3 Ways to Prepare for a Trade Show or Conference

That big trade show or conference is right around the corner, so how do you make sure you’re ready to meet all those prospects? If you don’t go in with an organized plan or train of thought, it’s easy to get caught up in the festivities & leave empty handed. This checklist will make sure you’re ready to knock it out of the park.

When planning for a conference, you can use these three ways to prepare for a trade show or conference to help you! 

1. Establish Measurable Objectives Beforehand

Depending on your reason for attending a conference, this can go several different ways. Ask yourself, what’s the minimum that would have to happen for the event to be considered a success?

Perhaps some of your trade show goals include:

• Collecting 100 email addresses from a sign-up sheet

• Scheduling “X” number of demos for your product or service

• Collecting a specific number of business cards to follow up or connect with after the trade show

Establishing these expectations prior will give you the opportunity to benchmark whether being in attendance provided any value to you and your organization.

2. Create a Wish List

In other words, which companies are you most looking forward to connecting with? Ask the organizers if a list of attendees can be provided. If not, take matters into your own hands. Some of our clients will have us reach out directly to specific companies & ask if they will be in attendance so we can introduce ourselves or organize meetings at the show.

3. Make a Cheat Sheet

One of our clients attends trade shows on a regular basis & one of the things I do to help prepare them is create a ‘cheat sheet’. Our campaign takes more of an Account Based Marketing approach, so we can establish where they’re at in the sales process and reach out to the prospect when it makes the most sense.

I’ll make a list of all companies in the geographical region of the trade show that we’ve previously contacted and provide as many details as possible. This way if they happen to cross paths, the client knows various points of conversation to make sure they hit on. If this isn’t an option, you can also visit the website for the companies on your wish list to determine what vendors they’re currently using & educate yourself on their business practices.

These three things will help make sure you’re confident & organized at your next conference or trade show.

Let us know if you need help preparing for a trade show or conference! We’re here to help your business.

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Creating a pipeline of leads can be challenging and time consuming especially when you’re selling a product or service that requires an appointment for a one on one conversation or meeting.

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How to Use Video to Increase Membership Engagement

It’s no surprise that video is the most efficient form of communication in 2019. With videos being shared 1200% more than text and images combined, it’s time that your membership association jumps on the video content bandwagon.

Sure, posting a video seems like a great idea to increase your engagement on social media, but what should the video be about? Associations typically don’t create videos because they don’t know where to start. Here are a few avenues to go down to get the creative juices flowing!

Here are four ways to use video to increase membership engagement:

1. Introduce Yourself as an Association in a Video!

Use video to welcome your new members with a warm greeting and show them that you’re an organization that cares about their members. Try sending the video in a welcome email, or even try to send it through a personalized inbox message. Not only is this a great first impression, but it’s also a piece of content that your members are going to remember and encourage them to engage with your organization.

It’s said that 59% of executives would rather watch a video than read text. With loads content being pushed from so many organizations and brands, you need to stand out from the crowd. Try pinning your welcome video to the top of your social media pages. It’s a fantastic greeting to receive anytime someone visits your page.

2. Educate and Explain the Benefits of Being a Member.

Show your members the value that you can bring them! First, you’ll want to answer some key questions:

• What all can you offer members?

• Where can they find more information?

• What upcoming events do you have planned?

• Why do they need to be a part of your association?

• Why does your association standout from the crowd?

First and foremost, you’ll want to educate your members. Cut to the chase – what do you do as an association? And then answer why they should join or continue to be a member. Answering member questions helps them develop a personal connection to your organization, which will encourage them to get more involved.

Make sure to stay on top of answering key questions that your audience may have, too. Engage with your members on social media and see what their pain points are - this will help guide you to answer questions that may be on various members’ minds.

Related Post: How to Engage Association Members with Email

3. Benefit from User Generated Content (UGC).

So many associations see engagement on social media as likes, shares and retweets (which it is!). However, there’s nothing more engaging than hearing the opinions and voices of your members.

Ask your members to upload their own videos of themselves answering industry questions or maybe giving opinions on current topics. While this is giving you content to share on your own social media platforms, it’s also creating a conversation.

That’s engagement.

Hearing testimonials is also a beneficial video content. In fact, 92% of consumers trust recommendations from others, even people they don’t know, over branded content.

Get your members talking – let them speak on the value that they’ve gotten from your organization. People are starting to crave stories, connections and interactions with others. Try not to push informative video content all the time – let others do the talking for you.

4. Excite Members for Upcoming Events with Video.

Events are a marketer’s dream – it gives you an opportunity to hype up your association. Create buzz. Promote a sense of urgency to learn more.

Video gives you so much opportunity to create excitement: fun background music, the intense movement of text and imagery, the inspirational voice-over. Video opens doors that images, GIFs and text can’t do.

The social media engagements will start rolling in.

A great idea to promote your association’s event is to ask for video testimonials from past attendees. Again, not only are you receiving video content to use, but you’re also given more credibility as an association. Sometimes it requires hearing from someone new to have some serious FOMO (Fear of Missing Out!)

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Whatever you end up creating, remember to keep it short! 1/3 of viewers stop watching videos after 30 seconds – so, try to create your video two minutes or shorter. Get your message across in a quick, yet efficient, way!

At the end of the day, you’re trying to tell your association’s story. When creating video content for your association, remember to answer all three questions in the golden circle:

1. WHY are you doing what you’re doing?

   Very few organizations know why they do what they do. The WHY is your core purpose or belief. Let the ‘why’ be what dictates ALL content creation – reiterate why your association is impactful to its members.

2. HOW are you doing it?

   Explain how you’re different from the competition. What makes you standout?

3. WHAT are you offering?

   Most importantly, you need to tell your audience what you can offer them.

So, let’s recap on how to use video to increase membership engagement. Ideally, you’ll want to create a shorter video that’s inviting (think 15 seconds to a minute), exciting and educational. While you could go the route of creating your own video content, your association can also encourage current members to contribute to a conversation and post their own videos. Either way, engagement is vital to increasing membership awareness.

It’s obvious that members are engaging more with video than they ever have before. Now, the question is, how are you going to integrate video to create engagement with association’s members?

Download our guide to up your digital marketing strategy

Creating effective social media content to share with your target audience is a crucial part to your marketing strategy.

Using our expertise in content creation, we’ve created this guide to help you cultivate a more engaged audience and, ultimately, help you grow your business.

In this download, you’ll receive:

• The steps you’ll need to follow in order to create social media engagement.

• 4 essential elements to add in every content piece.

• Information on different types of graphics your business can post for brand awareness and engagement

• Key strategies for lead generation

How to Re-Engage Lapsed Members with Your Organization

So, it happened. Your member lapsed and there’s no sign of them renewing their membership anytime soon.

What do you do? Do you just let them leave without engaging or do you figure out how to re-engage lapsed members?

With current or previous customers being easier to convert and more profitable (increasing customer retention rates by 5% has the potential to increase profits by 25% to 95%!), you simply can’t afford to let your lapsed members walk without trying to bring them back into your organization.

Identify why members have lapsed

The reason why members haven’t renewed their membership isn’t always something that the company or organization did wrong, but more so the events and aspects of their lives. Tailor the approach to maximize the potential of re-gaining them from the information that you capture. Then, reward them with a discount or incentive for returning or purchasing a membership again.

By understanding why a member has lapsed, you not only get a chance to re-engage them and offer them an opportunity to re-join your organization, but you also learn valuable information to make memberships better! – Victoria Chernikovich, Account Growth Specialist

Custom Audiences

Facebook and LinkedIn allow you to upload a file of your lapsed members and serve targeted ads directly to them. We recommend that you first share content of value – videos, blogs, podcasts, etc. that don’t have a call to action centered around becoming a member.

Your mission is first to engage your lapsed members and remind them of why they became a member in the first place – networking, knowledge sharing, etc. Once a lapsed member clicks an ad to view a piece of your content, Facebook and LinkedIn both enable you to re-target them and serve another ad, this time with a more sales focused call to action. This progressive social media strategy works! – Sarah Nelson, Marketing Manager

Related Post: Create a Hyper-Targeted Campaign on LinkedIn

Personalized Messages

Millennials are much more likely to respond & interact with messages that are personalized to their needs! Blast emails, irrelevant messaging can damage your brand. Take the time to understand their preferred channels of communication & personalize your content to match their interests. – Cory Carney, Account Growth Specialist

Related Post: How to Attract and Engage Millennial Members in Your Organization

Offer a discount

A great way to re-engage lapsed members is to offer a discount to bring them back in the door. Run a promotion for a set number of days offering something unique that hasn’t previously been available! Send them an automated email sequence that also corresponds with a LinkedIn campaign or Facebook marketing so they see the promotional discount wherever they are online! – Ashley Bricker, Client Growth Specialist

Target and re-activate them through multi-channel

Begin with re-engaging on the channel that they initially came to you from and create your value proposition. From there, reach out and show how them why their support has been critical to your mission. People love to know where their donations or contributions went to, so if you can share information on what a yearly membership can do to make a positive impact toward your mission, they are more likely to feel valued.

Phone, email, direct mail and social media are key to reaching these members in the way they prefer to be contacted – Lauren Gill, InceptGrows Senior Account Executive

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And just like that you’ve figured out how to re-engage lapsed members with your organization! Now you’re on your way to an even more engaging organization!

Download our guide to up your digital marketing strategy

Creating effective social media content to share with your target audience is a crucial part to your marketing strategy.

Using our expertise in content creation, we’ve created this guide to help you cultivate a more engaged audience and, ultimately, help you grow your business.

In this download, you’ll receive:

• The steps you’ll need to follow in order to create social media engagement.

• 4 essential elements to add in every content piece.

• Information on different types of graphics your business can post for brand awareness and engagement

• Key strategies for lead generation

How to Attract and Engage Millennial Members for Your Organization

Millennials seem to be a group of confusion when it comes to marketing to them. And if you’re confused on how to attract and engage millennial members for your organization, we have you covered.

Whether your goal is to grow your membership or engage with your current millennial members, these tips will help you make your organization better!

Provide Social Proof

Millennials are not impulse-shoppers. More than any other generational group, they like to research their purchases.  This research comes in many forms, but member reviews and social proof are two top sources for this information. 

By running a Facebook campaign targeted at ‘Friends of people who like your Page,’ your organization can deliver targeted ads with instant social proof. When someone scrolls past your ad and sees that 13 of their friends like Nike on Facebook, that social proof is likely enough to convince a millennial (me) to purchase a pair of sandals for my son.  A staggering 91% of millennials buy based on recommendations from friends so this type of campaign is extremely powerful. – Sarah Nelson, Marketing Manager

Focus on Your Online Presence

Many millennials can’t remember a time before the internet. Keeping your website and social media accounts fresh and up to date will make it easier for them to find you. While it’s easy to say that your organization should be all places online to attract and engage millennials, you should spend most of your time and resources on the social media platforms that your members are already on. – Ashley Bricker, Client Growth Specialist

Optimize for Mobile

It is so uncommon to come across a millennial that doesn’t have a smart phone.  In fact, more than 92% of millennials own smartphones and 85% of millennials use social media.  Therefore, most of their time spent engaging with your organization will likely be through their hand-held device.

Giving them a way to purchase and/or sign up via a mobile device would engage them and allow them to take the next steps without having to find a computer or make a call. – Victoria Chernikovich, Account Growth Specialist

Personalized Communication

Millennials are much more likely to respond and interact with messages that are personalized to their needs! Blast emails and irrelevant messaging can damage your brand, since your millennial audience is more likely to unsubscribe or unfollow more quickly if they don’t feel the content speaks to them.

Take the time to understand their preferred channels of communication and personalize your content to match their interests. – Cory Carney, Account Growth Specialist

Multi-channel Approach

In this highly technological age, millennials expect for a brand to connect with them across a variety of platforms, from YouTube video ads to email marketing. Regardless if you re-purpose content for different platforms or create slightly different creative, your messaging should always remain consistent across anywhere you show up.

Your multi-channel marketing to reach your millennial members also should blend together rather than remaining in silos. Whatever your members tell you in an email survey can be used on social media and vice versa. - Amanda Blakeman, Digital Growth Strategist

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How to Choose the Right Social Media Platforms for Your Business

Social media is no longer just the future; it’s the present. With over 2.34 billion people worldwide on social media (and that number is expected to grow to about 2.95 billion by 2020), your business simply cannot afford to not have a presence online.

Our goal is to help your B2B business be successful, whether that be in-person or online. Because social media is highly intertwined with everyday life, we want to help you choose the right social media platforms for your business.

Identify your business demographic

The first thing you need to do is nail down is your target demographic, which if you are already familiar with who you’re targeting to increase sales, this won’t be too hard!

The reason you need to determine your demographic is because different people are on different social media platforms! If they are on multiple, they typically use them for different purposes. Sprout Social has an informative report detailing the demographics on the top platforms, and depending on the type of people on the platform, that may sway your decision.

Determine what social platform(s) your target clients are on most

Whatever social media platforms your target audience is already active on are the places your business needs to be. Meeting them where they’re at will make them more likely to engage with you! Choosing the path of least resistance to potential clients will allow you to make the most impact without spending the most time and money.

You can easily gather this information when you send your welcome emails! In your survey to get to know your audience better, you can ask what social platforms they are currently on.

Want to take online engagement a step further? Follow people in your target industry; like and comment on their posts! When you show you care, they’ll care and engage with you more in return!

Identify your social media goal

You should know how you want to interact with your target clients prior to solidifying your decision. What is it that you want to accomplish online?

Do you want to show off your employees and how they’re helping businesses? Maybe you’ll create detailed posts on Facebook and/or LinkedIn and explain how your business can help other companies.

Or is your goal to educate? Maybe you create a plan to utilize Facebook Live or Instagram Live to engage with your community in real time.

Do you want your current and potential clients to see you as serious, funny, inspiring, or any specific trait? While you can make any reputation work on any platform, it will shape the way your organization shows up and how your clients engage with you.

Do you plan to utilize ads to create a hyper-targeted campaign or a Lookalike audience of your current clients? All of these points are essential not only to choosing what platforms you use and how to show up online, but to your marketing efforts as a whole!

Determine your resources

After figuring out where your target audience hangs out online and your social media goal, it’s time to take your resources into consideration! Maybe your B2B business has determined that being on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram is important and you also want to incorporate paid advertising on these platforms as well.

The size of your internal team will determine what platforms are most important and will be tackled first. If you have a smaller team, you might need to pare down your social media list a bit, or consider outsourcing organic and/or paid social media management.

Even if you just start with one social media platform for your B2B business, a start is better than not being present at all!

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Download our guide to up your digital marketing strategy

Creating effective social media content to share with your target audience is a crucial part to your marketing strategy.

Using our expertise in content creation, we’ve created this guide to help you cultivate a more engaged audience and, ultimately, help you grow your business.

In this download, you’ll receive:

• The steps you’ll need to follow in order to create social media engagement.

• 4 essential elements to add in every content piece.

• Information on different types of graphics your business can post for brand awareness and engagement

• Key strategies for lead generation