Why Digital Promotions Are Better for Trade Shows

Digital promotions are replacing — or should be — the traditional trade show tchotchkes and giveaways we've been subjected to over the years. Maybe it's because I'm in the digital promotions business, or because I've got enough cheap plastic pens to last two lifetimes, but I really think these digital promotion campaigns are going to be the wave of the trade show future.

For one thing, the effectiveness of digital promotions, like music downloads, ringtones, or even online gift cards, are easy to prove. Basically, I can track whenever someone downloads a song or ringtone using one of my promotions. In fact, I can tell you exactly who downloaded it and when. If it's someone important, I can know to the second when they accessed their digital promotion, and make the appropriate followup.

Digital Promotions are Targeted

For another thing, I can target my digital promotions. Rather than buying 5000 flashlights and handing them out to anyone who walks past my booth, I can purchase the list of show attendees and send them an invitation to stop by the booth where they'll receive a free music download card. I can pick and choose who will receive my invitation, and then keep track of who stopped by.

Or I can come at this from the other end and email a special download to everyone who stopped by my booth. This way, I can send my giveaways only to potential customers, rather than giving one out to everyone who stopped by looking for a freebie.

Digital Promotions are Green

Believe it or not, you're helping the environment by giving away digital promotions items. Rather than creating one more plastic widget (pollution), which needs to be shipped (oil and gas), and will sit forgotten until it dries up and you pitch it (landfill), a digital promotions campaign doesn't need any sort of offline promotion if you don't want it. You can promote your digital freebies by email, Twitter, and Facebook if you want. Or you can use offline promotional methods using some of the different green technology out there.

They also don't require a lot of distribution efforts. I can give out my digital promotions by giving away a stack of cards to people who visit my booth, or just by emailing everyone on my list. There are benefits to both. If I hand them out, I can talk to the people I'm giving them to. This lets me make a sales contact, and tell the person about my product or service. But emailing them is free, and a big time saver. Rather than giving the same message over and over to a handful of people, I can reach dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of customers. And best of all, by using variable data, I can keep track of who received it, took advantage of it, and then converted into a paying customer. Handing out 5,000 flashlights won't let me do it with the same accuracy and ease as digital promotions do.

Digital Promotions are Immediate and Efficient

Like I said in a previous postdigital promotions provide your customers instant gratification. People can redeem their giveaway immediately or at their convenience. They're also easy to redeem. They don't take up space in the customer's luggage, they're not forgotten or given away to their kids, where your customer never sees them again. If it's a song, they'll hear it on their MP3 player, and remember where they got it. If it's a ringtone, they'll think of you whenever their phone rings. Not like a stress ball, Frisbee, or funny hat, which I've seen at previous trade shows.