Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Excerpts from "Video For Trade Shows"

If you manage any aspect of your company’s trade show presence, you need to consider VIDEO. When you think about online marketing, VIDEO is typically one of the first things that comes to mind…along with SEO and Social Media.  Why should that disappear when you move to Trade Show Marketing? SEO translates to booth visitors and Social Media translates to your booth experience. VIDEO translates to….well….VIDEO. While the exact content may change – the idea remains the same.

This blog post takes excerpts from our white paper titled Video For Trade Shows (creative, huh?). If you'd like to read the full paper, please visit http://www.evideoproductions.net/tradeshows.html and fill out our request form. 

Video is intended to attract attention, hold a viewer’s attention, increase message retention, and ultimately lead to a sale. Let’s take a look at each of those independently.

MAKING VIDEO WORK FOR YOU

First – a video must attract attention.  

Put up a shocking image or unreasonable statistics and, yes, you will attract attention. However, throughout marketing, you need to determine the type of attention you want. For some, playing dirty gets the job done. But for most of us that is not true. So you need to determine the type of attention you’d like to attract. Your first step is to determine your desired demographic at that specific show. If you do multiple shows a year, you may have multiple needs. 

The second thing you need to consider when producing Trade Show Videos is holding the viewer’s attention.  What will keep this demographic at your booth longer? In web design, this is called “stickiness” – what keeps a potential client on your website long enough for you to provide enough information to convert them into a sale. Your booth needs to be sticky too…and not just from the coffee you spilled earlier in the morning.

How can you get a busy executive to stop at your booth long enough to watch your whole video and get your entire message? Well, if the video is not aimed at their demographic, they probably won’t stop. So I’ll refer back to the first step in this article.  But if they do stop and start watching your video, it needs to meet 5 criteria:

1.     Graphic Oriented
2.     Short & to the point
3.     Music attracts & doesn’t distract
4.     Branded
5.     Appropriate

For more detailed information on these five items, please visit our website & request the full white paper: http://www.evideoproductions.net/tradeshows.html

Now, let’s focus on increasing message retention. What does that mean? It means making sure YOUR product or service is remembered. You know that feeling when you go to a great trade show – you leave with an arm-load of bags filled to the gills with amazing information that will change your life! Then you get back to the office and start to go through it all and realize you have no idea why you ever thought any of it was of use to you in the first place. Has this ever happened to you as an attendee? Well, consider the fact that this most likely happens to each and every person that you meet at your booth. So how can you beat the odds and stand out in their mind? How about reaching more places in their mind? Trade shows are always a sensory overload experience. Close your eyes. Picture your last trade show. What do you see? A myriad of colors & textures, I’m assuming. What do you hear?  Most definitely a cacophony of sounds, similar to those on a casino gaming floor (minus the jackpots, unfortunately). What do you smell? Is there a popcorn machine? Cake display? Chocolate fountain? Smelly cheese? Depending on the type of trade show, there may be gimmicky food give-a-ways or full delectable displays competing for attention! Regardless, I’m sure there are enough smells to push even the least sensitive schnoz to its limits. What can you  touch? What can you feel? What emotions are being tugged at? Is there humor? Is there a booth that makes you sad? Each of these are points of remembrance. They are ways that booth managers are trying to stand out and ensure that attendees remember them.

MAKING THE SALE

Ok, so far we’ve attracted attention, held the viewer’s attention and increased message retention. Now, let’s get to that sale! After all, that’s why you’re reading this, right?

A video doesn’t automatically take the viewer to the point of sale, at least not at a trade show. However, a video motivates the viewer to get more information. A video helps a viewer determine if your product or service is right for them. If done correctly, every person that comes to talk to you after watching your video SHOULD convert to a sale. They are a highly qualified lead. Now, there are some factors that may deter a purchase…a price point that is not expected (from either a video that over values or under values your expertise or just an uninformed or novice purchaser), the attendee NOT being the ultimate decision maker, or a weak sales pitch and follow up on your part.

I am not an expert on closing the sale. There are many other experts out there that would be happy to give you amazing tips on how to convert that interested attendee into a solid sale. However, I do know that it is EXTREMELY important to have a solid plan for talking to someone after they’ve watched your video. It is not good enough to put a video on in the background and assume that they’ve seen it and gotten all they need to know out of it. You need to have a very different approach for someone who just walked up to your booth and has not seen the video and someone that spent the 30-90 seconds to watch your entire video. The better you plan for these scenarios, the better the booth experience will be for the attendee. Your follow up plans should also include a re-showing of the video – either through an online link or a hand-out DVD or flash drive that they can take with them and watch again at their leisure.

The key takeaway I want you to have from all of this information is to make sure your video becomes a cohesive part of your overall marketing campaign and booth branding. The more effort and thought you put into your video, the more likely it will meld into your marketing mix to create a positive effect and increase your ROI. Video is a powerful medium, but can also be dangerous if not done correctly. Take the time to research and determine how to best use video for your next trade show booth.  

If you are interested in having us speak at your next event on Using Video in Trade Show Marketing, please contact Darcie (732) 349-4762. 


Copyright 2014
E Video Productions, LLC

(877) 384-3365

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