When you think of “traditional” marketing, you probably think of television commercials, newspaper ads, billboards, etc. Trade shows are generally lumped in that category as well. And traditional marketing is dead, right? Content is king! Digital marketing reigns supreme! For the most part, I would agree with that sentiment. Content and digital marketing are trackable, measurable and less expensive. And we are living in a digital world.
With all of that being said – we still do trade shows. We do ‘em, and we love ‘em. Yes, they are a very large expense and you cannot get the level of data you can with digital marketing.
But – we love them because in this hyper-digital world it gives us the opportunity to connect with people face to face. We love people. We love spreading joy and building relationships. I go more in-depth about this here, but the gist is – People. Connections. Real Conversations. Through those connections, we grow and strengthen our brand presence in the digital commerce ecosystem.
We also love them because, for us, they generate more leads than any other source. Tradeshows put us in front of a captive audience that is already within the scope of a specified industry. While you can directly target potential customers with digital marketing, an ad only says WHAT we do, not who we are. And if you do try to say who you are in an ad, it is very difficult not to come off as pretentious or cliche. A lot of companies do what we do, but only we do things the Classy way. As our name suggests, we are a unique company and we can convey that much more easily in person.
In addition, trade shows give us the opportunity to network with our peers. If you take the opportunity to talk to people who are doing what you’re doing, you can learn so much as well as build valuable partnerships.
As the world continues to move more and more online, we like to have our foot in both the digital and physical world. We’ll help get your business online, but we want to do it as face-to-face as we can. As we make our plans for 2017, we are actively adding more and more conferences and trade shows. So keep watching our website and social media for where you can find us, and score some sweet swag (for you and your kids).