Using Creativity to Maximize Your Trade Show ROI

Those of us who work in or with corporate marcom departments know that the first six months of each year are trade show season. Whether it be Mobile World Congress, CeBIT, InfoSecurity or any other of the dozens "must exhibit" events, companies will spend huge amounts of energy and budget on these important industry showcases. Naturally, if you’re going to allocate the resources, you will definitely want to maximize your ROI in terms of sales leads and PR exposure.

Without discounting the role of the marcom writer in this effort (this is a copywriting blog after all), the writer’s contribution here is marginal when it comes to the actual success or failure of the show. Concept and design are the keys to success – your booth has got to stand out from the hundreds of others. Unless you're a Microsoft, budget limitations mean you can't be bigger or louder than the giants, so you've got to be smarter and more creative.

Here's a great example from an Internet security company I worked for a number of years ago. We sold security appliances and our standard modus operandi for major trade shows was to set up a booth with a few demo stations (each one demoing a different appliance), a plasma screen with the latest product video, and an attractive back wall with images of our appliances and posters listing the benefits for our enterprise and SMB customers. Naturally, we also had stands bursting at the seams with our latest collaterals.

While this was all done very professionally, in terms of concept it was no different from our competitors who had much larger budgets – i.e., they had larger booths, more advantageous hall locations, and better giveaways. Suffice it to say we never really came away with the traffic, leads and PR value that we had hoped for.

Then, one year we decided to be different. Instead of the product-oriented, "hard sell" approach, we turned our booth into an "Internet threats museum" which provided a graphic timeline, examples and descriptions of the different types of security threats discovered in the 12 months since the last trade show. Demo stations showing how the various threats actually work were manned by our security researchers, rather than salespersons. At the end of the "tour" each visitor received a white paper with in-depth explanations of the year's major security trends, rather than a product brochure. The feedback we received was tremendous, with customers and prospects applauding us for actually providing them with educational value, and then asking us (drum roll, please) how we solve these types of challenges.

So, when you start thinking about your next big trade show, don't be afraid to be different. Give your potential customers an experience they will remember and value. They will reward you with results.

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Marketing vs. Technical Writing - Vive la Différence

During my 15 years working as an in-house marketing writer at four leading Israel-based technology companies, one of my pet peeves was being mistakenly referred to (despite my persistent corrections) as the “technical writer.” Don't get me wrong - I have the utmost respect for technical writers, who perform a very difficult and often thankless task (Confession #1: I started my professional writing career in the early 1990s as a technical writer at Amdocs).

The fact that most technical and marketing writers (aka marcom writer, copywriter) in Israel are immigrants from English-speaking countries and speak Hebrew with a funny accent makes it easy to group us together. However, what really bothered me all those years about being pigeonholed by the techies as a "tech writer" (even though the guy who wrote the user manuals sat right down the hall) was the underlying lack of knowledge as to the fundamental differences between technical writing and marketing writing. (Confession #2: I had the good fortune of working for companies with Marketing VPs that fully appreciated the distinction and need for both).

So let's straighten this out once and for all. Two key distinguishing factors between the disciplines of technical writing and marketing writing are their deliverables and the audience for which these deliverables are produced. Not surprisingly, technical writers produce technical documentation. This includes, but is not limited to, user manuals, maintenance and installation guides, API guides, release notes, technical training materials, and the like. The range of technical documentation varies depending on each company's product offering and organizational requirements. What is common to all of these materials is that they are provided to customers together with the actual product. In other words, they are part of the post-sale deliverables (together with training, support and the like).

Marketing, in general, and marketing writing, in particular, is a pre-sales activity. The materials created by the marketing writer include web content, white papers, brochures, case studies, ads, multimedia presentations and more. These deliverables serve as sales tools for use by the sales force in the field. In my view, an in-house marketing writer should always try to view the sales team as the "client," while the deliverables are the client’s ammunition on the battlefield. As part of the pre-sales process, the ultimate objective of a white paper or brochure (not to mention an advertisement) is to raise market awareness concerning a business need, generate interest in the company's solution and drive prospects to contact sales.

Marketing writing and technical writing are two separate disciplines, each requiring a specific set of skills, tools and knowledge. While the deliverables of each are usually cooked in the same language, the flavor is totally different. (Last aside: Reminds me of the allusion to the Americans and British as "two peoples separated by a common language").

So the next time you run into that English speaker in the company kitchen, show her that you understand the difference.

Thanks for Visiting

Welcome to my brand new blog.

After 15 years as an in-house marketing writer at several leading Israeli software and technology companies, I have “taken the plunge” and joined the ranks of the freelance writing community.

This blog is intended for marketers and writers that are interested in copywriting. My aim is to share my experience, provide an occasional insight and spur discussion among professional colleagues regarding some of the thornier issues that a copywriter deals with on a daily basis. If you have friends or colleagues who might also be interested in the world of copywriting, please spread the word. Naturally, comments and feedback are always more than welcome.

In upcoming posts, I will discuss some of the ways companies can leverage messaging platforms to create effective content that achieves measurable business results.