With the summer only just upon us, Medinireland in October seems a long time away and for many of you, not yet a priority – but it should be. To really maximise your participation at this year’s event, now is the time to start planning to prepare for what has become, a great opportunity that only comes round every two years.
Medinireland is Ireland’s most prominent tradeshow for Irish indigenous companies in the medical device sector. It is widely acclaimed for its continuing success and creates ample opportunities for your company to generate targeted quality leads, develop relationships with overseas companies, and expand your exports – a sector that generates €7.2bn for Ireland every year.
Many of you already work with some of the top 11 multinationals in Ireland, so you have the experience and confidence to compete internationally and expand your customer base.
Your participation at Medinireland should reflect your business goals. Ultimately, you want to generate sales but take a step back and ask yourself how you are going to do that.
Rather than identifying a single goal of generating sales, set realistic goals that will position you to increase your sales. It’s an industry where business is much slower due to regulatory concerns so perhaps there are more achievable goals such as;
• A new product you want to tell the visitors about?
• Find a relevant contact in a customer site?
• Develop your relationship with a potential customer or customer?
• Tangiblise your service and capabilities during a site visit?
Whatever your goals are, identify them and align your tradeshow strategy to achieve these goals. Don’t just rely on a single meeting or stand in the exhibition to achieve this, incorporate your complete marketing strategy to ensure your prospect has many opportunities to meet or engage with you again and again.
The Checklist
Once your goals are set, you need to start planning. Review our checklist and ask yourself are you ready for Medinireland? You’ve just over 3 months to get organised so align your plan today to really maximise your potential at the event.
Is Your Website Up To Date?
• Does it reflect what you do?
• Is it easy to find information?
• Does it need to be updated?
• Is there call to actions to encourage interaction?
• Do you need a page specifically for Medinireland?
Review your website now. It is the first point of reference your prospect will go to before and after the event especially if you have call to actions (mentioned below) which lead them there in the first place.
Have You Looked At Your Smart Phone Today? So Has Your Customer!
In 2013, smart phone sales are predicted to hit 1 billion units. In fact 49% of adults owned a smart phone in 2012. Now is the time to create online opportunities as it’s an area that is expanding every day. Are you up to speed on how to engage in social media tools? Do you have a Linked page or Twitter page? Have you built up a followership? Prior to the event, engage in social media and start promoting via LinkedIn and Twitter before and during the show. Use your #hashtags (#medinireland) and keep visitors up to date on your company. You could create a competition or campaign to get people talking and following you.
Is Your Booth Unique?
At Medinireland you are limited with your stand – each of you will have a pop up display, plasma screen and brochure stand – the same as what you normally do. Stands can be expensive so if you can’t invest in new attractive graphics try and aim to be unique in other ways. Instead of wearing a suit, why not wear company shirts to make you stand out in force – even one step better, why not put a visible call to action on it – Visit our website www.imsmarketing.ie ! Follow us on Twitter to win an iPAD! Give people an excuse to talk about you… get creative and target your campaign specifically for Medinireland. Have a quirky poster with some unknown facts about Ireland. Create a ‘charge your phone’ depot – people are always running out of battery…. Think outside of the box and aim to be the stand that stands out this year.
What Is Your Call To Action?
Brochure and business cards are the very basics but what else can you do to ensure your prospect looks you up after the event? I’m sure you often have great conversations with people at a show only to find nothing materialises after. You need to have good call to actions ready in advance to ensure your prospect will follow up with you. Have your call to actions clearly displayed – on your booth, on your flyer, in your social media and during one to one conversations.
Suggestions include:
• Visit the Medinireland Group on Linkedin
• Follow Medinireland on Twitter page
• Insert this code on our website to receive a Free USB
• Follow us on Linked in for regular updates
• Visit our Website www.imsmarketing.ie to download our latest article on ‘How to drive leads at your next tradeshow’
• Sign up for our next webinar on ‘Google Analytics’
• Subscribe to our newsletter for informative articles on industry based topics
• Register for our next seminar
Learn From 2011!
Get your team together and discuss Medinireland 2011.
• What worked well? What didn’t?
• Were there missed opportunities? Why?
• What leads did you get?
• Did they materialise? Why/why not?
Don’t make the same mistakes. Get together now and brainstorm how you can make this a better year for your company at Medinireland.
Have You Done Your Homework?
Now that your requests have being submitted, make sure and take the time to find out everything about the company. Identify the opportunities you could get from the meeting. Find out if you have dealt with them before. Collate all your information and use it to develop a custom presentation for that prospect to show on your ipad or using a hand-out during the meeting. It will help you stand out from everyone else who uses the same material for every meeting. Closer to the event when EI release the entire list of visitors, study this carefully and see are there more opportunities that may arise during the event. Again, do your homework to see have you worked or met them before and arrange to meet them during the meetings or networking event.
Is Your Facility Ready for a Site Tour?
Ask yourself what are the key messages you want your customer to feel after a tour of your facility. Then walk through your site today and see are you delivering on those messages. A site tour is a fantastic opportunity to really help your prospect or customer understand what you do and the real extent of your capability. If you can, I strongly recommend you bring your visitors to your site as it a great way to leave a lasting impression. But first, your tour must be professional. If you are facilitating tours it will be a busy week so prepare a tour document from A-Z to ensure your entire team are able to do a tour – even if it’s not their specialty. Have product samples prepared to complement your tour and do dry runs in advance to ensure everyone is fully prepared for informative and timely tours. Identify opportunities where you can brand your key messages using signs and banners and maybe finish with a presentation on your company and the value you can bring to your customer.
What’s your Follow up Strategy?
You’ve met some great contacts. You’ve delivered your key messages clearly. You’ve impressed them with your facility. You’re in prime position for more business so don’t fall over the follow up hurdle. Before Medinireland have your follow up strategy ready. Again, can you be unique? Send a gift to remind them of their trip to Ireland. Ensure your follow up is prompt and deliver on the call to actions you promoted at the conference. Get the newsletter out, set up the webinar – anything that will engage your prospect again and again in the future.