Finalised your marketing for Ecobuild yet? Have you considered how you’ll maximise your presence at the show, collect qualified business leads, and measure your activities afterwards? We’re aware of just how frantic and fretful the approach to a big show can be, and often planning marketing activities at the show takes a back burner.
Below are a few straightforward ways you can make better use of your digital marketing toolkit at Ecobuild. If you would also like to enter our ‘best use of digital marketing award‘ then tweet @PauleyCreative with the hashtag #digibuild. For more information on the award criteria please see our award blog post.
Don’t worry we’re not going to bamboozle you with weird or wonderful technologies – hopefully these are all mediums you’ll be familiar with, if not engaging in already; we’re simply hoping to make your digital marketing tactics work harder for your business objectives.
Use social…
To promote your stand and your Ecobuild activities to your audience
- Remember to add your stand number to your tweets, and any specific times that senior staff will be on the stand to meet clients.
To directly engage with any specific new business contact you may have
- Why not invite them to your stand for a coffee, or to watch a talk you’ll be doing.
To run competitions
- Engage with your audience in a fun way – asking for pictures or comments and celebrating the best
Use video…
To share your seminars or stand activities with your online audience who might not have been able to make it to the show
- This adds greater value through longevity – the videos will be relevant content on your website until next year’s Ecobuild.
On your stand as a feature
- For example why not showcase the technical capabilities at your factory or head office by showing some interesting videos on your stand?
To liven up your blog
- Why not use Ecobuild inspiration for, or merely a backdrop to some video blog posts
But don’t forget to use your website…
To support all of your digital marketing activities, so that when you successfully drive traffic
- All videos, images, stand details and activities etc should all be visible and accessible from your website
To capture data (email addresses, twitter handles or phone numbers) from the traffic you drive
- This will help you to measure whether your activities at the show have successfully expanded your audience, and allow you to continue a ‘conversation’ with them into the future.
- Don’t forget to request information on where they heard of you, so that you can clearly evaluate the tactics you used and make a simple decision on whether to continue with each of them in the future.
It’s all too easy to focus on ‘just getting through the show’… picturing yourself with a well-deserved drink and your feet up on the sofa on that Thursday evening. There’s just one more thing we’d like you to think about though…
Follow up with your newfound Ecobuild friends…
Thank you’s
- Aim to quickly thank everybody you met, through Twitter, email, Facebook or even LinkedIn – start the relationships as you mean to go on, and continue that good first impression.
Write a blog post
- To evaluate your time at the show, highlight the good bits, and make a joke about how solar panel companies seem to be taking over the world…
Plan an email marketing campaign
- Specifically to your Ecobuild contacts, this will give you a good platform to reinforce your key messages from the show, and point everybody directly to any relevant downloadable materials on your website.
We hope you’re all looking forward to Ecobuild this year, and that your marketing plan is progressing well! If you fancy trying some of these ideas out, why not enter our #digibuild award for ‘Best Use of Digital Marketing at Ecobuild’? It’s simple enough to enter, just tweet @PauleyCreative using #digibuild.
The award will recognise innovation, integration and digital marketing successes at Ecobuild 2012. Good luck and get creative!
