Tradeshow OutreachIt’s tradeshow time! Are you excited to generate leads and engage with your target audience? Is your team ready to actively convert potential clients and candidates into new business for your staffing firm? When it comes to tradeshows, the bottom line is that you need to generate solid leads and boost your brand in order to achieve a return on your marketing investment (ROI). Make staffing firm tradeshow outreach a priority by interacting with attendees, hosting sessions, creating informative collateral, personalizing your approach and promptly nurturing your new leads.

Interact
It goes without saying that the best staffing firm tradeshow outreach strategy involves interacting with attendees and engaging with your target audience. Whether it is on the exhibit floor or at a tradeshow cocktail hour, direct outreach is an important part of selling your staffing firm services and building confidence in your brand. Start by conducting market research to identify the true decision makers. Create a script and train your staff so that they are prepared to answer questions and communicate your points of differentiation. In order to convert attendees into clients and candidates, you need to start with basic networking skills on the exhibit floor.

Be a Good Host
In addition to connecting with your target audience through your exhibit booth, tradeshows offer additional opportunities for staffing firm tradeshow outreach that also help to boost your brand. Hosting a breakout session is a great way to share your knowledge and to build your reputation as an industry leader. Wondering what to talk about? Present information from a particularly successful case study or speak about a new service that you have launched that gives you a leg up on the competition. Forget about standing at the front of the room and lecturing to a group of bored audience members. Engage with potential clients and candidates by organizing attendees into small groups and encouraging them to participate in round-table discussions. Collect feedback at the end of the session and enter their contact information into your data collection software for lead nurturing.

Inform Them
Another form of tradeshow outreach is through the staffing firm collateral that you distribute to attendees. From flyers, to case studies, to whitepapers, printed materials are a great way to communicate your brand message to your target audience. Keep in mind that visitors to your booth are also going to be stopping by many other booths, so try to limit the quantity of printed collateral that you hand out. Customized flash drives loaded with electronic marketing files are useful giveaways that attendees are sure to appreciate. Boost your in-booth engagement with an interactive kiosk that allows attendees to simply enter their contact information and select the materials they would like to receive via email. As is the case with anything distributed during a tradeshow, make sure that your collateral is informative and serves to provide your target audience with useful insights.

Make Them Feel Special
It’s important to remember that you only have a brief window of opportunity when it comes to staffing firm tradeshow outreach. Impress upon your exhibit booth staff that they need to personalize their approach and that they should never deliver a canned speech. Attendees are visiting many different booths and are participating in breakout sessions throughout the day, so you must make an effort to individualize your message as much as possible. Attempt to draw out key information in order to determine their needs and better understand how your staffing firm can be of service. Tailor your collateral and giveaways depending on your conversation and make sure that you always make attendees feel special.

Nurture Those Leads
Even after the tradeshow has ended, the outreach opportunities still exist. Leads that were generated by your exhibit booth staff need to be qualified and nurtured in order to convert them into new business. Remember that those leads that you have identified as high priority need to be contacted immediately. Establish follow-up goals and make sure that your team understands your expectations. Reach out to leads via email and social media and remind them how and where you met as a way to begin a conversation and encourage engagement. Always track your tradeshow lead generation analytics and monitor your progress in order to make adjustments when needed. Make use of integrated CRM software as a means of recording critical information and following each lead through the conversion process.

Key Takeaways to Staffing Firm Tradeshow Outreach Strategies:S.J.Hemley Marketing

  1. Direct outreach from your exhibit booth is an important part of building confidence in your brand
  2. Host informational sessions or breaks geared toward networking
  3. Distribute insightful collateral and be mindful of the quantity or printed materials that you hand out
  4. Personalize your message in order to make each attendee feel special
  5. Develop a lead nurturing plan and make sure that your team adheres to the established timelines

About S.J.Hemley Marketing
S.J.Hemley Marketing is a marketing and sales consulting firm focused on driving tangible results for professional services firms. Brand matters, but not without ROI. With over 20 years of sales and marketing experience within staffing and recruiting, we have helped to drive successful branding, sales training, lead generation activities as well as defining marketing strategy for top organizations.