January 11th, 2012
Many businesses use exhibitions, conferences and trade fairs to promote their services, and there are no shortage of such events going on every week, for almost every sector of industry.
Manufacturers show off their latest products and businesses promote their services.
Smaller businesses might have a pop-up stand with a few posters, maybe a screen or laptop playing their latest promotional movie, and most likely, a well designed brochure for prospects to take away. Oh, and usually a bowl of sweets or chocolates to draw in the easily tempted.
Some of the bigger companies will spend small fortunes designing the biggest, brightest (and sometimes loudest) exhibition stands to grab the attention of passers-by, with a single objective – to sell them something now or in the future.
So what do the current methods of exhibiting do once the prospect has picked up a brochure or watched your sales pitch?
If you’re lucky, they’ll actively seek you out and ask for more information.
But what about the ones that don’t, how can you get them to enquire further or hand over those all important contact details?
One simple and cost effective way is by implementing Augmented Reality as a marketing tool.
Imagine they’ve picked up your brochure or flyer, they’ve put it in their bag with all the other brochures.
What’s going to make yours stand out from all the rest?
Fancy design, sexy photos or the power of the mind! Well that last one is pushing it, but that’s what you’re doing, you’re hoping they’ll read it. Keep sending out those positive vibes brother!
Give them something to actively participate in, something new and exciting. Make them feel like they’ve got something tailored just for them.
Get them to engage with your marketing literature to enter a prize draw, or to see some exclusive content. Something different, something your competitors aren’t doing – yet.
You can augment your print media with video to promote your business.
You can offer up a number of Digital Buttons that link through to specific key areas of your website.
Or you can engage them with a simple quiz with a prize draw as the motivator.
And last but not least, you can provide a simple means for them to engage with your content using social media.
For example, show a video (which you should also have on your website), and provide a link to share it via Twitter. Not only is your message carried further, but you also know who’s talking about you.
The same goes for sharing via Facebook. Provide the means to share content which also provides a link to your Facebook page. Once again you’ve quickly and effectively made a new contact.
There are some drawbacks to this however, people will start talking about your business, they’ll say what they think and it might not be good! But who really cares about that?
Your current printed media is a closed platform, it has no additional methods of engagement other than what you put in it. The static nature of print doesn’t allow for the dynamic nature of digital media found on the Internet. But it doesn’t need to be that way.
‘But I’m using QR codes to link to my website’, I hear you say.
Did you set up a specific web page designed for mobile or just point them to your contact form?
If you’ve sent them to your website, where do you want them to go next, what specifically do you want them to look at or know about? Your history, your staff or a new line of business services that could save them thousands of pounds?
You need to be selective about what your marketing message sets out to achieve.
By implementing Augmented Reality, you can target different audiences at each event. You can update your content more readily whilst providing an active, highly interactive experience with clear benefits to your prospects.
If you’re not including Augmented Reality by the end of the year, you can bet your competitors will be.
Tagged with: Brochures • Competitions • Exhibitions • Marketing • Trade fairs • Video
Categories: Augmented Reality • News