Trade shows can be among the most expensive marketing investments that companies make.
Between buying the space, developing demos, shipping assets and people to the location, and all the pre- and post-show promotion, companies can spend many tens of thousands of dollars in an effort to fill their sales pipeline.
Recently, one of our motion control clients, PBC Linear, asked us to assist in maximizing its return from the Automate conference in Detroit, Michigan, in May 2023. With only a month to go before the show, the TECH B2B Marketing team stepped into place and worked with PBC Linear’s internal marketing team. In past years, PBC Linear did a solid job of developing its trade show presence. Its booth, backdrops, and signage all had strong visuals that focused on the value propositions of the company. Its demos were engaging.
However, TECH B2B Marketing saw an opportunity in preshow promotion and developing collateral paired with outbound marketing efforts that focused on how to use solutions in key vertical markets, such as medical design and laboratory automation Rather than post two or three social mentions focused solely on products using still photography, TECH B2B Marketing expanded preshow social outreach to include more than a dozen mentions that touted not just new products but specific value propositions and new stories focused on key vertical markets. We also worked hard with the team at PBC Linear to develop more effective and frequent preshow customer emails that highlighted solutions within key markets. Finally, we took all this information and actively presented it to the attending media for the conference, potentially increasing PBC Linear’s reach from 500 visitors during the show to half a million viewers through media partners and channels.
The results were clear by Friday afternoon at the end of the show. The number of leads had doubled compared to previous years, while quality information was available on many more projects. The leads were followed up with lead nurturing programs using the company’s existing marketing automation platform. Having a partner like TECH B2B Marketing, with a full range of public relations, media relations, and marketing services, helped PBC Linear more than double its return off this one conference. And the returns won’t stop the week after the show. Thanks to numerous media briefings organized in the booth, the company can expect several earned media opportunities in the form of feature stories and video interviews that will significantly expand its visibility within the marketplace among key customers. If you have a major event coming up and have questions about how to leverage the media, pre-show promotion, video, and lead nurturing campaigns, be sure to give us a call or click here to contact us directly.
