When you consider the high expense and complicated logistics of travel, personnel, booth rental and decoration, just to be visible at an industry trade show, it’s no wonder that pre-show marketing often gets less attention than it deserves. One of the least expensive ways to increase qualified traffic to your trade booth at a show is sending postcards to attendees prior to the show.

Not only is the expense of sending such postcards relatively low, you can maximize your chances of getting results from that investment by carefully setting out bait related to your trade show presence that ideal customers will be unable to resist. Never simply send postcards inviting recipients to visit your booth. Instead, you must give them a compelling reason to visit.

One tried-and-true approach is “Bring this card to Booth # ___ at the XYZ show to receive a free ___.” The giveaway item can be something related to what you’re selling, or something unrelated that prospects can personally enjoy, such as a chance to win a hot new gadget or trip. Or the postcard can contain a code or a picture that they need to bring to the booth to find out whether or not they’ve won an appealing prize.

Remember, though, that the reason you’re doing this is to create opportunities to present your wares and get people who may not be familiar with your company to consider doing business with you. The point is not to get as many bodies as possible to the booth. So you may get best results from the following strategy:

1. Select an item or information piece that will have intense interest for ideal prospects and have little interest for those who wouldn’t be worth your time at the show. Promise it free at the trade show booth in exchange for the postcard.

2. Set up your booth giveaway procedure so someone has to personally hand over the postcard to a representative of your company, who can glance at the address portion of the postcard and start a pleasant, purposeful conversation with the prospect while handing over the promised freebie.

3. After the show, follow up with those who showed up with the postcard. While this may sound too obvious to mention, failing to follow up is epidemic because of post-show exhaustion.

For example, let’s say you want to be doing business with printing companies that are already a certain size and want to be aggressive about increasing sales. Your promised free report could be “7 Smart Strategies for Printing Companies That Want to Grow Beyond $2 Million in Annual Sales.” Mom-and-Pop shops, non-printing companies and printing companies that are already larger than $2 million would probably not respond to such an offer.

For sending your pre-show postcard, you may receive the registration list of attendees from the trade show organizers as part of your booth package, or you may need to rent it from them. You can also target portions of your own prospect list whom you think are highly likely to attend the show.

Interested in an advanced pre-show postcard mailing strategy? Create a series of three or four cards spaced one week apart that each highlight a different reason to visit your booth. Postcards work! Try them!

Author Bio: Veteran postcard marketer/author Marcia Yudkin is the creator of The Mighty Postcard Marketing Course, which teaches the strategic, logistical, design and copywriting secrets of postcard marketing. Download her free 1-hour audio interview on marketing with postcards: http://www.yudkin.com/postcards.htm

Category: Marketing
Keywords: postcard,postcards,direct mail,lead generation,generating leads,tradeshows,trade shows,conventions