Steven Woods, the CTO of Eloqua, is going to be speaking immediately before the April Philadelphia Salesforce user group on Thursday from 3-4 pm EST at the Bourse Building in Philadelphia.  Alteva, who is hosting the Salesforce user group, has donated their space so you can hear from Steve about online buying behavior. 

Steven Woods has been a leader in the current transformation of marketing since 1999 when he co-founded Eloqua. Through his work with hundreds of today’s most innovative marketers, he has guided, been involved with, and written about many aspects of the changes currently under way in business to business and considered purchase marketing.

This event is free.  You are also welcome to stay for the Salesforce user group, even if you are not a Salesforce user.  During this user group meeting we have 3 speakers, plus a new “Ask the Experts” session.  I will be speaking on the Ask the Experts panel.  The 3 speakers are:

·       Salesforce Content Manager, Ritesh Gandhi, Alteva

·       Google Application Integration, Jesse Middleton, CRM Manager

·       Salesforce AppExchange, Sara Bright, Salesforce

I have also started a Twitter account to announce Philadelphia Salesforce User Group information.  If interested, please follow @PhillySFDC. 

If you have RSVP’d to the user group, then you do not need to RSVP to the Steve Woods event.  http://digitalbodylanguage.eventbrite.com/

Online Event Registration – Powered by www.eventbrite.com ]]> http://blog.inboundmarketer.com/2009/04/steven-woods-cto-of-eloqua-to-speak-to-philadelphia-marketing-technology-professionals-about-digital-body-language/feed/ 3165 http://blog.inboundmarketer.com/2009/04/better-virtual-trade-show-sponsorship-negotiating-your-participation-part-2/ http://blog.inboundmarketer.com/2009/04/better-virtual-trade-show-sponsorship-negotiating-your-participation-part-2/#comments Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:42:14 +0000 Maria Pergolino http://blog.inboundmarketer.com/?p=373 This is part two of my series of 5 blog posts, one each day of this week, focusing on how to improve your lead generation and branding efforts during a virtual trade show. These posts should benefit sponsors of these types of events.

These are thoughts I had after sponsoring many virtual trade shows (exhibiting as a sponsor) and then attending the MarketingProfs’ Digital Marketing Mixer last week as a participant.

The topics of my blog posts this week will be:

• Content in your booth
• Negotiating your participation
• Promoting the event before the show
• Promoting your product throughout the show
• Engaging contacts after the show

Today’s post will be about negotiating your participation.

I don’t know how sponsorship worked specifically for the MarketingProfs Virtual Trade Show, though typically there is the organizer who creates the event, premier sponsors, and regular sponsors (sometimes separated into tiers) who all promote their products during the event.  Typically, premier sponsors receive ‘virtual’ signage, speaking opportunities, and the entire list of names of those that register for the event.  For this show, I believe about 14,000 people registered for the event, a substantial list for premier sponsors.  Other sponsors typically receive a specified number of leads based on their sponsorship level.  The leads they are given out of the list of registrants is typically based on who visited their booth followed by those that attended the show, but did not visit the booth.  If the guarantee for leads is not met at this point, the guarantee can be met by those who registered that did not attend.

If you are not the premier sponsor and are receiving a limited number of leads, make sure that it is based off of a select, not on those who visits your booth.  This way, you receive people who have joined the conference that are in your demographic.  This is important because often people are driven to your booth because they are analysts, interested in free prizes given by booth participation, or checking out the virtual trade shows functionality.  By purchasing your leads on selects you’ll be ensuring to receive leads in your demographic, not just those looking for a prize. 

Also, if you think about lead distribution for these events, almost everyone gets the name of the people who visit the booths, than many people get the contact information of those who attended the event, and typically only premier sponsors will receive the names of those people who did not attend the event.  Your goal should be to get the names that no-one else receives.  If there is not a package offered with this (there typically isn’t) propose one to the organization creating the event.  Offer an ‘after party’ type of sponsorship, where you email those that attended with a wrap-up of the event, and email those who did not attend with a summary of the event and information about how they can still see the content they missed.  By creating your own sponsorship package, you’ll be ensuring you receive the leads that are best for your organization. 

Finally, cost per leads for virtual events are typically much lower than those for content syndication or pipeline builders because the leads are shared between multiple sponsors.   Often an event promoter will offer a bundled package for the sponsorship with a pipeline builder, banner ads, or other advertising.  They do this to ensure they can meet your lead guarantee if the expected number or participants do not sign up.   In this situation the event promoter may say they will guarantee 5000 leads, and that a minimum of 2000 will come from the virtual trade show.  The remaining are then from content syndication leads that are typically more valuable to your organization.  When you do this you typically get a lower cost per lead (CPL) for the bundled package than with a pipeline builder alone, but this can backfire on you if you receive all 5000 leads from the virtual trade show and then do not receive the benefit of content syndication.  In this case, you may end up paying more per lead then you would have for simply paying for the co-sponsored event. 

The main lesson you should learn from this article is when purchasing sponsorship for leads you must make sure that you aren’t just buying a package, but  working with the vendor to develop a custom lead purchase that will help connect you with your prospects.  Doing this will allow you to reach out to contacts from the show that others may not and will allow you less bad fits in your lists. 

This week I am going to do a series of 5 blog posts, one each day of the week, focusing on how to improve your lead generation and branding efforts during a virtual trade show. These posts should benefit sponsors of these types of events.

These are thoughts I had after sponsoring many virtual trade shows (exhibiting as a sponsor) and then attending the MarketingProfs’ Digital Marketing Mixer last week as a participant.

The topics of my blog posts this week will be:

• Content in your booth
• Negotiating your participation
• Promoting the event before the show
• Promoting your product throughout the show
• Engaging contacts after the show

Today’s post will be about content in your booth.

Sponsor booths typically have white papers, demos, company information, contact information, and a link to the company website. But the booths at virtual events can link to any online content and can promote any collateral held online. This means you can link to quizzes, demos, social media posts, and more. Why not make your booth more interesting and interactive by putting different types of content in your booth. Some ideas include:

• Social Media streams: put a link up that shows the conversations happening about the event on social media sites. An easy way to do this would be through Twitter search. You can set this up to show information about everything happening at the event or what is being said about your product depending on the search query you use for the stream
• What’s New: this is a great way to promote upgrades and new products to current customers who attend the event and will let prospects know you are always innovating and upgrading
• Upcoming Events: Why not post information about events you will be presenting at, allow attendees to instantly sign up for future webinars, or sign up for a physical event? This way they know where they can find you next
• Invite a friend: allow members to suggest people that are good prospects for your product
• Newsletter sign up: allow members to sign up for a newsletter or other promotions in your booth. Even though you will receive the contact names of people at the event, why not let them opt-in to your messages. This will make them less likely to opt-out later
• Tools: Demandbase had great success with a widget they promoted in their booth. Give the attendees something free for spending time with you
• Quizzes/Demos/Videos: Allow participants to click through and watch a demo or video, or allow participants to take a quiz. It’s a fun way to involve participants instead of just posting up content for them to read. This will allow for more immediate interaction as well, since white papers and brochures are often just downloaded for future consumption, and often not reviewed at all

Also, I noticed one of the sponsors had posted job openings they had at their organization. I thought this was a very interesting way to connect with participants. The obvious benefit is finding qualified prospects for the organization, but it also allowed for a unique way to segment. For example, if someone from the show was interested in a communications job and your company has a product that is applicable to communications professionals, it allows you to segment that prospect in a way that other sponsors of the event could not.

For anything besides white papers and brochures, which people want to download, host the content online and use unique urls to track how many people viewed content during the show. Simply give the event organizer a unique url instead of the direct one that clicks to the desired page. You can even do this for links to social media sites, by creating a url off of your domain that forwards to the social media site. Also, for your downloadable content, like white papers and brochures, make the urls in the papers unique, so if someone read them on their computer and then clicks through to your site, an offer, or for additional information, you know it originated from that white paper that was download from the virtual show. By gathering this data, you will know what attendees liked viewing so that you can duplicate the successful content for your next virtual online event.

Fitting it into your day:

First, log in, watch the intro, and get a feel for the event. Check around and see what is of interest. I open each of the areas in a different screen. Then look at the agenda and choose what sessions you want to attend. Like real trade shows you get to pick sessions that are interesting to you. And you can log in and out so you don’t waste time when you aren’t watching a presentation.

These sessions are recorded in advance, but then often have live Q&A at the end. If you miss a session you wanted to attend, you can watch the recording by logging into the trade show in the next few weeks, as it is recorded. The only thing you will miss is the Q&A. Spend any time you want networking as this can only be done today. All the sessions and downloads can be viewed later if needed.  Most virtual trade shows are available to be watched for three months past the original date.

Lounge:

Go in. Say hi. Start a chat on a topic. This is supposed to be fun. Please don’t just throw up your twitter account and ask for followers. That’s kinda lame. Instead, introduce yourself, say hi, and see if you can add anything to the conversations that are happening.

Chat and Email:

Want to talk to someone in private. There is chat like AIM chat and email. Also, make sure to check a box in your profile to send the emails to your inbox. That way you don’t have to worry about missing any notes people my send you during the show.

Prizes

Some prizes are drawn at random, but others require visiting or participating in a booth. This is because, depending on how the tradeshow is set up, vendors get the leads from the people that visit their booth. Also, these leads are sold as higher value than those who do not visit the booth. If part of the fun to you is a chance to win prizes, stop in each of the booths and say hi. While there, take time to check out their resources. In the past I have seen great thought leadership pieces and articles at these events.  Also, you are already signed in so you don’t have to fill out a bunch of forms to get the content that you want to read.

Offers:

Also check the booth for offers.  In the MarketingProfs booth at the Digital Marketing World Spring Virtual Trade Show you can get 30% their premium offer.  Though I have seen this as a buy one get one offer around the holidays and 50% offer at the last virtual trade show, 30% isn’t bad if you were going to purchase it anyway.  Other booths may be listing event only offers as well.  Make sure to check it out.

Want to see a Virtual Trade Show in action? Here is a quick video: http://goview.com/?id=2c0052f2-d0b9-4c17-8884-2dfc0dac80a5

I hope they did this because I honestly feel this will be a great event.  I know that the speakers who are presenting care very much about the topic and will do their best to ensure everyone who attends learns something that they can apply to help their personal brand and company’s success. 

Because of this I have been very vocal to other marketers in the area about the event.  If I attend, I know one other marketer who will pay to attend the event as well.  She is a respected marketing communications expert who I am sure will be able to add to any conversations at the event.  In addition, I hope to see other familiar faces that I have encouraged to sign-up for this valuable day of marketing training.  This is because I don’t expect to just be given a free pass.  I believe that fundamentaly social media is about give and take, sharing and communication, and I want to demonstrate this as part of my nomination acceptance. 

To continue spreading the word I wanted to do more than just post my nomination acceptance or send out a tweet.  Instead, I put my sincere thoughts about the event into a quick video on why someone should attend.  I’m hoping that this will also encourage participation by some other fantastic local marketers who are excited to jump into social media or improve their current efforts.  The video can be found on my blog at www.inboundmarketer.com or through Youtube.  The reasons I share in this video about why others should attend the event rings true to the reasons I wish to be provided a ticket the event.  (Note, this is the first time I’m using my webcam so while brief, this video took much effort and care.) 

I am happy to say that I will be able to cover the cost of travel to the event and that I will be able to attend the event on April 9^th.  I hope to see you there!

Jennifer Connelly in charity: water Public Service Announcement from charity: water on Vimeo.

Each of the events throughout the world vary, with different venues, prizes, methods of donation, etc.  But all are to benefit the single organization, charity:water, a non-profit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations.  Right now 1.1 billion people on the planet don’t have access to safe, clean drinking water. That’s one in six of us.

I’m not sure how much of the money is being donated to charity at the Philadelphia event, as more than 35 tickets have been sold, but the coordinators reported they have only raised $535 for the event thus far.    

Additional money can be raised for the fund by joining the Twestival Twitter group @twestival or @phltwestival  ($.25 per subscriber up to $2K) or by adding a badge to your blog/social network site (at least $1.00).  It is also possible to donate directly to the organization by going to their music page.  You may also help the Philadelphia event by donating prizes to be given away or by participating in the raffle the night of the event.   Tickets will be sold at the door for $1.00 a piece.  As a bonus for being generous to the organization, you can download music for free that has been donated by various artists on their Twestival.fm page. 

I haven’t been involved with the planning of this event, but am happy to see Get Happy, formally Kildare’s, host the event.  This pub/restaurant has just been taken over by a Kildare’s partner and his wife and is changing the menu to have an emphasis on ‘home made’ food.  (Though, last I checked they only had a stripped down menu from the offering at Kildare’s and no creative or particularly homey items.)  Hope to see you at the event.

To find details about your local Twestival go to http://www.twestival.com. 

Philadelphia Twestival:
Advanced Purchase: $10 for attendees, $25 to play in Rockband Tournament: http://www.amiando.com/twestivalphiladelphia.html
At Door: $15 for attendees, $30 to play in Rockband Tournament
Time: Thursday, February 12, 2009 at 7:00pm
Location: The Get Happy Pub
Street: 509-511 S 2nd Street
City/Town: Philadelphia, PA

Connect:
charity:water: http://www.charitywater.org/
Email: phillytwestival@gmail.com
Philadelphia Event Page: http://philadelphia.twestival.com/
Main Twestival Page: http://twestival.com/
Twestival music page: http://www.twestival.fm/  (What’s a festival without music?)
Facebook Event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=46685939025
TwitterGroups: http://twittgroups.com/twestival
Twitter:
        @phltwestial – Philadelphia Twestival
        @twestival – Main Twestival             
        @melitami  – Host: Melissa Thiessen
        @gloriabell –  Host: Gloria Bell

In addition to the below, go to Meetup.com.  Most of the larger social tech or marketing groups have pages.  I’ll list some out later, but I’d begin here.  

Technology:
Gary’s Guide – Philly
Philly New Media Hub
Philadelphia New Media Association
Eventful

Marketing:
PhIMA
Philadelphia Ad Club
Philadelphia AMA

Other and Random:
Eventbrite
Network in Philly
Philly2Night
Meet Market Adventures – Philly

There are a ton more- SMC, Geeks who Give, etc.  I’ll add them later.  But in the meantime, @tsydoryk hope this helps. 

The event raised over 900 pounds of food by asking attendees to each bring 5 non-perishable food items in exchange for prizes, drink specials and food discounts.  In addition to the food donations, a portion of the drink orders were donated to Philabundance by National Mechanics.  Everyone who participated received a raffle ticket, and participants who brought more than the requested number of non perishables received multiple entries into the raffle that was made possible by local businesses like Fork, Claudio’s, The Belgium Cafe, Tattooed Moms, Palace at the Ben, Open Source Cupcakes, the Philadelphia CityPaper, and The Wine School. 

Geeks who Give food drive (picture by Vincent J Brown)

Geeks who Give was founded on the idea of Open Source Community Giving.  The group states, “We are more than the sum of our parts, and together, we are capable of anything.”  Their vision is to allow those interested in giving to help in any way they can, from planning events to donating to causes.  This loose structure not only encourages giving, but does so through a feeling of community and fun.   

News of the event spread virally through social media outlets.  The organization posted details of the event on their blog and then fed this information through popular websites like Facebook and Twitter.  Participants could share news of the food drive with their friends through these social media sites.  This event was promoted so much through Twitter that it ended up being an informal ‘Tweet-Up” or event where Twitter members could meet in person.  During the event Twitter posts (Tweets) about Geeks who Give were displayed on a large screen at the front of the bar. 

Geeks who Give Tweet-up (photo by Vincent J. Brown)

There are more great events being planned by Geeks who Give.  I believe we will be seeing many successful event by this group in the near future.  Upcoming Geeks who Give events can be found by following them on Twitter @Geekswhogive or through their blog at www.geekswhogive.com.