Leverage trade shows with mobile marketing, social media and email

If you’ve ever been to a trade show, you’ve noticed that the booths can run the gamut from a table with pamphlets to sleek Euro styling to a full multimedia experience. However, unless those booths are taking advantage of a few e-marketing methods, once an attendee walks by, he or she may be gone forever.

The allure of prizes is a great way to collect information and customer data. However, when it comes to on-site contests, you can go way beyond collecting business cards in a fish bowl. Since it’s safe to say that 99.99% of attendees will probably have a mobile device on them, invite them to send a text message to a certain number for their chance to win a cool gadget, dinner on the town, or other prize. By texting you, they’ve just opted-in and now you’ve just increased — or begun building — your own database of qualified mobile numbers. In most cases mobile connectivity is seen as the price of entry for the landscape as well. And if you have to “be present to win” you can send them a TXT reminding them to come back to your booth for the drawing!

Speaking of mobile devices, many attendees with smartphones “follow” a trade show via Twitter while it’s in progress. So make sure to keep updating your Twitter feed throughout the day. Tweet about your company’s latest product; a show conversation; or about the contest at your booth. By the way, be sure to mention the trade show as a hashtag (for example, #wtm2010). Just tweet it.