Expo holders really need to tread a fine line.
On the one hand they want to attract service/product providers to buy stall space.
So the offer to the potential stall holder has to be good:
- good space
- great Expo promotion
- tons of potential customers coming to the Expo
And the Expo holder has to attract people interested in the services of the stall holders.
Pre-Register For Free Entry
Part of that might include something like pre-register for free entry.
Then the Expo holder can say to potential stall holders – “Look, we have 200 people pre-registered. You can get in front of these potential customers for just $200 by taking a stall.”
The other way the Expo holder can provide added value is by providing the stall holder with the contact details of those who pre-register.
But here it gets tricky.
Getting Inundated With Calls
You see, I’ve just had a friend in my office who is getting married. So she pre-registered for a Bridal Expo.
Whilst she can’t remember giving permission to be contacted by stall holders for this upcoming Expo, she has been inundated with calls and emails.
(She did give permission, I just checked. The fine print says “Disclaimer: Please note that by completing this form you give permission for your details to be passed onto advertisers on this site.”)
But even if she did, I’m not sure it’s such great marketing to hammer her with offer after offer after offer after offer.
Permission Marketing – But It’s Too Much
I guess it’s permission marketing to a perfectly qualified target, but it’s the deluge of calls and emails that make it intrusive.
- Permission marketing is great.
- Marketing to a perfectly qualified target is great.
- Having your marketing message welcomed is an important part of the strategy too, however.
Cheers
So i guess interruption marketing still wins since company’s pay for the space and ads and when users see it, kabooM! there a potential customer on the way. I guess it better to spend on your current client since most might make more from the current client since getting a new client for some business might be more expensive.
Cheers … great post .. i read it every day 🙂
Indeed the fact you _have_ permission is often not enough from a business standpoint.
It’s like the email ‘Can Spam’ rule that is the law in the US and thus a defacto standard ’round te world. Our. IMO, not so brigt US lawmakers made most every spam you currently receive ‘legal’ … as long as the email has an address for the sender and a link or explantion as to how to get off the list, any name they find is legally ‘on’ the list. May be legal, but it sure turns alot of people off.
Many Internet Marketers of late have been making ‘mistakes’ while sending out mail, resulting in numerous, ‘oh so sorry, I made a mistake’ emails, just like the same one I just got from Tom and his friend Dick and that fellow Harry. So transparent. If you want to sell, don’t do it!
The nightmare comes then from trying to unsubscribe from the solicitation emails as I’m sure she’s now listed in all those email databases.
I wonder if they also captured her wedding date? Then they might stop sending the stuff after that date. Of course the closer the date gets, the more mail she might get. I’m thinking the volume going up to the date might look like a bell curve.
Treating Expo pre-registerees (?) as real people is very important. Now she goes and tells her friends all the junk mail she is getting due to the Expo. Word-of-mouth marketing rules the world.