Last week I attended the Design West trade show in San Jose. The exhibit floor was packed with design engineers looking for new embedded technologies and solutions (attendance looked to be up from the previous year), however I was utterly astonished at the ways in which some exhibitors wasted their marketing dollars. Care to join their ranks? Here are top ways to waste money exhibiting at a trade show:

Fail #1. Have a lousy company website. Trade show attendees, especially engineers and scientists, research exhibitors’ websites ahead of time to determine which booths to visit. If your website does not immediately communicate what you do, how it is relevant to your site visitor, and provide a decent impression of your brand, you are very likely to be passed over on the show floor.

Fail #2. Place a big trade show logo on your home page.  Unless you combine the logo with a headline or copy with a direct tie-in to your company’s value proposition, accompanied by a meaty show landing page, this logo does absolutely nothing to influence a potential booth visitor (or web prospect, for that matter). Instead you’ve wasted prime web real estate, which could have instead be used to promote something compelling, such as a software demo or case study.

Fail #3. Sit on a stool, frown, and play on your smartphone. Your lack of enthusiasm and engagement gives me a very poor impression of your company. While I am combing the show floor for a solution to my engineering challenge, you seem to be tired and are clearly not interested in talking to me.

Fail #4. Blow off social media. “Engineers don’t use social media,” right? WRONG! Events are one of the best times to engage in social media, especially Twitter and LinkedIn. There were very active Twitter threads, using the event hashtag (#designwest), about the conference and expo. Exhibitors show attendees, and the trade press were all engaging together virtually. The reach extended well beyond the walls of the show, as others following Design West who could not attend were no doubt interested in the buzz and could follow through their social media accounts.

Fail #5. Use Twitter as SPAM. There were a select few exhibitors who drove us all CRAZY by posting banal messages, such as “Stop by booth xx for a free recycled shopping bag,” which don’t add real value or help show attendees learn or find solutions. The worst offender would send the exact same message 10 times in succession to fill our newsfeeds with this garbage. Marketing FAIL!

Fail #6. MIA. I have two categories of MIA. 6a. Put some literature and a demo board on a table, and then leave the booth unstaffed. This approach guarantees you will bring home a full box of lit and no leads. 6b. Forgo the booth backdrop, relying on the show organizer’s small stencil sign to serve as your banner to the world. This sends a “my company is broke and does not really care about this trade show anyway” vibe. And since the stencil signs are too small to read, you are almost guaranteed that no one will know that you were at the event anyway.

Ok, so now that you’ve heard my list of how to waste money, I’ll leave you with a few images of smart trade show tactics from my time at Design West.

Synapse Wireless created CapNet, the “world’s largest wireless network of propeller beanies,” and heavily promoted this in their booth and social media. The beanies created much buzz and had big staying power on the heads of attendees during the show. Synapse did a great job tying in another exhibitor, Altium, whose software was used in the design of the beanies.

Not only did the Silex booth staff know their stuff, they were so friendly and energetic I just had to jump in a photo with the group!

Stonestreet One did a great job of demonstrating their partnerships with bigger companies, such as Texas Instruments, through hardware on display.

Rohde and Schwarz held short product seminars inside their eighteen-wheeler, parked on the show floor

TREW can help you create a smart event strategy, from planning promotion, design execution, and post-show lead nurturing. Contact us today for more information on trade show marketing.

Related blog posts:

Trade Show Media Relations Do’s and Don’ts

TREW’s Top 5 B2B Trade Show Items & New Ideas to Boost Your Booth Traffic

6 Smart Trade Show Tactics Seen at Design West 2012

Looking for additional insight? Check out our guide: Smart Marketing for Engineers

There is a great saying many marketers use, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” Without a plan, how do you know what you need to do, in priority order, to get there? In these busy times, it is difficult for many to take a pause from everyday work to stop, breathe, focus, and plan. Instead, they rush down any road that looks promising at the moment. Unfortunately, these unplanned roads lead to mediocre results and higher costs – in time, money, stress, and frustration.

What if you took some time to truly define your business goals and an investment strategy to get there? Outlined below are the key steps TREW Marketing takes in the marketing planning process.

1. It all starts with business goals.

We kick off the marketing planning process by first asking about your 1-3 year business goals. We then dive in to understand your products/services, key differentiators, target audience groups, and competitive landscape. This closely informs campaigns and defines how we’ll measure results. We also conduct a preliminary analysis of your website and keywords, which greatly informs later steps in the marketing planning process.

2. Develop a marketing strategy.

During this stage, we define marketing goals, such as growing inbound web visits, capturing leads, or growth in thought leadership. You may also have major foundational goals such as creating a new website or adopting marketing automation software, such as HubSpot.

At this point, we create marketing campaign plans. A marketing campaign is an integrated set of activities coordinated closely to achieve a common goal. Campaigns are often centered on an industry, audience type, partnership, or major product/service initiative. We also discuss differentiators at the campaign level, which may lead to the development of core messages through TREW’s Branding Brain service.

3. Prioritize inbound and outbound marketing activities.

Content is central to marketing campaigns. We identify key content needs, such as web landing pages, white papers, case studies, demos, webcasts, and video to support the campaign objectives. We then identify and prioritize marketing activities, such as search marketing, PR, database marketing, and events (to name a few), which can attract qualified visitors to the website, capture leads, and deliver on marketing and business goals.

Activities chosen should tie directly back to marketing goals along the funnel, from generating awareness at the top to supporting targeting sales efforts and strengthening loyalty at the bottom.

4. Turn Strategy into Action – the 12-Month Activity Plan.

At this stage, campaign plans are mapped out in a budget-based, 12-Month Activity Plan. This plan outlines specific activities by quarter, and is intended to be a living document. Often activity plans are modified on a quarterly basis based on new opportunities, changing business needs, and the outcome of activities. This is also the time to identify internal staff and external resources needed to execute the activity plan and measure results, and the responsibilities of each.

Let’s get started — together.

This collaborative, 4-step process leads to the smartest, fastest, and most cost-effective ways to achieve marketing and business goals, and reduces costly inefficiencies down the road. Ready to get started?

• Contact TREW Marketing to request a consultation and quote
• Learn more about our marketing planning services

Looking for additional insight? Check out:

Last week, TREW attended the Design West Conference in San Jose. Here, exhibitors demonstrated products and services with the common purpose of helping design engineers be innovative, efficient, and produce reliable, secure solutions. While walking the trade show floor, I spotted several effective marketing tactics for attracting booth traffic, conveying key messages, and sticking in my memory well after flying home to Austin.

1. Impactful, attractive, low-cost booth graphics.

Crank Software used a set of three lightweight, retractable graphics placed closely together to act as one image for a 10×10 booth. My eye was drawn to the lime green swoosh, which contrasted nicely against the gray and black elements. With a quick scan, I could tell that Crank offers HMI software – evident by colorful software screens and graphics that take the design engineer through the design phases of prototype, develop, and deploy. While there are some slight improvements I’d make to the design, such as de-cluttering some of the repetitious phrases, I think this booth graphic is a nice model for a small booth presence.

2. Direct mail – still alive and kicking

As a pre-registered attendee, I received several pre-show promotional emails, none of which I found very compelling. On the other hand, I received one (and only one) physical postcard, sent by Datakey Electronics. Attached to the postcard was a key with an embedded chip that contained data of which prize awaited me at the booth. It spoke to me on two levels –  I was guaranteed a prize, but more importantly it was an interesting way for Datakey to quickly demo their rugged, portable memory products. The Datakey staff measured their direct mail effectiveness over multiple years, sharing interesting results: 10-13% of mailed postcards are redeemed at the booth, and the mailer boosted their traffic by close to 50%.

3. Hands-on lab

Rohde & Schwarz, one of the larger Design West exhibitors, dedicated over half of their booth real estate for an in-depth, 30-minute hands-on lab. Each of the ~10 session attendees used demo equipment and prescribed exercises to explore Rohde & Schwarz’s instrumentation. A knowledgeable engineer guided their audience through the exercises, and answered questions. Attendees also enjoyed refreshments, a nice enticement for attendees during the long conference day.

4. Happy, dancing mascot

Ok, now I admit that not every engineer enjoys a happy, dancing mascot, but I will say that this little dude drew lots of attention to his booth, VIA Embedded. VIA extended the mascot’s presence with small stuffed versions of him that trade show attendees can take home to their kids. (Full disclosure: some bias might be involved, due to my year stint as a high school Tiger mascot).

As a contrast to the happy lime green mascot, another company hired scantily-clad women for their booth (sorry, I somehow neglected to snap a photo). One was even wearing wings, which as much as I could tell had nothing to do with the company’s key messages for the show. They did draw attention, but from afar – I think the booths directly across from the models saw a boost in traffic, as the show attendees were not keen to walk through the “interaction path” of these women. After a barrage of negative tweets (and emails, I imagine), the company wisely pulled the women from their booth after the first day of the show.

5. Interesting demo incorporating a product partnership

Cyth Systems had a demo stand within the National Instruments booth, where they showed off a bioreactor using NI’s embedded SBRIO technology. The demo was eye-catching and easy to quickly understand. It also did a very good job showcasing both companies’ products clearly and effectively, which is often not an easy feat in a partnership demo. And finally, because of this demo, I now know how Botox is made (yuck!).

6. …and a few final observations

• Social media: Several exhibitors, including Texas Instruments, did a fantastic job of tweeting specific, compelling content about their presentations and demos. A few others did not quite fare as well, with banal posts, such as “come by our booth and win an iPad.”

• QR codes: A surprising lack of QR codes were utilized by exhibitors. I can’t help thinking that this is a huge missed opportunity. Or is the adoption rate really that slow for people to use QR readers? However, I did see MANY QR codes used in the airport – TSA had them on practically ever sign as I went through security.

• Eye-popping shirts: Kudos to the LVDT folks, who I nicknamed “the purple people” for their memorable (but professional) booth attire.

• Big monitors for “mini-theaters” in smallish booths: this is a great solution when you don’t have the space for a large theater presentation. And theater presentations were a big hit at this show in all booth sizes.

Are you looking to marketing strategies for your next trade show? TREW Marketing has deep expertise in events. Contact us today to find out how we can help you improve your trade show program and increase your return on investment with every event.

In their annual feature, Inc. Magazine once again named Wineman Technology among the top 50 fastest growing engineering companies in the United States.  As one of TREW Marketing’s longest-standing clients, Wineman Technology has grown significantly in revenue and industry awareness during the past three years.

TREW Marketing provides multi-faceted services for Wineman Technology, including web design and management, search engine marketing, content development, and strategic marketing planning.

We congratulate the Wineman team on their outstanding long-term growth, and look forward to contributing to their success in 2011.

More Information…

• Case Study:  TREW Marketing’s work for Wineman Technology
• About Wineman Technology
• About Inc. Magazine’s 2010 Fastest Growing company list

PVI Systems, a consulting and product solution provider for design and test, needed a key collateral piece for their new product, Clarity.  They reached out to TREW Marketing, realizing that our industry background in engineering and marketing expertise would be an excellent fit for their needs.

Collaborating together, PVI Systems and TREW Marketing created a strategy for the brochure, desiring to succinctly convey benefits and technical specifications of the product and drive traffic to the website. Sample configurations were used to graphically convey how the product may be used across a diverse set of applications.

TREW Marketing provided strategy, writing, and design for this project, and delivered the final piece in a tight timeframe required for distribution at numerous events.

Doug Wilson, PVI Systems President, commented on TREW Marketing’s approach:

“I wanted to take a few minutes to personally thank you and your team for the great work on the Clarity brochure.  The final result was spectacular!  We are all very impressed with the overall appearance of the brochure.

Perhaps as important to me was the openness with which you patiently responded to our feedback.  I especially like the way we were able to respond with conceptual concerns and have you translate them into new copy and layout.  The back and forth of both teams openly communicating led to a great final product.

The TREW team designed a brochure that captures the essence of our system concept in a way that should resonate with potential customers.”

TREW Marketing is now leveraging this work in another active project — the redesign of PVI Systems’ website.

Do you need to create key collateral pieces for your product or services?  Contact TREW Marketing for more information about our collateral strategy, writing, and design services.

The Hogg Foundation sought to understand internal and external perceptions of their key stakeholders, with plans to use the information gleaned from research to guide messaging, vision, and impact for the future.  At the same time, the foundation leadership knew they needed to take immediate action to improve their website experience.

TREW Marketing was engaged to conduct an in-depth market research project, focused on leadership and staff, as well as external groups of stakeholders and consumers.  Following this research, TREW Marketing redesigned the Hogg Foundation website to ease navigation, content updates, and better align with foundation initiatives.  TREW Marketing also provided an e-newsletter template and integration with Constant Contact for efficient e-communication efforts.

Results of this project included:

• Detailed, actionable data and recommendations for branding, messaging, and communications
• Re-designed website with clear navigation paths and a robust content management system
• E-newsletter template extending the web brand experience

Refreshed Hogg Foundation Website

Former Hogg Foundation Website

“TREW Marketing took the time to really understand our organizations brand research goals and challenges.  They put our staff at ease during internal interviews and helped us achieve a remarkable response rate for our external email survey,” said Merrell Foote, Communications Director for the foundation.  ”The website refresh project has given us a more visually appealing, user-friendly site and an easy-to-use, flexible tool for managing content.  The research data and the improved website leave us well-prepared to develop a new brand for the foundation.”

TREW Marketing partners Andy Pyle and Ryan Kagan were crucial contributors to this project.  Pyle provided his market research expertise to deteremine the methodology utilized and performed data analysis.  Ryan’s web design and programming skills were an excellent fit for this project, and the content management system built by Kagan provided a scalable web platform, which the Hogg Foundation can build upon following the results of the re-branding efforts.

About the Hogg Foundation:

Founded in 1940, the Hogg Foundation’s mission is to promote mental health in Texas. The foundation awards grants for mental health services for children and adults, public policy projects, academic research and conferences, training workshops, and other public education activities.  The Hogg Foundation is in the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin.

TREW Marketing is proud to launch our new website, which showcases our work promoting the innovations of our world’s engineering and scientific leaders.

Applying TREW best practices in web strategy, design, and navigation, the new site achieves the following:

• Modern, engaging design that matches corporate identity
• Multi-level site navigation
• Breadth of services showcased through dedicated pages, project overviews, and related blog post links
• Client case studies provide insight into deliverables and results achieved
• New content about our mission, vision, and TREW Crew
• Refreshed Spotlight blog

This work was largely accomplished by Steve Goodwin, TREW Marketing’s Senior Creative Designer, who designed and developed the site.  Steve listened to our ideas and brought creative solutions to the table.

Another contributor was Arpita Somani, TREW Marketing Intern and Texas A&M Graduate Student studying marketing.  Arpita worked with TREW Marketing founders to create case studies and project profiles, and found innovative ways to convey the information both online and offline.

We invite you to visit trewmarketing.com today and check out the new site.

If you’ve visited the Google search page today, you probably noticed some big changes. Google has updated their look with a new left-hand side panel which offers search tools to help customize and refine results. more…

Website navigation and information architecture are two of the most important elements when designing your website, and need to be defined in the early stages of the web project.  Why?

1. Visitors come to your site for a specific reason. Website navigation is the visitor’s guide to navigate through your website and to quickly and easily find what they’re looking for.
2. Navigation helps to state the purpose of your website. It is a vital tool for your visitors to wade through your website, helping them arrive where you want them to be, and to take action.
3. For Search Engine Optimaztion (SEO) purposes, you want all your pages to be crawled and indexed by search engines. Website navigation helps search engine spiders find their way through your website and to every single page you have to offer. more…

Dynamometers and servo-hydraulic test systems are no mystery to Wineman Technology, whose engineers are experts in test system design and development. When it came time to build a website, however, they knew that outside help was required and called upon TREW Marketing. more…