8 trade show engagement ideas that drive conversion
As an AE there was nothing more frustrating than the trade show follow-up.
As a company we’d spent a lot of money on an event like Infosec or Dreamforce, plenty of people had been to our booth and had, in many cases, really detailed and positive conversations, and then the following week when it came time to follow up - crickets.
“It wasn’t me”
“I spoke to a lot of people - what do you do?”
“I was just browsing”
“I’m the wrong person”
“Just send me some information”
The problem starts on the booth
Here’s the typical situation - the buyer spends a ten minute conversation with an AE, an SDR or someone from the events team - they share some useful information, they ask some questions, maybe even get a quick demo of the product.
At the end of this interaction is a loose call to action, “Let me scan your badge and one of our team will follow up next week”
Then at best some brief notes get added to the system “interested in product x”
Off the buyer goes to speak to 25 other vendors who follow the same steps.
In a sales process we know never to do that. We never leave the call without two things:
a defined next step - this is when we are going to speak next
confirmed the value to the buyer in the next step - why it is worth their while
So if the person you are speaking to is just researching, and not yet in a formal buying process (as is the most likely scenario), how can you build this into your booth process?
Ideas for multi-step booth engagement
I was on an insightful Pavilion webinar this week focusing on how buyer behaviour has evolved over the past couple of years.
Knowing I was working on this article I asked one of the speakers Alice de Courcy, Group CMO at Cognism this question, and so credit to the first suggestion goes to her.
Note: For all of the ideas below - at the end of the interaction on the booth capture the buyers email and phone number, provide them a one pager handout with “what happens next” on one side and some positioning content for your company on the other.
This helps bridge the gap between the conversation and engagement they have just had and builds the anticipation towards them receiving the value in the next engagement.
Professional Headshots
Professional headshots for LinkedIn, personal websites or internal systems like Slack are valuable and appreciated - but not every company provides them to their employees - resulting in you using a blurred picture of you with margarita in hand and half of your partner’s head - not very professional.
On the booth have a professional photographer, a small studio background with lighting.
Professional Headshots
Ideal for social platforms as well as internal systems like Slack and Teams
The following week your SDR or AE can follow up with a call to share the link to their professional headshots.
Bonus prize - put the headshots in a Digital Sales Room like Trumpet that also has high level positioning of the problem you solve for that person.
LinkedIn/X/YouTube banner art
Professional profile banners make an individual stand-out, and yet if you aren’t a Canva pro it can seem daunting to know where to start.
On the booth provide some suggested templates and capture the prospect’s name, company details, the items they would like to feature on their banner, and for which sites they want the banner.
A bright banner brings a LinkedIn profile to life
Have your SDR reach out the following week with the completed banners in a Digital Sales Room.
Personalised co-branded phone case/stand
Think of all the personalised items on Etsy that a family member might get you for Christmas or your birthday.
Personalised items
Great swag gets used for years if it is high quality and personalised.
Capture the buyer’s name and company, and have the item designed and shipped to them the following week.
Include your logo but keep it small - their name and their company logo are the stars.
Your SDRs can call the following week to confirm delivery.
Virtual Reality Experience
Develop a virtual reality experience that is relevant to your product or service combined with your target customer’s industry or persona.
Could your buyers experience conducting a hospital operation, or working on an oil rig, or standing on top of a wind turbine?
Create an experience your prospect would want to show to friends and family
Your SDR can follow up the following week with the recording of their experience hosted in a DSR.
Personalised “you are the hero” book
Any parent will have experienced these books where you fill in a few details about your child, your family, your pets and your last holiday - and a book is printed with your child as the star.
Personalised Books
Give your buyer something to share with their child, with them as the hero.
How about creating one where your buyer (as a mother or father) is the hero of the book and it helps explain to their child what they do for a living in a fun and engaging way.
Note: the reason the parent is the hero is you don’t want to open a can of privacy worms capturing any details about their child.
Your SDR can follow up the next week to confirm delivery and hear how the book went down at story-time!
Caricaturist
Everyone loves a caricaturist - we had one at our wedding and the poor guy had a queue in front of him the whole evening.
On the booth set them up with space to work, but have them work digitally rather than providing paper copies.
Fun for the recipient and those watching
This gives your SDRs the chance to follow up with the link to the caricature image (again in a digital sales room) the following week.
Green screen photobooth
We’ve had professional headshots already, but this is for some fun. Combining your products or services, along with the customers industry or role, provide a selection of backdrops for some fun and engaging photos.
OK someone is a CHRO or a CIO - but they are also called Amit and have a family and a sense of humour.
This was from my first trip to Dreamforce back in around 2012 - I admit when I showed my wife she wondered what she had married.
SDRs can follow up with the images and DSR page the following week.
Free work
The previous ideas you might classify as ‘gimmicks’ - something fun to give a reason to be in contact the following week.
You could stay more professionally focused and commit to doing some actual work for your buyer depending on your offering and their role.
For any outreach to work you want to provide an offer that, as Alex Hormozi says, is so good that they would feel stupid saying no to it.
It will depend on your ICP and buyer persona, but consider:
500 free leads in their target ICP
Free website audit
Competitor (theirs) positioning review
Competitor pricing page tear down
Customer support site review
Hiring kit (for an open position on their careers page)
These offers are not about selling your product, they are about giving the buyer something of value to them that they would normally expect to pay for.
Capture the details of the ‘free work’ you will do for them, and have your SDR reach out the following week with the output.
Conversion rates are defined in the months before the event
You cannot drive great outcomes from events by just paying for the booth, rocking up on the day, and capturing badge scans for the chance to win an iPad.
Marketing is a creative endeavour - so draw a line back from a happy customer, back through them signing a contract, back through a sales process, back through the initial meeting, back through this event, back through their first step onto the booth.
Design a connected experience that removes the awkward handoffs and provides value and shares your culture at every touch point.
Hope you find this useful and love to hear what other ideas you have.
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