The Marketing Maven: Industrial Marketing Blog & B2B Marketing Tips

Tradeshows: Should I Stay or Should I Go?

By:  Chris Chariton
Every year, the same story is repeated at many manufacturing and industrial companies. I've experienced it many times myself. You spend three or four days at a tradeshow, complaining about light traffic, standing around with nothing to do, and having very few conversations that seem as though they might really go somewhere. You swear, and so does other key management, that you should really re-evaluate whether or not to attend next year. But six to eight months later you find yourself sending in a booth deposit, starting the same cycle all over again.

Why does this happen?

Search Engine Friendly Web Sites

With engineers and other technical professionals regularly using the Web to search for components and suppliers, you need a Web site that shows up well on search engines. In an ideal world, optimizing your Web site for search engines is a task that begins in the planning stages of building your site.

That sounds fine, but who has the luxury of working in the ideal world? Your company already has a Web site, but you don't have the budget or time in 2007 to tear down your entire site and start from scratch. However, that doesn't mean you can't make your existing site more search engine friendly.

E-mail Communications to Retain Your Customers

Every company spends a lot of money to acquire new customers, so investing a bit more to keep them is well worth the price. It's widely acknowledged that the cost of acquiring a new customer can be upwards of five times greater than the cost of retaining an existing one. That means marketing tactics aimed at customer retention should be a priority.

One smart, effective, and efficient customer retention tactic is an integrated e-mail communications program.