COOL TIP OF THE WEEK

"Cool Tips of the Week" archived from 5/22/2008 email, which is a weekly email sent by Steve Miller to IMTS Exhibitors with quick tips, ideas, examples, advice, and just plain old good information on making the best of your IMTS Experience.

PRE-SHOW PROMOTION

Preshow Promotions & Communications

Let's start talking about what you need to do BEFORE IMTS 2008 to rev up your success.

It's always disappointing to hear from an exhibitor after the show, "We really meant to do preshow promotion, but we just ran out of time."

Don't let that happen to you. Preshow communications are EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. Your most-wanted target attendee has a limited amount of time to cover one of the largest exhibitions in the world. There are over ONE THOUSAND companies vying for the attention and time of the attendee, and despite the fact they have 48 total show hours, they'll only be out there for a fraction of that. They simply CAN'T see everybody.

Studies have shown an average attendee will visit roughly 50-60 exhibitors. In addition, they'll already have about HALF of those on their agenda before the show opens.

If you haven't started, NOW is the time to begin planning your preshow communications! I'll be giving several more tips and examples in the next few Cool Tips, but think about this stuff now:

WHO are your top 100 most wanted prospects and customers? Make that list NOW.
Do you have their contact info -- mailing address, telephone, fax, email? If not, get it NOW.
Develop a timeline of when your preshow communications will be designed, produced, and implemented. Think about MULTIPLE contacts before the show, at least 3-4. And DON'T plan for all of them to be email. Just because it's free and easy doesn't mean it will work.
Watch for next week's Cool Tip for more suggestions on effective preshow ideas.

Till then,

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