Let’s be real. Most of the trade shows that went digital this year are going to suck (thanks again, COVID-19).

But if you can think “outside the booth” there’s actually potential to scoop up a TON of leads at fire-sale prices.

I recently did a deep-dive into the 2020 National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) Trade Show. NECA is our company’s “Super Bowl”. An event that the entire electrical construction industry revolves around. Every industry has one like it.

This year, NECA decided to go “digital” using the vFairs events platform. And they expect a record turnout this year. 10,220 people showed up to NECA 2018. So if major conventions like the Adobe Summit are seeing triple the attendance of years prior, NECA could see over 30,000 people in 2020!

Not only will there be more attendees; this year will see a greater variety of contractors.

Here’s what the 2020 NECA Exhibitor Prospectus advertises:

Deeper audience reach (positions within the firm). Before, firms would only send a few people – usually the president and a V.P. Now, ANY employee – from apprentice to project manager – can attend the show. In fact, they can be at the show while pushing papers at a desk…or eating lunch on the job site.

Wider audience reach (no borders). Basic admission is free, and there’s no hotels to book or plane tickets to buy. The flood gates are wide open to union electricians all across the country (and I’ll bet we’ll see higher numbers of merit shop contractors too).

So, yes, exhibitors miss out on the in-person meetings. We miss out on brand-building and product launches. But there is huge potential to siphon twice or triple the amount of attendee data in the virtual world.

Once you scoop up those contacts, you can market to them how and when you want. Build those important relationships and schedule meetings on the “back-end”.

In olden days, exhibitors spent most of their time and budget on big, flashy booths and displays. The idea was to drive attendees like flies to a spider’s web.

NECA (and other trade show organizers) are going to sell to exhibitors as-if all the old rules apply.

• Upgrade to a larger digital booth, where you’ll have more customization.
• Turn heads with “ticker tapes” and big signs above your virtual booth.
• Buy into gamification incentives, so attendees have to visit your booth for a “prize token”.
• Buy commercial spots that play between the educational sessions and keynote speeches. Sponsor a virtual lunch hour. Get your logo on mailed swag boxes. Buy a rotating ad in exhibit hall.

But in this new virtual setting, are attendees really going to walk aimlessly through a 3D exhibit hall?

And even if you throw the party-of-the-century from your booth…how much marketing effort is it going to take to drive enough traffic there?

My theory is that virtual trade show attendees are going to be laser-focused.

In the case of NECA, I expect a lot of contractors will register for the educational sessions only. There’s a burning need for training in this industry, and never enough of it.

Attendees that actually intend to visit exhibitor booths will be laser-focused as well. They’ll study the exhibit floor plan first, then make a bee-line to the brands they want to visit. If there’s a more direct route than “walking” the virtual trade floor, they’ll use it for sure.

Exploit EVERY Opportunity to Livestream Outside Your Booth!

Find any opportunity to livestream outside of your booth. Why? Because exhibitors can scoop up attendee data from anyone who joins these broadcasts – even if attendees bounce 10 seconds later!

For instance, NECA offers 30-minute Trade Show Education sessions ($5,000 each) and 5-minute Product Demos ($500 each). Last I checked, there were still dozens of empty slots available. Exhibitors seem to be overlooking these lead-generating opportunities.

Best of all, the education sessions get listed in the official schedule posted on the NECA Convention web page, email blasts, and mobile app!

That’s really all the marketing you need (native advertising baby!).

If your education session has a tantalizing title…on a subject that is in high demand…you’re sure to get a good turnout. Any extra marketing you do is gravy on the potatoes.

Take that $15,000 ear-marked for hotels, airfare, displays, and drayage fees. Put it into lead-getting webinars you can host outside the booth. The more the better.

How to Attract Hundreds of New Leads with Out-of-Booth Webinars

So, how do you find an educational subject that attracts an audience? Study the schedules from previous years. See what topics and keywords keep popping up. For NECA “Safety” and “Code” training is always an evergreen topic.

And don’t forget to ask exhibitor salespeople for advice. One helpful sales gal informed me that panel-style educational sessions are the way to go. They are more engaging than a single-person presentations, and give your webinar a veneer of credibility.

Think about it. How hard would it be to put your top four company subject matter experts (SME) on a recorded Zoom call, and keep them talking for thirty minutes?

If you choose to host an educational livestream, make sure it has informative content. In other words, it can’t be a long commercial with only thin educational value. Do the selling later, on your own platform, once you have the leads.

Final Tips for Virtual Events

So am I arguing that you don’t put any money or creativity into your trade show booth? No, and in fact small brands can go whole-hog if they want to. This year’s top-tier Platinum booth package is $7,000 cheaper than a 20’ x 20’ booth from 2019 (not including hotels and airfare). You should still provide a rich experience for attendees inside your exhibit.

With that rich experience in mind, select your booth package based on the marketing collateral you want visitors to find inside. By collateral I mean videos, catalogs, case studies, pre-recorded webinars, etc.

For instance, if you only had 3 videos, then the $6,300 Platinum package is all you need.

Lots of videos: go with the $8,800 Diamond package.

Could you get away with a Basic $3,800 booth package, and just post a link to your website?

You could, but it’s unlikely visitors will want to bother navigating away from the tradeshow experience.

A few more things to consider for your event virtualization strategy:

• Ask about “match-making” programs. At NECA, exhibitors who get Gold package ($6,360) or above are eligible for matchmaking. When attendees register, they check boxes for products / areas they’re interested in. If those boxes correlate to boxes that exhibitor’s check in their profile, IT’S A MATCH! That exhibitor can now “see” the attendees’ data and reach out for meetings. So even if the attendee never visits your in-booth / out-of-booth webinars, you still get that contact data!
• Don’t put your booth or webinar on auto-pilot. Try to have at least two people. The first one should be a tech-savvy moderator from the IT or marketing team. In the case of webinars, the moderator can keep attendees engaged in the chatroom, using audience polls (“where is everyone from?”) and feeding prepared questions to the presenter. The second person should be an SME or salesperson who can talk in-depth about the products, as well as present webinars.
• Send out “spies”. In the case of NECA, there’s a virtual Lounge Area and other places where attendees can mingle away from exhibitor soap boxes. But what if you sent a few sales people…disguised regular attendees? Join conversations. Mention that “insightful webinar happening in booth X”. Controversial tactic, I know 😉
• Consider hosting small “breakout rooms”. Each breakout session (limited to 5-6 people max) should focus on a very specific topic. Neil Patel and Eric Siu reported breakout meetings were incredibly popular at their recent Marketing School Live events. It allowed attendees to share ideas, meet new people and encouraged bonding and participation in a way that larger webinars could not.
• Take advantage of the “chaos”. Most trade show organizers this year are scrambling to go digital. For instance, NECA, still hasn’t finalized what the different booth packages will look like, and the show is less than 2 months away. You can bet the organizers and platform vendors are in a panic. Beta-testing new features as well as offering new ways to advertise. Keep in touch with your event sales staff — you might be one of the first to discover a marketing breakthrough.
• Don’t think of it as a trade show. Instead, try to re-frame virtual events as a digital marketing channel – like Facebook, banner ads, or Google ad network. A market place where (if you put a strong enough offer) you can convert traffic into leads. Let go of the old event marketing paradigm – its a completely different entity!
• But…remember what makes trade shows special. Attendees come to these shows to learn about next year’s innovation; interact with peers; forge new relationships; re-connect with their industry; build their business; get inspired; and a whole host of other reasons. In every aspect of your virtual trade show strategy, ask “How can I infuse some of that secret sauce here?”

I’d love to hear the perspective of other event marketers. What other lead-producing opportunities did I miss? Am I completely missing the mark here? Do I have my head up my @$$ and why?

P.S. Once the NECA Trade Show has ended, I’ll try to report back my findings. How much I got wrong. How much I got right. And if our influx of contacts was noticeably greater than in previous years.