As a direct marketing guy I've always considered trade shows as my second least favorite way of marketing, the first being the phone.  Why should I pick up the phone and call a dozen people in an hour, when I can send out four thousand letters in the same amount of time and never have to face any more rejection than the usual "Not tonight dear, I have a headache," from my wife.

     But some of my clients seem to need that face time, that one-on-one with prospects.  These are the clients that seem to live in a world of yesteryear: where there was no Internet, no fax machines.  Some of my clients seem to even pre-date color brochures, let alone print on demand Indigo presses.  They go back to the days prospective purchasers had no way to view a vendor's image other than what they were wearing when they showed up at the prospect's doorstep: a suit and tie.

     Maybe that's what I hate so much, wearing a tie.  What a useless garnish of clothing unless you are going to a hanging, and it's your own.  So it all comes out now.  Anyhow, I still hate tradeshows, old clients, ties, writing, this computer I'm typing on, and yes, I'm the guy who shot your dog in the butt from the just-slightly-open-window-on-the-third-floor with my BB gun after he crapped on my lawn and you didn't clean it up.  OK, I've come clean.  Where is my analyst when I really need him?

     But still, some clients not only like trade shows, they thrive on trade shows as a lifeblood of their marketing, ridiculous as it may seem.  So here are some direct marketing tips to make trade shows even more effective.
 

     The Pre-show mailer: A letter is fine, so is a post card.  Mail two weeks before the first day of the show, to arrive in your prospects' hands a week before the show.  Mail first class.  Don't use a label, they look cheap.  Always have.  And you know that cheap suit you bought a few years ago and said - maybe no one will notice?  They do.  It looks cheap, too.  Get a new one.

     About your pre-show mailer - don't worry, they'll read it.  At a week before the show, attendees are committed to going - and it's probably costing their firm a few thousand dollars to get them there and put up with them, er... put them up.  So, at this point they'll read anything that's show related.  It won't be until the third day of walking the show floor that they'll be sick of the show, the products - yes even your's, the rubber chicken lunches or the $9 dollar hot dogs they find at the convention center, and they'll be truly disinterested in any mail you send them.

     Mail to a list of attendees, less exhibitors.  If unavailable, mail to attendees and exhibitors.  Still no dice?  Mail to last year's attendees. Still no luck attaining the list?  You're not really going to a trade show, are you?  You just told your boss that, didn't you? Quit going to those cheap x rated shows during working hours... you can get that stuff online. Call me for the best URLs.

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