After many years of supporting the marketing of trade show and conference managers and exhibitors, we can attest to the continued power of direct mail in building audience. While exhibitors who do a pre-show campaign one or two months before a show can increase attendance by up to 50%, according to the Center for Exhibition Industry Research, a post by the NextPage agency recently explained how direct mail can push those pre-event promotional efforts several steps ahead of competitors. Show marketers looking for an edge with multi-channel audiences will embrace direct mail’s higher response rates and retention rates, urges NextPage, leveraging the deliverability of a tactile and visual attention-getter in an era of crowded digital mailboxes and websites. By combining variable printing with segmented list targeting, savvy marketers can create a pre-event mailing that is a highly personalized invitation. Including an incentive in the mailer will further spur booth visits. For example, trade show expert Marlys Arnold earns long lines at her booth by using scavenger hunts in pre-show campaigns, with a direct mail piece that lists five questions and gives a web address where attendees can print off an answer sheet to fill out and bring to the show. In another example, independent copywriter named Mark Johnson wanted to target subscription newsletter marketers at a Las Vegas Conference and created a special website with case studies and a free offer that he touted in a postcard. The free offer was an exclusive 30-minute consultation with Johnson to review current marketing campaigns. Johnson rented the conference association’s membership list and mailed the card only to qualified leads five weeks before the show. Out of 400 pieces mailed, 406 people visited his site, and he generated five solid leads! As Johnson showed, the real key to success with a direct mail campaign is targeting qualified leads, starting with a list of current clients and prospects and moving on to lists of registered attendees, association members, subscribers to relevant trade publications and newsletters, multi-channel buyers of relevant products, etc. Marketers can then segment and tailor messaging by geography, industry, product interest, title, and firm-ographics (such as number of employees). For more on event direct mail, see http://www.acculistusa.com/use-direct-mail-to-push-trade-show-attendance-ahead-of-the-pack/
