OK, are you ready for smart way #2? It’s really quite innovative and very high tech – over used word alert, is anything really high tech anymore? Can we still use that term? Well that might just be the point of our topic. It’s fallen out of favor too.

Trade Shows.

Wait, wait don’t start running for the exits just yet. For many years trade shows have been considered a necessary evil of many marketing budgets. And, often for good reason. You went because your competitors were there and it might look bad if you weren’t there. Your marketing department always wanted a big budget so they could make the big splash and razzle-dazzle everyone. Your sales people often spent more time talking to industry network contacts rather than potential customers.

And the ROI. What ROI you ask? Exactly. I once worked for an Executive VP who thought the best measurement was the cost-per-lead from the show. You know that drill – take the total cost for the show and divided by the number of ‘leads’ and the lower cost-per-lead the better. The only trouble with that method is that all it would take to drive the cost-per-lead down was to scan as many badges as possible (who cares if it’s a real lead?) or hold a bogus contest and get a bunch of business cards in a fish bowl and call them ‘leads’. That’s definitely not a recommended way to measure ROI.

Do you still plan on doing trade shows? Still wrestling with the budget and how to measure results? Here are a few suggestions for this coming year.

1. Reduce the size of your booth. I know, I know; marketing might not like that, but consider a few facts about crowd flow. People usually enter the hall and either turn right or left and head for the far wall in their chosen direction. Get a smaller booth at the front of that far wall aisle, and have marketing put their best effort into that location. You’ll be saving money on the smaller booth, but you’ll pick up the first wave (and less tired wave) of traffic.

2. Carefully evaluate which shows you’re in. Recognize that many shows just don’t get the kind of traffic and the level of quality attendees that they once did. Be brutally honest in your evaluation and only display at those shows you know will be attended by your targeted market segments. Talk to your good customers and ask them which shows they still find useful.

3. Conduct pre-show training with your staff. Outline your objectives for the show and emphasize the importance of real leads – potential buyers. Consider offering incentives for leads that come closest to your buyer persona/profile. You will go home with fewer, but better qualified leads.

4. Prepare a post-show marketing campaign. With the money you save on the trade show cost have a marketing campaign in place and ready to go as soon as your return. It will be very important to launch that right away. I can’t tell you how many times I have received letters thanking me for stopping by a booth at a show I attended 2 – 3 months earlier. I have trouble remembering where I was last week, much less a couple of months ago! What a waste of time and effort. They might as well not follow up at all. Follow up soon and measure your response from the follow up.

5. Measure your ROI. No, not the cost-per-lead method mentioned earlier. Track each and every lead, and nurture those that aren’t ready to see a salesperson. Keep tracking them – studies have shown that 67% of leads classified as ‘bad leads’ end up buying within 18 – 24 months. Measure the cumulative sales revenue from those show leads until the number left to follow up dwindle to a pre-agreed number. That will give you your true ROI.

Trade shows may not be the sexiest marketing tactic in your tool box, but it just might be more effective than you think. Let me know your thoughts and experiences in the comment section below.

About the BtoBblogger: Phil Lauterjung is President of Integrated LeadGen Results, providing strategies and tactics for small and medium size businesses to get found, get leads, and get sales. With over 20 years (12 in senior management) of sales & marketing experience helping both small companies and Fortune 500 increase sales, Phil is adept at implementing social media tools with a Certified Inbound Marketing Professional designation, and a member of the Sales Lead Management Association. Phil’s is a regular contributor to BtoBbloggers.com and also can be found on his blog; Conversations Re: Sales | Marketing | Social Media | Etc.

For the next few posts I will give you ideas on how to use your marketing dollars more effectively.  I know that’s a bold claim, but take a moment to read these tips, consider them carefully, and then make up your own mind.

Here’s smart way #1 – don’t spend any more money on marketing.  I know that might sound heretical to some who make a living selling solutions, but they will also agree that there are some things that you must do before you spend any money on marketing.  Here are three things to have in place before you start spending money on marketing.

• Have a Sound Value Proposition. Not one full of buzz-word-bingo language.  You know what I’m talking about, you see them all the time and they all start sounding the same – blah, blah, blah.  Instead, survey some of your customers and find out how they describe your company and your products or services.  Develop a Value Proposition that clearly states your value in the customer’s language.  A good resource for some tools you can use in this process is Product 180.
• Develop a Buyer Profile, sometimes called a Buyer Persona. Review the customer data you have for your past customers.  Talk to your sales and customer service people about which customers are the ones that they would like to have more of.  Sort out the common characteristics of those customers – company size, what level makes the buying decision, locations, industries, vertical markets, etc.  Then go to the next level.  Do something really weird, talk to your customers.  Find out what problems you solved for them (in their own words).  What media do they use to search for answers to their problems?  What are their goals?  What images and multimedia appeals to them?  A buyer profile should be a short biography of your typical customer.  For more help with this start with the Buyer Persona Blog by Adele Revella.
• Your Marketing Plan. Now you are ready to start putting together your marketing plan.  Your plan should address how you are going to reach your Buyer Persona with your Value Proposition.  Your research of your Buyer Persona should give you very good ideas as to what channels you will need to use.  Beware of the “shiny new toy” syndrome.  It all depends on where your potential buyers hang out.

Once you have done these steps, now you are ready to start spending your marketing budget.  The above steps will give you a tremendous advantage in allocating those dollars effectively.

Coming up next:  The next smart way to spend your marketing dollars and time.  You do remember that time is a cost too, right?

About the BtoBblogger: Phil Lauterjung is President of Integrated LeadGen Results, providing strategies and tactics for small and medium size businesses to get found, get leads, and get sales. With over 20 years (12 in senior management) of sales & marketing experience helping both small companies and Fortune 500 increase sales, Phil is adept at implementing social media tools with a Certified Inbound Marketing Professional designation, and a member of the Sales Lead Management Association. Phil’s is a regular contributor to BtoBbloggers.com and also can be found on his blog; Conversations Re: Sales | Marketing | Social Media | Etc.

However, those with a business to run still have to develop a plan for 2010 – if you haven’t already done so. To get your businesses to grow you will need more sales (altogether now – duh!?!), and to get more sales you will need more leads (double duh). So, how should you spend your lead generation budget in 2010 to do that? Over the next few posts we will offer some ideas.

First, let’s clarify lead generation. Wikipedia defines it as “Lead generation (commonly abbreviated as lead-gen) is a marketing term that refers to the creation or generation of prospective consumer interest or inquiry into a business’ products or services. Leads can be generated for a variety of purposes – list building, e-newsletter list acquisition or for winning customers.” I would submit one change to that definition, the only purpose for lead gen is to acquire customers. The other purposes they list are the tools to assist in the acquisition.

I would also submit that the main purpose of marketing is to support and facilitate the company’s efforts in the acquisition of new customers. There are numerous terms that marketing folks use, but the ultimate goal, regardless of terms used, is to grow the business.

One question that frequently comes up, especially with small businesses, is how much do we spend on marketing? The typical evasive answer is that it depends. However, a good rule of thumb is somewhere between 3% – 7% of sales revenue – depending on your industry. For those that want to nail it down closer, check with your industry trade organizations for added guidance.

In the next few posts in this series we will give you some smart ways to spend your lead generation budget in 2010. In the meantime, here is some food for thought in terms of trends from a MarketingSherpa study done a couple of months ago.

The survey was conducted in May 2009 and there were 1,491 responses. They tracked the change in information resources used by buyers in complex purchases (mainly B2B). The ones with increased usage between 24 – 30% were virtual events/virtual tradeshows and search engines (30%), business news websites (29%), vendor websites (28%), online research (25%), and technology B2B websites along with social media sites (24%).

The resources with decreasing usage included tradeshows/face-to-face events (down 37%) and print advertising (-18%). How do these numbers compare with your business?

If you have the data available for your own spending over the past couple of years it might be a good idea to check it against what some of your peers and competitors are doing based on the MarketingSherpa data.

Coming up in my next post, I’ll introduce the first of three Effective Strategies To Help Your 2010 Lead Generation Efforts.

About the BtoBblogger: Phil Lauterjung is President of Integrated LeadGen Results, providing strategies and tactics for small and medium size businesses to get found, get leads, and get sales. With over 20 years (12 in senior management) of sales & marketing experience helping both small companies and Fortune 500 increase sales, Phil is adept at implementing social media tools with a Certified Inbound Marketing Professional designation, and a member of the Sales Lead Management Association. Phil’s is a regular contributor to BtoBbloggers.com and also can be found on his blog;  Conversations Re: Sales | Marketing | Social Media | Etc.