Replacing Trade Shows and In-Person Marketing with

Virtual ‘Trade Show’ Campaigns

We are a team of experienced digital marketers and journalists who specialise in delivering cost-effective business-to-business campaigns via traditional media and online from the UK & USA.

Our background in web-publishing, event management, lead generation and sales consultancy means we understand the relationship between content, online search and the media.

GBM - Who we are…

Since 2014 we have worked with UK and US regions and bodies promoting overseas trade with trade visits, missions and marketing activities anywhere in the world – especially online.

Who we work with…

But we also have more than 30 private sector clients on both sides of the Atlantic across a wide range of sectors, from food & beverage to advanced manufacturing and legal and financial services and this is the key to our innovative approach…

Who we work with…

This presentation details a proven approach to creating leads for businesses needing to replace in-person events and global sales activity overseas rapidly.

Put simply, we help B2B sales teams secure contracts globally by creating a flow of inbound enquiries from target customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

We can evidence the ROI and effectiveness of this over 4 years.

Background

1. Activity that can bring all the benefits of a trade show or conference but delivered digitally

2. Not compressed into a specific time frame – these can run 24/7 and generate flow of leads – not a burst in one week

3. Only targeting very niche roles, industries and even individual companies

4. Using the most adopted, most segmented business publisher in the world with the best clean pot of B2B data – LinkedIn

5. Not organic, this is paid, targeted, measurable and proven

‘Virtual Trade Show’

1. Once a recruitment tool, LinkedIn is a super-segmented global media with 660m executive users globally (70% outside US)

2. 40% of users visit daily

3. 37% of US adults use LinkedIn

4. 15% of users are senior (management and above)

5. 52% of buyers cited LinkedIn as the most influential research channel

6. 97% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn for organic content BUT less than 3% of companies use their lead generation tools in campaigns

7. The only platform that allows you to identify individual readers

Why LinkedIn?

You can now blend media campaigns with paid social media devices to generate self-qualified business development leads and supplement or replace trade show, trade mission and in-person activity…

Innovating export marketing

3000 C-suite attendees at 60 B2B events

120 Master’s Degree studentsRecruited across EMEA

100 inbound global leads permonth for analytics software

These techniques have been developed using PR, search engine optimization, digital publishing and social media.

This work for SMEs targeting niche audiences in distant geographies has resulted in a digital-first, cost effective approach.

Overseas lead generation

In summary, we’ve experimented alongside 20+ clients’ marketing and sales teams to cherry pick from LinkedIn’s many organic and paid devices and services to blend with media relations and lead generation to deliver the most effective niche, global digital marketing campaigns.

Distilling 4 years of learning running 100s of campaigns into a 30-minute overview is impossible, but we’re able to talk about the principles and offer a walk-through of the playbook.

Overseas lead generation

The approach in summary

Create Content

• Use media coverage to create engaging

content

Establish Targets

• Create list of target companies

• Identify buyers

Campaigns

• Issue campaigns to targets directly in three

stages

Evaluate

• Refine target audience and collect leads

In essence, this is a way to bring together several tools, and combine with content generation and sales consultancy to deliver really effective campaigns for a huge range of sectors…

The basics

Media coverageto boost credibility

Sales content generation to create

a funnel

LinkedIn Campaign Managerto target and promote

LinkedIn Sales Navigator & Smart Links – THE ONLY WAY

to identify engaged readers

Already proven to deliver results for clients globally, the recent travel disruption and cancelled trade shows have driven B2B brands to increase digital activity overnight. With the right techniques marketing teams are now able to rapidly replace trade shows and in-person sales activity with targeted lead generation campaigns that work in most jurisdictions, 24/7

Targeting B2B customers globally…

LinkedIn offers the only opportunity to target just the people and job titles who buy or influence the purchase of your products. With the right content, designed to look ‘organic’ and the right set up and optimization, you can ensure spend is 100% focused on your target audiences

Precisely target the people who buy…

You need to identify the following criteria to target audiences of 300+ targets (the minimum to launch a campaign)

• Industry sector

• Scale of organization (jobs)

• Experience of target (years)

• Role and job title

• Education

Or, target individual company names…

Targeting B2B customers globally…

Create content designed to only appeal to your target buyer, ensuring you only get relevant clicks from people ready to buy…

• Be specific• Look organic• Know the rules (prohibited products)• Optimize for action• Build a smart funnel• Land the click where it can be identified• Have a follow-up process that converts

Content is key to ROI…

Pay attention to what works, and what misses the mark, what engages too broadly, and wastes budget, and how to attract just the right balance of profile, impressions and engagement.

The little things are crucial…

Smart Landing Pages…

Examples of PointDrive

Smart Landing Pages…

Examples of Smart Links

Trigger named lead alerts…

Insights from PointDrive and SmartLinks

Follow-up with named leads…

Insights from PointDrive and SmartLinks

Engaged leads are better leads…

• Unlike telesales leads, these have self-selected highly niche content – they are already interested…

• They are more open to follow-up approaches and are further down the sales pipeline than generic leads – they convert faster…

• The device can inform you how sales processes are moving through an organization as you see targets share links internally…

• They can also be used in PDF, email and other vehicles, not purely through advertising – this increases potential value and ROI…

Example Campaigns…

Cod Beck Blenders - contract manufacturer: https://ptdrv.linkedin.com/gz6kgqj

Downton Abbey- gin producer: https://ptdrv.linkedin.com/hnwhz7e

Ramarketing – pharma PR agency: https://www.linkedin.com/smart-links/AQFkCCWNFNkJ2g

Essence of Harris – Home and gift retailer: https://ptdrv.linkedin.com/bdnhcy9

Key Capital Partners - private equity investor: https://ptdrv.linkedin.com/ye3bkwj

No two campaigns are identical. Launching a new campaign is time-intensive as new content and assets are required. The next stage sees much reduced activity (50% typically) and the activity then settles to a regular measurement and evaluation stage (on going).

No typical project…

Launch Activity (Month 1)

20 – 30 Hours

Interim Activity

(Month 2)

10-20 Hours

Ongoing Activity

5-10 hours per month plus new campaign creation

(as required)

The costs of a trial are in three main areas that have some flexibility depending on the time and work required:

Budgets…

Graphic design, photography and

content generation (if needed depending on

available assets)

Consultancy / In-house team resource (20-30 hours) depending on

complexity and strategy

LinkedIn test budget (2 x 7-day trial

campaigns) paid direct or in advance

You can trial this innovative approach in a few days, creating or re-purposing media coverage and other carefully crafted content with curated campaign messages to replace trade show activity to evaluate:

1. The effectiveness of the approach to target audiences (each sector varies)

2. The appetite for content within your niche markets (differences in style)

3. The scale and level of engagement of your buyers on LinkedIn

4. The relative ROI of the consultancy and advertising charges vs each lead value

Start a trial in a week…

Contact us here

www.GreatBritishMarketing.com

Paul.Snape@GreatBritishMarketing.com

(617) 275 2706

Questions?