Printing Impressions

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President, Print Oasis Print Buyers Conference

Connecting with Print Buyers

By Suzanne Morgan

About Suzanne

Suzanne Morgan is president of the annual Print Oasis Print Buyers Conference (www.printoasis.com) and Print Buyers Online.com, a free educational e-community for print buyers and their print suppliers (www.printbuyersonline.com). PBO has more than 11,000 members who buy $13 billion a year in printing. PBO conducts weekly research on buying trends and teaches organizations how to work more effectively with their print suppliers.

 

Exhibit Fairs: Capturing New Clients

By Suzanne Morgan | Posted on February 22, 2008
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I have just returned from hosting our annual Print Oasis Print Buyers Conference at Amelia Island Plantation in Florida. One of the most popular events was our Exhibit Hall, which featured more than 60 major printing companies and print suppliers. I took note of which booths seemed to be the most popular:

Hit the Ground Running: Before the conference, we provided an attendee mailing list to the exhibitors who requested it. The most successful exhibitors sent out a pre-show promotion inviting attendees to stop by their booth. This definitely increased brand recognition for those who took the time to design a thoughtful and dynamic promotion.

Offer Cool Tools: Concord Litho advertised its free Valentine’s Day Survival Kit on www.PrintBuyersOnline.com a couple of weeks before the conference. To increase the effectiveness of this campaign, kits were also given away at their booth, which were extremely popular. The included wrapping paper created even more good will for Concord Litho when people used it for their Valentine’s Day gifts after the conference.

Get Out of your Seat: Not surprisingly, the sales reps that approached people and greeted them made more connections than those who just stayed in their seats. It sounds like a no-brainer, I know, but you would be surprised how many booths I passed where reps were just camped out in the corner.

Content is King: Exhibitors who hosted mini-educational sessions at their booths received far more traffic than those who didn’t. In addition, white papers and other promotional tools are always a huge hit with print buyers.

Now let’s hear from you in the comment section below: if you have exhibited at a conference before, what have you found to be effective in attracting attendees to your booth?

Companies Mentioned:

Industry Centers:
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COMMENTS

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Most Recent Comments:
Larry Joseph - Posted on March 21, 2008
Over a month has passed since the show and we've been diligent following up with the attendees who expressed interest in our products. Most of the people we wanted to meet stopped by the booth. We remain optimistic that great relationships with new clients from the show will develop as time goes on.

Next year, we would plan to do some advance "teaser" mailings to attendees to make them more aware of our unique product offerings in custom binders and packaging. We would probably come up with some additional incentive to stop by the booth. This year, it was a last minute decision to participate so we didn't have time to plan.
Click here to view archived comments...
Archived Comments:
Larry Joseph - Posted on March 21, 2008
Over a month has passed since the show and we've been diligent following up with the attendees who expressed interest in our products. Most of the people we wanted to meet stopped by the booth. We remain optimistic that great relationships with new clients from the show will develop as time goes on.

Next year, we would plan to do some advance "teaser" mailings to attendees to make them more aware of our unique product offerings in custom binders and packaging. We would probably come up with some additional incentive to stop by the booth. This year, it was a last minute decision to participate so we didn't have time to plan.