6 min read (part 2 of 4) 

With the welcome return of live exhibitions, and with one of the engineering industry’s most important exhibitions (Southern Manufacturing & Electronics 2022) just 3 months away, now seems a perfect opportunity to look at what you might need to consider when planning for an exhibition.

Over the course of the next four weeks, we’re going to look at the 4 key ingredients to a successful trade show:

• Design and Build of your stand

• Video and Photography for your stand

• Communication to your audience before, during and after the show

• Tangible items for your stand that will make you memorable

2 of 4

Video and Photography for your Stand

In our previous blog we discussed the design and build of your exhibition stand. A huge part of the design process needs to be what impression the stand will create with visitors, and your multi-media plays a significant role in this.

Multi-media is a generic term but for this purpose, we mean the videos, animations and photographs you have either running on monitors or across your graphics/banners.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Working on the philosophy that you need to get visitors to stop at your stand, your photographs and images can literally make the difference. If you are using older images that no longer reflect your business or products, or you have photographs that you understand but no-one else will, then you are missing an opportunity. It is important to remember that your images on a graphic panel are not going to make you a sale – but if you can persuade people to pause at your stand long enough for you to engage in conversation, then your images are working for you.

At a focussed trade show such as Southern Manufacturing & Electronics, the audience is going to be visitors with a certain level of knowledge. Many of them will probably know what they are looking for, with a minority looking for inspiration. Your images therefore need to reflect this. If you make widgets that perform a certain role, images of the widgets being manufactured isn’t going to be enough – you need to be including images of the end product so visitors can make the connection. Think about what makes your company special, and different from the competition, and include images and photographs that communicate that message.

VIDEO

The power of video is well known – we all understand that moving images are so much more likely to attract attention, and that visitors at a trade show will almost always stop and watch a video for a few seconds. The key therefore is how can you encourage them to stay a few seconds longer and then enquire further.

The style of video is an important consideration when you are planning your stand. Using your traditional corporate video can be suitable, however if that contains a lot of voice-over or pieces-to-camera then that is not ideal. That type of video is designed for a website or a sales presentation when sound is not an issue. At trade shows however the majority of screens will either be muted or turned down and therefore lengthy shots of your MD extolling the virtues of your company are pointless.

One option you have is to produce an exhibition-friendly version of your corporate video. Consider re-editing using graphics more extensively and removing the pieces-to-camera. Alternatively produce a shorter and punchier video of your products and services, ideally around 1-2 minutes, using a soundtrack and graphics to tell the story, allowing your video to run on a loop for the duration of the show without the need for someone to explain what the viewer is seeing.

If video footage is difficult to arrange, as an alternative why not consider animating your corporate presentation, so that it runs by itself and again requires little interpretation. With packages such as PowerPoint offering more and more sophisticated animation, there really is no excuse to have a static presentation on a screen.

ANIMATIONS

Animation can also be used to illustrate complex products or processes. If you produce a particular piece of equipment that is difficult to depict on video or with still images, why not consider developing a 3D animation showing the different elements coming together to form the finished product, to demonstrate your expertise and unique capability. All that is required are the CAD drawings for the design and some photos of the finished product.

Interactivity on exhibition stands is always well received, as visitors have the opportunity to touch and feel products. Using a 3D facility, with technologies such as 360degree photography, can allow you to transport visitors into your factory to get a first-hand view of what you produce. Such technology is increasingly more available and cheaper than you might think and is guaranteed to give you that wow factor with your exhibition stand.

Finally, you need to consider how you will display your multi-media on your stand. Space will often dictate this – after all it is not practical to use a 60” screen on a 2m x 2m shell-scheme stand. Using a stand-alone screen, perhaps at the front of your stand, can be a good way to draw attention to your video/presentation but bear in mind it doesn’t want to block access to your visitor, so be wary of making it too high. Alternatively, you can incorporate a screen into your graphics at the back of your stand, which still act as an attraction to visitors as they walk past but is less intrusive.

SUMMARY

The multimedia on your stand can make a huge difference to that all-important first impression. Whether you have a video or animation running, or simply use photography to convey your messages, you need to make sure they achieve their purpose without detracting from the stand. And with any media for your trade stand, bear in mind it takes time to produce it properly – so for the Southern Manufacturing & Electronics Show in February 2022, you need to be planning this now.

In the next blog in this series we will look at how you need to be communicating with your target audience before, during and after your show.

If you’d like to discuss your trade show requirements, particularly in advance of Southern Manufacturing & Electronics 2022, please contact Simon on simon@thecollectivegroup.co.uk or tel: 01202 682322.

4 min read (part 1 of 4) 

With the welcome return of live exhibitions, and with one of the engineering industry’s most important exhibitions (Southern Manufacturing & Electronics 2022) just 3 months away, now seems a perfect opportunity to look at what you might need to consider when planning for an exhibition.

Over the course of the next four weeks, we’re going to look at the 4 key ingredients to a successful trade show:

• Design and Build of your stand

• Video and Photography for your stand

• Communication to your audience before, during and after the show

• Tangible items for your stand that will make you memorable

1 of 4

Design and Build of your Exhibition Stand

The physical attributes of your stand are determined by the space you have booked. If you have chosen a space within a pre-built shell scheme, then you are limited by walls and need to be creative with your graphic panels, pop-up banners and display cabinets.

If you have chosen space only, then the opportunities to create something memorable are really only limited by your budget.

KEY MESSAGES

With all of your graphics, you need to consider your key messages that you want visitors to take away with them. You will only have a very limited time to make a first impression, so you need to make sure your graphics are bold and clear.

Very few visitors will read lists of bullet points on a banner, but an image of your product or an associated image of the industry you operate in is more likely to make them pause long enough for you to approach them and open a discussion.

THE MIND OF YOUR CUSTOMER

Don’t try and present every single product you make, or every service you offer, because you don’t have the time or the space. Put yourself in the minds of your customer and think what would attract you about your business enough to make you stop and look again – then apply that logic to your graphics. Most often your content should be about how you can solve your customer’s problems, or a particular benefit your product or service offers.

SPACE

The other aspect to the design of your stand is space – and how you utilise it. There is a fine balance between having too much ‘stuff’ on your stand making it look cluttered and untidy, and not using the space efficiently. If you have booked a 3mx3m shell scheme space, there will be room for a small table and a couple of chairs, a display cabinet for your product, a storage cabinet at the back of your stand and a stand/bar table for your video screen and that’s about it! By the time you have added 2 or 3 of your staff your space will be full!

Remember the golden rule at Shows is to offer just enough incentive to visitors that they stop to talk to you, so making your stand look like an impregnable fortress just isn’t going to do it.

BRANDING

Branding is a key design factor so you need to make sure you are instantly recognisable through the use of your logo and your company colours. On a shell-scheme stand, there will be limited areas to use your logo (most likely on your graphics and on the front of any cabinets), so take the opportunities you have to ‘logo-up’. With a bespoke stand build, you can have the converse situation of too many areas and an overkill of branding, so don’t get too carried away – sometimes less is more!

BUILDING YOUR STAND

Again, this will depend on the size and complexity of your stand. For a space-only bespoke construction, your stand designer should take on this task with minimal involvement from yourself.

Where you will need to get involved is when it comes to the stand dressing – making sure the final finishing touches are applied that are so important to how the stand looks. We strongly recommend you don’t leave it entirely to your stand designer, and just turn up on the morning of the Show expecting everything to be perfect… That is unless you employ someone to specifically project-manage your stand, in which case their job is to ensure you can do just that!

For a shell-scheme stand, set-up is invariably quicker and will usually involve the application of graphics to the fixed walls, the installation of cabinets and the positioning of TV monitors etc. Graphics applied to walls can be fiddly, as oppose to just using a pop-up style exhibition banner, however the latter take up space that you may not have. Our recommendation – get a 3D render done of your stand at the start of the planning process so you have a visual representation of what the stand will look like, and then, if you can, mock up your stand in your offices a few days before to make sure you know exactly what you are doing on arrival.

SUMMARY

How your stand looks can literally be the difference between success and failure of a trade show, so it is vital you take some time to think about what impression you want to create with visitors. Putting the effort in now can mean you have enough space on the stand to welcome visitors, and the right content to make that all important first impression.

In the next blog in this series we will look at how you can use video and photography to enhance your stand.

If you’d like to discuss your trade show requirements, particularly in advance of Southern Manufacturing & Electronics 2022, please contact Simon on simon@thecollectivegroup.co.uk or tel: 01202 682322.

4 min read – 

It’s a legitimate question to ask, as the way we conduct business and communicate with clients seems to constantly change.

Face to face communication was all the rage 10 years ago, before email marketing became very popular. But what about now in 2021? Should you be spending time and resources on email campaigns? Well – spoiler alert – yes, email marketing is most definitely still worth it.

Let’s look at why by identifying the 5 current most important email marketing trends.

• Automation

• Personalisation

• Video

• Informational emails not selling emails

• Plain text emails

Automation

Automating your emails is a very simple process but it can have a massive effect on utilisation of resources, plus make it much easier to track engagement.

Ideally you should be sending between 1 and 4 emails per month. This is enough to stay on a potential customer’s radar and keep them engaged, but doesn’t barrage them with too many emails and so become a nuisance to them.

Using a simple automation tool such as Mailchimp allows you to schedule emails, and if necessary, adjust your campaign depending upon reader engagement. More sophisticated email automation packages allow you to set up ‘drip campaigns’ where you can organise automatic emails that are triggered by behaviours and actions.

Personalisation

It’s time to get personal! In 2020, according to research by SuperOffice, 89% of B2B emails were sent from a company email address rather than an individual’s address. This needs to change! You need to start building up trust and rapport and this starts with the email address you use.

By personalising your content, you immediately attract the attention of the recipient. Start your personalisation in the Subject line (how about “Simon, did you hear about this new technology?”) and continue it through the content with specific references to the recipient. This can be hard to do with a substantial list, so break the job down into manageable chunks.

Your ultimate personalisation of course can be achieved via a video, recorded specifically for the recipient. You can guarantee the vast majority of people will watch a video at least once when it starts with a direct approach to the recipient, for e.g. “Hi Simon, this video is just for you…”

Video

The buzz word of the last decade! We all know how powerful video can be as part of your marketing mix but incorporating it into your email marketing can really raise your game. With software such as Vidyard, or by using a specialist to edit a video together, you can ensure you tailor your video to your intended audience, tapping into a particular need or business issue.

The type of video you produce can vary according to the key message of the email. Sometimes a simple piece-to-camera is enough, whereas in other cases you may need to film something in your factory, offices or on location. The most important thing to remember is keep it simple and make it relevant.

The statistics on use of video in emails are very persuasive – open rates increased by 19%, click rates by 65% and a reduction in unsubscribe rates of 26%.

Informational emails

We’ve all heard the cry “not another bloody sales email”! You need to avoid this response by including content that informs and educates your audience. Don’t fill your emails with stories of how your company has done this and that, guaranteed to turn your readers off. Instead, you need to consider content that explores problems or issues that are generic and answers the questions that your target audience is asking.

Changing your content this way should increase your click-through and conversion rates and decrease the number of unsubscribes you get.

Plain text emails

Because images can still be a problem! Sending a plain-text email can be a guaranteed way to get your email through to its intended recipient, without it being intercepted by spam filters. Image-filled emails can often come across as too sales-oriented, and email providers often block them from downloading, thus creating an unsightly mess in the inbox.

Plain text emails also offer the benefit of making your audience feel more directly reached out to, especially if supported with personalisation such as their name and job role in the email. They are also perfect for email-reading tools, such as Cortana, which are becoming more and more popular.

Summary

The key trends for email marketing discussed above all point to it being a key tool for your B2B digital marketing strategy.

With an organically grown prospects list, you can target your intended audience with tailored content that appeals directly to them and measures the success or otherwise through genuine feedback.

With a bit of planning, and some creative content, email marketing can offer a B2B company a fabulous return for a limited input.

If you’d like to discuss how you can use email marketing to grow your business, please contact Simon on simon@thecollectivegroup.co.uk or tel: 01202 682322.

3 min read – 

People love video! So why are you not using video in your marketing? Say what you like about statistics, but some of the numbers below portray a pretty comprehensive argument, as to how popular video marketing is and why every business should be using it.

There are many different types of videos you could produce, for example:

• a corporate-style video to give an overview of your business,
• product or service explainer videos to help your customers understand what you do,
• training videos for your internal sales team or your customers,
• social media videos to inform your followers,
• PR videos to let the world know your successes, and so on.

No matter the topic, a video will communicate your message and engage your audience like no other form of communication.

Here are 9 reasons why your B2B company should be using video right now:

1.     The ROI is so much better than many people think:

84% of video marketers say video has helped them generate leads.
94% of video marketers say video has helped increase user understanding of their product or service.
86% of video marketers say video has increased traffic to their website.

2.     The pandemic has overwhelmingly increased the amount of online video people are watching. And whilst face-to-face business will return, the use of video to communicate is here to stay.

 3.     Your audience is so much more accustomed to watching a video on your products and services, and in many cases now prefers to watch something as oppose to reading some text. The modern consumer wants to see your product in action.

 4.     Google loves video… and because video is a more sharable form of content people are more likely to create backlinks to your content, thus improving your ranking with Google.

 5.     Just using the word video in your email marketing subject will increase your open rates by 19% and reduce unsubscribes by 25%.

6.     Video marketing can explain your product or service quicker and more comprehensively. A staggering 98% of users say they’ve watched an explainer video to learn more. And by creating animated videos you can bring concepts to life, in a simple and entertaining way.

7.     Videos build trust, and trust is the foundation for conversions and sales. Your content marketing strategy is focussed on building long term and sustainable relationships, and there is no better marketing method to tell a story and create empathy – particularly at this moment during lockdown.

8.     Video appeals much more to mobile users, and YouTube reports mobile video consumption grows by 100% every year. Whilst B2B traffic is still desktop orientated, there was a 660% increase in smartphone views in 2020 of content created by businesses. You simply cannot ignore the tablet and smartphone user anymore.

9.     You need to get personal. Content marketing in 2021 demands the personal touch, and it doesn’t get more personal than a piece to camera video by you, talking to your customers or prospects.

If you’d like to discuss video marketing for your business, please contact Simon on simon@thecollectivegroup.co.uk or tel: 01202 682322.

5 min read – 

As we draw towards the end of what has been, for most businesses, a fairly tumultuous year let’s take a moment to reflect on the year and also look forward to 2021, with hopefully new opportunities for all.

2020 has been the year when digital and content marketing cemented itself into the psyche of every business. With restrictions on face-to-face interaction, the cancellation of all trade shows and an unprecedented period of downtime for many, there was a massive requirement for businesses to reach and engage with their audiences in a different way i.e. online, using websites, podcasts, webinars, email and social media.

It was not just the way in which we communicated though, but also how we did it that’s changed. There has been a real surge towards marketing your business differently, using techniques such as ABM (Account Based Marketing), personalisation and digitisation. Your content (what you say and how you say it) needs to be memorable, unique and resonate with your audience.

B2B marketing is a challenge! We know your average buyer is going to need a lot of persuasion to move from an initial lead to a genuine purchase and so you need to understand where on the buying journey they are and adapt your marketing accordingly. It’s become increasingly clear that the modern marketer needs to leverage the marketing channels that best suit your customer and always create engaging and memorable digital content.

So what do you need to be doing right now in preparation for 2021?

Let’s start with your overall marketing strategy. Now would be a good time to review your marketing objectives and ascertain whether they are still in line with your overall business goals. Have your target markets shifted or perhaps one or two have taken predominance? Updating your strategy for 2021 helps to focus your thoughts and is an opportunity to check the whole team is on the same page with regard to your marketing plans.

Content marketing will be the key to your activities next year and whilst you need to leave room for opportunities that will crop up during the year, you also need planned campaigns that you can schedule in advance, to make sure you cover all your key messages. So it’s worth identifying some of the main topics you will want to cover and sketching out a plan for the year.

Video continues to be one, if not the most, important tools for you to be using to engage with your audience. An introduction video to your business can be supported by a series of product or service videos, or why not use video to communicate to your teams, especially as many companies have staff working at home. Case study videos are powerful testament to the work you do, with third party endorsements. Video content has the capability to engage like no other content, so now is the time to start planning what videos your business is going to need as we emerge into a bright new world, post Covid.

Your website is your window to a world of possibilities and new customers. Remember, it is the first thing a new contact will look at, so it has to reflect your brand and your business. Are you paying enough attention to the key messages your website communicates to a viewer? Does it create the sort of impression you would want to create if a new customer came to visit you? It is definitely worth taking some time to look at your site and ask yourself “If I was looking for a supplier of XX, would this website give me the confidence to take the next step and pick up the phone?”

Your brand is your calling card, and like your website, it reflects your business. A logo might seem insignificant, but it can make a powerful statement about your business, and is often the first piece of marketing a prospective customer will see. But a brand is not just your logo; it’s the glue that binds your entire marketing activities, from exhibition stands to letterheads. Does your brand compete with your competitors brands, or is it time to update and modernise in line with what your customers are expecting and looking for.

Finally, year-end is always a good time to review your social media presence. Check through your key channels (probably LinkedIn and Twitter, maybe Instagram and Facebook) and review your content. Are the messages you are posting the right ones for your business. As with your content planning, identify your key messages for 2021 and schedule some campaigns that can be run on social media in amongst your other activity.

Summary

For many of us, our business world is significantly different now than it was at the start of 2020, and your marketing is no different. Make sure you take the opportunity now to plan for next year, so you can hit the ground running.

If you’d like to discuss any aspect of your marketing for 2021, please contact Simon on simon@thecollectivegroup.co.uk or tel: 01202 682322.

5 min read – 

In a previous blog (May 20) I talked about how B2B companies need to measure the success of their marketing through different methods than the traditional ‘vanity metrics’ such as website impressions, click-through rates etc. High numbers may give you a sense of achievement, but ultimately will they translate into new revenue for your business? For B2B marketers, it is now more than ever a case of quality over quantity.

This distinct shift towards measuring ROI or customer lifetime value over simple numbers is borne out by a study produced a few years ago by leading professional services company Accenture, who found that “more than one third of CEOs are placing chief marketing officers (CMOs) in the hot seat when it comes to executing growth strategies. Given this pressure, it’s not surprising that CMOs are increasingly looking to take the lead in disruptive growth.”

Disruptive growth is the process of identifying and implementing trends or strategies that will shake up your marketplace and gain your business a competitive advantage. In today’s crowded and over-saturated marketplace companies need to be seeking the edge that will make them stand out.

So how do B2B marketers choose what to measure, to gauge the success of their activities. A useful guide is to divide your metrics into 2 categories: your pipeline metrics and your pillar metrics.

Pipeline metrics are all about the key stages in your sales process – new leads, first-time customer sales, repeat business, lost sales etc. This might be seen as a numbers game, which we’re trying to get away from, but ultimately you do need to know what’s working and what’s not. Often you can use your CRM to gain these metrics – the key is to understand your buyer’s journey and interrogate the right data. In addition, if you are using key social media platforms such as LinkedIn, there are tools such as Conversion Tracking that will give you this information.

The basic results from your pipeline analysis are a great start, however to take it a stage further, it is useful to also look at the revenue bought in by your marketing activities, and the average deal size for those projects where it can be identified they have been ‘touched’ by your marketing. A laser-targeted marketing campaign, particularly if you are practicing an Account-Based Marketing approach (ABM), should bring in a higher value deal than your average one, when compared to a traditional sales-driven approach, given the precise nature of your activity.

The adoption of ABM, where a company focuses its effort on a small number of key customers or contacts to win new business, has meant it is easier to measure the cost per acquired customer, which can be another key measurement of success. Ally this to your customer lifetime value and you can build up a clear picture of your ROI.

Pillar metrics are focused on the specific marketing pillars or channel you employ to hit your target market. Whether you are using email marketing, social media, content marketing etc each one tends to have its own metrics, some easier to pull data from than others. Ultimately, it’s about understanding what each pillar gives you and then interpreting the data to ascertain if that pillar is working for you. Let’s look at a few examples.

Social media marketing needs to be carefully thought out for B2B campaigns, and you need to be wary not to get sucked in by the numbers. Gaining likes and followers is good for brand recognition but doesn’t necessarily translate into business revenue. Undertaking paid advertising on social media is an option but it helps to know your average project value per customer. If that’s worth £20k then you can make a judgement on how much to spend to obtain new leads.

The success of content marketing is perhaps slightly harder to measure but is still possible through such metrics as the number of visitors to your blog pages or a specific landing page, and the number of downloads you have of a particular white paper or blog article.

Email marketing still offers B2B companies huge opportunities to generate brand recognition, promote new business products and services and communicate with your existing customer database. There are plenty of metrics to measure the success or otherwise of your emails, including the number of email opens, and also the extent of interaction with recipients through CTA’s.

Summary

When measuring the success of your B2B marketing, there is no one metric that will give you the full picture. Instead, you need to pull various metrics together, from both your pipeline and your various marketing pillars, to have a comprehensive view of your activities. The key is not to get bogged down chasing vanity numbers, but to consider results against important criteria such as the lifetime value of a customer. With the right tools in place you will have a much clearer idea of how marketing is working to grow your business, and what you need to do to support that growth.

If you would like a no-obligation chat about your B2B marketing, please get in touch, email: simon@thecollectivegroup.co.uk or telephone 01202 682322