Trade shows are extremely valuable opportunities for edtech companies that want to reach a broad and engaged audience with their products and services. They can be an important part of your omnichannel marketing strategy.
These events unite an audience that is usually dispersed and generally busy with a variety of important asks. By bringing them together and putting them in the right frame of mind, it’s that much easier for your business to build relationships and start moving prospects through the sales process.
Keeping your post trade show marketing in mind is just as important as having a good strategy for connecting with potential customers during the event itself.
Trade shows are excellent opportunities to connect with relevant, interested audiences.
How is a trade show marketing plan developed and implemented?
A good trade show strategy involves careful planning that starts months in advance of the event itself. MarketingWeek suggested a series of basic trade show tips for encouraging potential customers to visit your booth on the trade show floor, including:
- Setting specific, measurable and actionable goals.
- Highlighting new products and upcoming launches.
- Defining and creating the marketing collateral you need to stand out and build brand awareness.
Crucially, you also need a plan for collecting contact information and following up with interested booth visitors in the days and weeks after the trade show itself. This will likely include a workflow for making sure contacts are accurately recorded and details, such as the type of product or service the customer is interested in, are also taken into account.
Who should your company market to at trade shows?
Defining a specific audience is a critical step for every edtech company. Your sales team, marketers, developers and many other key staff members need to know who they should take into account when going about their work.
When it comes to trade shows, your organization should consider if its audience includes all visitors or a select group of them. If your strategy involves highlighting or focusing exclusively on a new product release, you may want to focus on decision-makers with a relationship to the specific issue or opportunity that this offering addresses.
How do you approach post trade show marketing?
Post trade show marketing is vital for acting on the opportunities that arise from interactions during the show itself. Sales don’t always close on the trade show floor. That’s especially true in industries like edtech, where a variety of decision-makers are involved in many purchasing decisions.
Accurate contact information is vital for follow-up efforts. Collecting details from guests at your booth is a good start. This can include social media handles, which can be leveraged as part of your broader marketing efforts.
However, messy handwriting or a mistyped digital entry can prevent you from working toward a sale with a truly interested prospect. Using accurate contact information for education professionals, such as the databases that we regularly update and cleanse, can help you ensure that you don’t lose out on potentially valuable opportunities.
How do you write a follow-up email after a trade show?
Whether your email marketing strategy involves teachers, administrators or a mix of education professionals, follow-up messages after a trade show are essential. HubSpot offered an in-depth guide to formatting that can help you customize your efforts to appeal to your audience and its unique concerns and interests.
Of course, you also need to ensure the effort invested in crafting these follow-up emails pays off by having the message reach the right recipient. This is another area where access to accurate contact information is vital, and where we can support your business. To learn more, get in touch with us today.
