Let’s Call an Audible:
Tradeshows – Follow-up – SPAM – Wasted Time and Money
I’ve been to my fair share of tradeshows and this fall went to a smaller, very focused event as an attendee only. I bet you already know where this Audible is going.
This most recent event reminds me how limited marketing teams are in resources and time and continue to fall into the trap of just executing something, rather than executing the right thing. This was a small event, a few hundred attendees and a couple dozen suppliers at table top / back drop displays. I wandered through the room with the suppliers as we had breaks and meals, but was never scanned and never handed out a business card to a supplier.
Then the onslaught began the week I arrived home with generic emails cluttering up my inbox. Unfortunately, I used my real email address when I registered, not expecting the full contact information of the attendee list to be distributed. Now I’m left with opening each of these emails so that I can UNSUBSCRIBE immediately, what a nuisance and time waster for me now.
This was a small enough event that a savvy marketer could have sorted and scanned the list in a spreadsheet, eliminated non-prospects (like me an independent consultant) and could have tailored their messages to those they scanned, received cards from or had conversations with rather than the generic, “thank you for stopping by our booth and talking with us”. Your welcome, but I did not stop by your booth or have a conversation with you.
The final observation is that the emails indicate the suppliers whose marketers are measured on leads and not on revenue indicating a mis-alignment of sales and marketing. The irony was that the conference sessions were all about targeted, personalized, customer outcomes and value based selling. DOH!
Targeting and Personalization OR Generic SPAM
I go with taking the time to not miss a high quality opportunity with targeted and personalized messaging everytime. Marketing budgets and resources are constrained, time to end the SPAM and make better investments.
What do you think? Tell me about a supplier who gets this right!
Share your comments below or connect with me!
Photo credits: Pixabay, Burning Money, Intellectual, (CC0)
