by Carol Springer | Sep 12, 2016
According to data from the CMO Council, Fortune 2000 and large companies are much more effective in how they allocate resources and approach trade show lead generation through booth traffic.
- Large and enterprise companies expect a 4:1 return on their trade show investment and typically spend as much as 17% of their annual lead gen budget on trade show and event marketing
- Mid-sized companies typically only spend only 4% of their budget and attend multiple trade shows, with in show sales and brand awareness as their typical goal
- Small businesses can spend up to 10% to 30% of their annual budget on one major show annually, with lead generation and new business as their primary measurement of return
However, according to Exhibitor Magazine, less than 60% of SMB companies have a plan to fill the booth traffic goals prior to the event. And 70% don’t have any systematic follow up strategy post-event. As a result, 70% of leads from the show are ignored.
As a sales outsourcing company we love helping our sales outsourcing clients get the most from every dollar they spend filling their sales pipeline. And over the past several years we have started to leverage trade shows and events to:
- Fill the top of the sales funnel
- Generate sales ready leads in the short term
- To build long term databases of ideal target customers for marketing automation campaigns
This blog article is part 1 of a 2-part series and will specifically address how to drive more booth traffic at the show. Part 2 will address how to maximize your post show follow up to make every lead count. Both articles were abridged from a whitepaper that also discusses the competitive landscape you now face. You can download the full whitepaper by clicking the button below.
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Drive More Traffic to Your Booth – Trade show Marketing Pre-Show and In-Show Tips
The first step in a successful trade show lead gen campaign is to drive traffic to your booth prior to the event and during the event. Here are tips to help you achieve that trade show marketing goal.
Sales Outsourcing Tip #1: Build a Microsite Dedicated to the Event
Attendees are excited about the event. Help add to that excitement by creating a microsite that aggregates multiple landing pages, dedicated to highlighting reasons they should be excited to meet with you.
A quality, dedicated microsite makes it easy for the attendee to understand who you are and what problems you solve for customers. Your microsite can include the following features:
- Highlight one or more solutions (remember 90% of attendees are there to find new solutions)
- Social media connection options to capture social media followers
- Booth information, location and details on how to schedule a face-to-face meeting
- Break-out sessions or panels you will be participating in
- Any special events you will be hosting at the event
- Thought leadership content
- Customer testimonials and case studies
Sales Outsourcing Tip #2: Build a 3 to 5 Part Pre-Show (and In-Show) Trade show Marketing Email Campaign for Any Known Attendees
If you have a marketing automation platform, run a dedicated trade show marketing campaign. Best practice is to start as early as 4-6 weeks prior to the event. You can also run an abridged version in the two weeks leading up to the show (if you get a last minute attendee list). With a well-built microsite you already have the offers you will need. Having tested many communication flows across a variety of clients and verticals, we recommend the following order for optimal results:
Pre-Show
- Share your microsite highlighting the problems you help companies solve
- Share a thought leadership asset (and any panel you will be on)
- Ask for a meeting prior to the event
- Provide a reminder to visit the booth with a special offer or product highlight in the 48 hours prior to the start of the show
In-Show
- Share a reminder in-show to visit your booth the first day of the event
- Share a reminder to engage in social media (ideally during the keynote)
- Share a reminder to visit breakout or presentation sessions (optional)
Sales Outsourcing Tip #3: Run a 3 Part Campaign to a Rented Opt-in List of Any Potential Attendee Prior to the Show
You need to build awareness prior to the show. You also need to drive top of funnel leads and awareness every month and every quarter of the year. A trade show is a great “artificial” event to accomplish both (especially if the exhibitor is charging a lot for the list).
20% to 30% Open Rates
Click Through Rates from 4.5% to 7.5%
We have had great results running campaigns to a rented, opt-in list of potential attendees (not necessarily registered attendees) that may be attending the show. Sending to this broad list of potential attendees we have seen the following results:
- 3X to 5X the typical unique open-rates of a cold outbound email campaign
- 2X to 4X of the typical click-through-rate
- Depending on the show and size of the list, you can generate 3,000-10,000 new top of funnel leads for $1.00 to $2.00 per lead
- In addition, emails are often forwarded to known attendees within the company by the original recipient
- Inside reps are able to set meetings with buyers both at the show and buyers that are not even attending the show
Remember to use the name of the show in the subject line of at least 2 of the 3 emails in the campaign.
Why does this work? Even professionals not attending want to be in the know and remain relevant and helpful to their organizations. This includes the social aspect of engaging with superiors and peers that are attending. So, even if these email recipients aren’t attending the trade show, the content allows them to still reap a tangential benefit of the trade show by learning about a new offering or having the opportunity to connect with those in their industry. If they are interested in your solution they may recommend a peer stops by the booth. Dollar for dollar we have seen this approach produce some of the best results across clients and across verticals.
We recommend the following flow for the event offer emails, to ensure the content is relevant for any buyer (not just attendees):
- Share your show microsite and a thought leadership asset
- Share the solution landing page and case studies
- Share thought leadership landing page and panel info (if applicable)
Sales Outsourcing Tip #4: Score Your Content & Make Sure to Call the Most Engaged Buyers to Ask for a Meeting Prior to the Show
According to a joint study by Ascend2 and Marketo, one of the most under-utilized functions of a marketing automation platform is lead scoring (75% of companies are not fully utilizing). We highly recommend setting up a specific scoring campaign for your pre-show campaign to score your most interested leads. Some of the most predictive pieces of content may not even be on your trades how microsite:
- Case Studies page
- About Us page
- Any touch of the scheduling page
- Any touch of thought leadership and/or booth location
We have found that engagement with these pages shows buying propensity and interest. Since you have limited time (and bandwidth) and only about 10% of the calls you make will actually even be a connection we highly recommend calling these leads first prior to the event to ask for a meeting at the show.
In-Show eMails
Remember that trade show attendees will have multiple distractions once the show begins. To stay top of mind, we recommend that you:
- Send an email reminder to visit your booth again; schedule deployment for 6AM (event time zone)
- Push Twitter and social media landing pages; schedule to deploy during the initial keynote session
- Send a reminder the day of your panel appearance; once again, schedule deployment for 6AM
Database Management
We highly recommend renting show scanners and prioritizing your leads at the end of every day. Taking this 15 minutes each day will make a huge difference when you get ready to execute your follow-up campaign after the show. Note your high priority leads immediately and designate second and third tier leads so you know who your inside reps should prioritize after the show. This simple step will save a great deal of guess work after the show.
Use Social Media Pre-Show and In-Show
88% of US marketers use social media to increase awareness about their events before and as they occur (FreemanXP). Do likewise, and if possible, run as much of the following through your automation platform for increased lead scoring. Prior to the show, we recommend sharing the same information you are using in your email campaigns across your social media channels, and during the show, we recommend leveraging Twitter to:
- Comment on sessions you thought were cool
- Provide your perspective on keynotes
- Shout out your partnership relationships
- Run a special offer for Twitter followers only
- Mention after-show events
- Mention other cool products/booths you have seen
Pre-Show Checklist
With a little planning and a little extra effort you can double your next trade shows booth traffic. Here is what it takes:
- Re-organizing content that already exists specifically for the trade show
- Sharing that content:
- With a nurturing campaign to past and present show lists and your existing database
- An outbound email marketing campaign to a wider audience to generate new top of funnel leads
- In your existing social media network
- Finally score those leads with your automation platform to maximize 800 to 1600 calls prior to the show.
How We Can Help
Depending on the size of your show, your sales targets, and your lead generation goals, Gabriel Sales can provide turnkey solutions to support your trade show events. Trade Show Event Packages start for as little as $4,000 for full service digital support, and can scale to 20K for a comprehensive large event support package that includes:
- Best practices
- Content production and curation
- Email marketing and marketing automation support
- Temporary calling support both pre- and post-show
Who We Are
Gabriel Sales is a full service sales and marketing consulting and execution firm that provides outsourced sales and marketing services. We combine sales strategy consulting, digital content marketing, marketing automation expertise and sales execution in order to produce self-sustaining, scalable, and measureable sales engines – all designed to put more sales qualified leads in your closers hands to generate revenue. Visit us at www.gabrielsales.com .
Visit Part 2 here.
by Carol Springer | Sep 9, 2016
Companies with even a limited amount of quality content now have some distinct advantages in generating more sale ready leads with specific outbound tactics. As an outsourced sales company, we often combine our client’s content, with some specific outbound tactics, our reps and software to produce qualified sales opportunities at a lower cost. What follows are a handful of quick tips and best practices to help you amplify your existing content to:
- Effectively leverage eMail marketing for more cost effective top of funnel lead Generation
- Amplify your existing educational articles and videos to score leads
- Generate more Sales Ready Leads at a lower cost
eMail Marketing is How Buyers Now Prefer To Learn About Your Product
Pendulums swing back and forth as do sales and marketing strategies. According to Marketing Sherpa, with the advent of content marketing, more B2B buyers now prefer to be introduced to new products and solutions through email. This is a financial windfall, especially for SMBs, and needs to be taken full advantage of while it lasts. For less than one month of the fully loaded costs of a cold caller (not to mention the cost of buying their calling list) a company can now generate 2000 to 6000 early stage top of funnel leads. For more info to evaluate the economics, you can visit our eProspecting educational microsite and video here.
Target the Decision Making Unit
According to the Harvard Business Review, 90% of Buying decisions now require both a technical and business buyer (HBR – 2010). The same article goes on to state that the number one purchase criteria for C-Level decision makers was the buy-in of their managers – and the number one criteria for middle management was approval by senior management. This risk aversion and need for consensus is a lasting legacy of the 2008 downturn. Most solutions are now made by committee so it makes sense to initially introduce your solution to everyone in that Decision Making Unit. The takeaway is if your solution hits a hot button with middle management, it will gain traction.
While we appreciate that all marketers want to segment more because different buyers have different needs – when it comes to top of funnel lead generation and email marketing, the economics of this may not make sense. If you can target/engage 25,000 buyers/influencers for $4,000 and 75,000 for $5,000 it just makes sense to introduce your solution to 3X the buyers/influencers for an incremental investment.
You can diversify your messages with your automation platform once you have generated the initial top of funnel leads.
Nobody ever buys a solution after reading one email
B2B products and solutions are not impulse buys. So you should not expect to send one email and instantly have the phone ringing off the hook. For email marketing to work effectively, it requires multiple emails spread out over a period of time. We typically recommend a three-step integrated approach:
- Generate your top of funnel leads with a rented, opt-in e-mail list from a certified vendor
- And then leverage a marketing automation platform with lead scoring capabilities for continued digital communication
- Then focus your callers on the most highly scored leads that are showing a propensity to buy
The content framework below will help to illustrate that point.
First things first – Educational content works better than a great “offer”
eMail marketing is no different than the early stage job that is done by an inside sales rep. The first job of an inside rep is to establish trust and empathy. This can often take 2 to 3 phone conversations – which may take 30 attempts to connect to the buyer to get them on the phone. You can use the same approach with your early eMail communications at a much lower cost. As an outsourced sales and marketing company, we have seen the best results with:
- Leading with a few simple educational blogs, intro videos and articles (especially for top of funnel and early nurturing)
- Then moving to more solution based content like demo videos, webcasts, case studies and testimonials
There are no short cuts to building a relationship and we see that offering more info beats “sign up now” 85% of the time. In most cases, your buyers want you to prove you can be helpful before they want to know the details of how you can help. Don’t sell the product, but rather the content – because in this age of digital engagement, more and more products are first “bought’ then “sold”.
One final note – If you have video, use it! The video doesn’t have to be Clio Award winning. In fact, we have seen the opposite – once the lead has been generated, simple, straightforward headshots, screencast demos and videos that stress benefits rather than features that are substantive are some of the best ways to score buyer propensity.
Don’t Forget to Use Lead Scoring Functions
As an outsourced sales and marketing company that supports SMBs and Start-Ups, Gabriel Sales has a somewhat unique view of the world. While as marketers – impressions, reporting and top of funnel leads are important to us as an outsourced sales company, we are more interested in generating sales ready leads as cost effectively as possible. We believe SMBs initially only need two key features from an automation system – The ability to sell one to many digitally and the ability to prioritize who to call first. To achieve these two goals marketing automation platforms allow you to:
- Build trust with the buyer digitally through nurturing email campaigns
- Score the leads based on a buyers engagement with specific types of content
Ironically, according to the Marketing Automation Strategy Survey published by Marketo in 2016 (see graphic above), the lead scoring function is often the most overlooked by marketers. As an outsourced sales and marketing company, our suspicion is that automation tools are often so focused on inbound marketing efforts that the sales function is overlooked. Don’t forget to score your leads! This is the number one way to optimize your outbound calling efforts. Our best practice is this simple to use formula below.
Why is video so important? Because, according to Forbes magazine, video is preferred over text by 59% of Middle Managers and Executives as a way to understand a solution. And 50% typically move onto another piece of information after viewing. So:
- Buyers prefer it
- It demonstrates authentic interest beyond initial early education
- It shortens your sales and development cycle (they move onto another piece of content)
It has become easy to have optimized and easy to digest on your mobile device.
Design for Mobile
- More email is read on Mobile than on desktop email clients. Stats say 48% of email is now opened on a mobile device and it jumps to 55% for executives – Litmus “Email Analytics” (March 2016)
- 65% of Media Time is now spent on mobile (comScore)
What does this mean for you and lead development? For effective use of content:
- Keep your videos clean and simple
- Landing pages and microsites must be optimized for mobile first
- You should not over design and over code your emails with heavy graphics and complex design. Make getting to your message clean and straightforward. Get them to the website and get them to mobile enabled content
Conclusion
For most SMBs, generating sales ready leads and improving the effectiveness of your callers is not as difficult as it may first appear. This is especially true if you are already starting with a well-designed website, a couple of solid educational offers and a handful of videos and blogs to help with lead scoring. A marketing automation system helps and if you have not invested in a system yet, Gabriel Sales has two cost effective solutions that can be leased on a month to month basis to help you get started and avoid the annual commitment most providers now require.
Who We Are and How We Can Help
Gabriel Sales is a full service outsourced sales and marketing consulting and execution firm that provides outsourced sales and marketing services. We combine sales strategy consulting, digital content marketing, marketing automation expertise and sales execution in order to produce self-sustaining, scalable, and measurable sales engines – all designed to put more sales qualified leads in your closers hands to generate revenue.
We have been building repeatable sales processes with automation tools for long enough to understand that companies are at different stages of sales automation maturity. So we offer solutions for companies at different stages. Solutions include:
- Top of Funnel Campaigns
- Sales Ready Lead Campaigns
- Thought Leadership and Sales Automation Content Production
- Tradeshow Support
- And Full Go-to-Market Packages
To learn more about Gabriel Sales we invite you to check out the About Us section of our website
If you are still a little uncertain if eMail is even right for your business you can check out our eProspecting educational microsite and solution video to learn a little more about how eProspecting can fill your funnel fast.
by Carol Springer | Aug 30, 2016
Everyone that works in sales knows that finding great sales people is not easy. Gabriel Sales has 16 years’ experience in searching for the right B2B sales staff for our variety of clients. One observation that has become abundantly clear is that a charismatic, charming sales personas have amazing skills to aid in sales. They can engage in any conversation, they light up the room, and they just know what to say and when to say it, however keeping the CRM updated and staying on top of reporting may be a challenge. On the other hand, we have detail oriented folks – they know who to call when based on their sales system, they diligently have their notes up to date and pipeline clean and tidy. The rare find is the combo platter – the detail oriented, orderly, charismatic, charming sales professional. Whether we find the charmer or the organized, we learn how to support the team members’ strengths and weaknesses and adjust to make it work. Whichever personality type you can find, here are 4 key traits to look for that make great sales people.
Leadership
This person is strong-willed and does not let a loss affect their performance. This person will go into each day driven to exceed expectations, and take the criticism necessary to improve their performance. Nothing is taken personally because they are mature enough to understand it is to their benefit. This person comes up with new ideas and tactics and is not afraid to think outside the box. This person inspires others to take the extra step as well. Leadership is the first important quality of great sales people.
Drive
This person is willing to do anything to win. Typically we find that ex-high school/college competitive athletes are a great fit because they are competitive and know what it takes to win: hard work. Competition with co-workers keeps this person going, as well as their constant desire for self-improvement.
Management
There are leaders and there are managers. By manager, I am referring to that detailed person – the person who keeps on schedule, sets goals and meets them; the person that tracks his progress for anyone to pick up if he gets hit by a bus (of course that will never happen). This trait is critical to the person who wants to move up and eventually be the Director or VP of Sales as they understand organization and accountability- critical when reporting to execs and investors. Many salespeople do not want to move to the next level because of that extra responsibility required. I think that is actually a good thing – as we cannot have too many cooks in the kitchen, but having basic management skills is a quality I always look for in great sales people.
X-Factor
We all know someone who changes the energy of a room when they walk in. It is a rare trait, and often this personality trait is common in top sales performers. In an inside sales environment, this person will comfortably go off script and connect with customers on a personal level. As mentioned above, they just know what to say and when and make people feel good. While this is a tremendous trait to have, it cannot be faked. So don’t try to be that person if you are not; if you are seen as someone who is being artificial the sale can quickly evaporate.
If you are hiring, good luck! If you want to pass on hiring a sales person and leave it to us, read this article on sales outsourcing to see if it would be a good fit or just contact us here.
by Carol Springer | Jun 30, 2016
If you missed it, the 2016 Digital Summit in Denver took place June 15-16, and it was great! The vendors told me this was the largest Digital Summit on the west side of the Mississippi (yes, larger than the Los Angeles event). #DSDEN16 brought together hundreds of companies to share ideas and discuss the trends in digital marketing. After a bit of reflection, here are a few major takeaways worth sharing.
Community
Denver is a booming area for the Millennial generation, and the success of businesses here was epitomized at the Digital Summit. It was perfect weather, everyone was ecstatic, and the flow of ideas and discussions brought important strategies to the forefront of everyone’s mind. Several attendees stated of all the Digital Summit’s they’ve attended, this was one of the largest. Relative to where you are, anyone in this field should invest in going to the Digital Summit next year.
Mediums for Marketing
The big takeaways were video and social – as one “socialite”, @kirill_kniazev, stated in 140: #snapchat – do, #email – still good, #seo – great ROI, #mobile – more important than ever, create experiences, stories.
Snapchat is currently the hot social media app, and there was plenty of discussion around how to implement it within marketing strategies. This app is the catalyst for a shift in video marketing, making the norm quantity over quality. Snapchat allows for instant video, which means instant marketing. Now anyone can record and quickly watch videos from their phones. So while the quality is not on a professional level, sharing it is much quicker since the content has to be efficiently put into ten seconds. We see this as a must for targeting Millennials in the consumer space. In the B2B Marketing world, however, it may be awhile. The social winners for B2B sales and marketing are still LinkedIn and Twitter.
Marketing Automation
There was some surprise at the conference – the acceptance of marketing automation and how few in the sales team actually use the tools. Even when talking to sales reps from the marketing automation vendors, they do not use the tools themselves for sending emails. It is an underutilization of the amazing technology that many companies are paying 1000’s of dollars for every month. For implementation of marketing automation for sales, take a look at our recent post.
The Denver Digital Summit was educational, fun and entertaining. Thank you #AskGaryVee for inspiring my team, and see you there next year!
by Carol Springer | Jun 20, 2016
No matter the business, marketing is always present. Even your logo or your business card alone shares your brand to customers, colleagues, and competitors. When marketing is optimally used, it results in better relationships with customers and a reduction in wasted time and resources.
One of the biggest trends in marketing today is the use of marketing automation systems. This movement to automate sales and marketing is gaining momentum more and more every year. Whether you use Pardot, Marketo, Act-on, Hubspot, Infusionsoft or other tools; the key to success is to take advantage of the automated processes, scoring and real time notifications. These features, often passed over by sales teams, allow reps to know when to take action and results in moving leads through the sales funnel.
More Exact
Through the use of automation, the level of interest for future business is clear and simple. Concrete data will be generated and available for analysis, which saves time for your sales team. The distinction between qualified and unqualified leads is shown quickly, allowing for an instant decision for where to focus your efforts, and how to keep track of prospects. The nurtured leads become sales opportunities, which are best found through the data that is produced from the marketing automation tools. Generic marketing, like email blasts, is effective when compared to no marketing, however this is not the most effective. With a marketing automation in place, personalized information about leads are at your fingertips instantly.
More Personal
Leads that are generated from content marketing and nurturing using tools like Pardot, Silverpop or Net-Results allow for companies to know exactly who is interested, and by how much. The customer experience is an important factor in measuring success, and gaining more buyers. It’s simple: the nurtured leads have a better experience because the marketing they are receiving is what they are interested in. This allows for your staff to go in and make them feel like people. While it is a simple idea, treating your customers like people can be forgotten and the business transaction is unsuccessful.
More Success
One of the biggest reasons to automate some of your sales and embrace marketing automation is the time saved of senior sales execs. Repetitive tasks are now automated, allowing for marketers and sales teams to focus their energy on more important assignments. Marketing automation implementations are on the rise and the data exhibits how powerful the potential is when used correctly. Take a look at our implementation checklist to get started on the right path.
The future of business relies on adapting to the trends, which are constantly changing. Marketing automation allows for your business to save time, generate revenue, and create stronger relationships with customers. This can be an intimidating concept, especially to a small business owner, however the results speak volumes to the effectiveness.
For any questions on marketing automation implementation or about the overall process, please feel free to reach out to us.
