo 2009 Recap). Use the page to highlight any
announcements you made.� More importantly, provide a write up of the
key findings and announcements presented across the entire show. If
available, use rich media such as video (consider embedding code for
YouTube videos). Link to resources from the show organizers site.
You may want to add in a stream of social media content, such as a
Twitter feed for discussions about the show (e.g. use the most-common
hash# tag for the show as the keyword trigger for the feed). The
Twitter feed content may go stale after the buzz is done, but it will
provide rich content, and a valuable resource for visitors to connect
with other people.
All of this rich data for past shows will likely generate inbound
links to your site.
Using PPC to generate face time
Paid search advertising can be an effective method for facilitating
appointment setting prior to the show.
Set up a Campaign for trade shows, and use Ad Groups for each
individual show. Bid on keywords specific to the next show(s) where
you will be exhibiting. You can also bid on more-generic keywords
related to industry events (e.g. data storage trade shows ).
Use the structure you set up for the SEO efforts highlighted above.
Use this as your opportunity to set up a page for each specific show
(you can transition the page from a Landing Page to generate
appointments to the archived recap pages described above). The
pre-show incarnation of the page should be targeted at encouraging
users to contact you to visit your booth and speak with your booth
personnel (you might want to indicate that a user can connect with
someone other than/in addition to a sales representative, such as a
product manager, engineer, industry expert, C-level officer, etc.).
Create compelling PPC ad copy that encourages users to visit the
Landing Page. Mention the show by name, and set the expectation that
you have something to announce, present, say, and so forth.
Use Social Media to highlight participation
There are a number of ways to use social media to promote your
participation in the show, and to set appointments.
Broadcast news and announcements through Facebook.
Blog about the show before it happens.
Find bloggers talking about the show and engage in meaningful
commentary on their blogs.
Participate in LinkedIn Groups to connect with people about the
show.� LinkedIn can be an excellent way to set appointments.
Participate in Twitter discussions about the show, making sure to use
the hashtag# convention in your stream (e.g. #storageexpo
<http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23storageexpo>
).� Twitter is perhaps the most effective social media tool
(currently) to make one-to-one connections and set appointments.
Dont forget to find niche communities and forums specific to your
industry, and find opportunities to connect with people there.
The Search and Social Media tactics described in this article are
just a few ways to maximize your trade show investment.� In the end,
it will be your creativity
<http://searchengineland.com/the-b2b-content-equation-26570>
that is the X Factor in generating cost-effective leads and closing
sales.
Opinions expressed in the article are those of the author, and not
necessarily Search Engine Land.
Andy Komack <http://searchengineland.com/author/andy-komack/>
is the founder and president of KoMarketing Associates, LLC
<http://www.komarketingassociates.com>
, a B2B search engine marketing firm based in Waltham, MA. You can
follow him on Twitter at akomack <http://twitter.com/akomack>
.
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