Sensible Marketing for Small Business

“Build it and they will come” doesn’t apply to your trade show booth.

Given that trade shows represent 18.6 percent of the typical business-to-business (B2B) marketing budget, according to a Business Marketing Association poll, investing in targeted pre- and post-show promotions should be a priority.

The most effective (and least expensive) way to do this is with email marketing. But with CAN-SPAM and other international privacy laws preventing many trade show companies from giving out attendee email addresses and phone numbers, whats a marketer to do?

If you’re given a pre-reg list with only Name, Job Title and Company—with no phone or email address, there is a solution–email appending. Email appending matches email addresses to database/postal records allowing you to append missing email addresses to the trade show attendee list. One service I have used for several years is Email Appenders and have been very happy with the results. The deliverability rate of their email addresses is higher than most but they seem to be best suited for larger company contacts, and not small businesses (who may not have their own domain email address).

Ideal trade show promotions use a series of contacts, leveraging multiple media channels such as a phone call to targeted attendees who you want to meet and a series of pre and post-show emails to entice them to your booth for a demo, to register for a give-a-way or to follow up after the event.

For a few more tips on how to stretch the event marketing dollar, check my “Secrets of a Tradeshow Tightwad” article at EXHIBITOR Magazine where I explain how to score an (almost) free ride at your next tradeshow.