To launch new products, B2B Companies often look to trade shows for the big reveal. In fact, trade shows and conferences are a great way for startups to break into the industry, especially for tech products. But from a demand generation perspective, preparing a tech product launch is like pulling off a Broadway production. Planning the pre, during and post-show activities can take months and not to mention the costs that can be high in terms of booth fees, travel expenses and hours spent. But in return, you get valuable face-time with your target audience and a chance to test the product-market fit.
When a Dallas based large immigration law firm wanted to launch legal software Lawpilot platform they’d spent years developing, they signed up for a booth at American Immigration Lawyers Association ( AILA), the largest immigration law conference of the year. But the event was only three weeks away with no planning or marketing in place. That’s when they called Digital Sparx Marketing.
The Challenge
Demand Generation for Trade Shows
At the initial meeting with the founders of Lawpilot, it became clear the company needed a holistic marketing strategy in a very short time. The business objectives were to build a marketing infrastructure, create awareness for Lawilot and generate leads with demand generation tactics. The product launch called for a much broader vision beyond a myopic view of just the trade show. Lawpilot needed a 360-degree digital marketing strategy focused on 3 main objectives:
- Branding and messaging to create awareness
- Demand generation tactics for pre, during and post-show activities
- Lead generation to increase sales
With only three weeks to spare, Digital Sparx Marketing wasted no time in laying the groundwork to kick off Lawpilot’s marketing.
The Solution
Like any demand generation activities at trade shows, the planning stage was critical. Digital Sparx Marketing began by creating 5 activities buckets assigning our team responsibilities and timelines.
Constant communication with the client was crucial for rapid execution. But for work to begin, they first had to do research to set the stage for the brand.
1. Branding & Messaging
Persona & Branding
Before creating branding and messaging, the first step was to build a marketing persona to target the right audience. The team conducted a 3-step competitive analysis to:
- Research the competition
- Conduct interviews with prospects to discern their buying decisions
- Interview Lawpilot founders to uncover their key objectives
The founders answered these questions to help clarify branding: What is our mission with this platform? How does our platform benefit users? How do we envision to differentiate our brand?
Relevant Messaging
Foremost, the message had to resonate with the target audience. The ideas pivoted around 2 key differentiators:
- The platform automated routine tasks and
- The fact that lawyers had developed technology to grow their own law firm.
After the brainstorming session, two final taglines emerged: “Put Your Law Practice on Autopilot” and “A Platform for Lawyers by Lawyers.” Playing on the Lawpilot theme, the logo design represented a compass.
Once the branding was in place, the creative team got to work on content and design for the website and booth.
2. Website and SEO
The team developed the website architecture including Content and SEO. The challenge was to create a clean, modern look with screen grabs from the product that gives the website a friendly yet high-tech feel. It was also important to create messaging that spoke directly to the challenges faced by the end users who in this case were other law firms. Lead capture mechanisms also included strategically placed CTA’s like a free 30-day trial and a call for product demos.
Lawpilot Site Architecture
Storytelling through Content
With the trade show only few weeks away, it was critical to create content that highlighted the most important elements including:
- The Product features page
- The story of founders and why they created this immigration platform
- Product pricing page
Since there was no content in place, the team at Digital Sparx Marketing created content that told the story of the product and how it helps the immigration lawyer community. For the product to resonate with the closed loop immigration lawyers community the content had to be created keeping the broader story on why this is not just another tech platform.
3. Conference Booth
Since it was Lawpilot’s big conference launch, the booth design had to be eye-catching that including a big backdrop banner, couple retractable banners and product teaser videos that played in a continuous loop on big TV monitors at the booth.
Not to mention the marketing collaterals included business cards, postcards and sales slicks along with popular trade show swag to delight and engage audiences–mini mints, t-shirts, and stainless steel water bottles embossed with the Lawpilot logo.
Booth Backdrop with Banners
In addition to the big product splash walk-in leads at the conference, it was important to create a lead capturing and post-conference lead nurturing program.
4. Email Workflows
A new email platform was configured with a lead nurturing program that targeted leads captured at the conference along with email drip workflows for free 30 day trial users and paid subscribers.
5. The Results
In addition to the massive foot traffic at the booth, the company succeeded in creating a buzz at the conference and also got the competitors swirling at the newest entrant to the list of vendors. Since the Lawpilot founders had never done a trade show before, our team even attended the conference and helped with the booth activities.
Lead Generation
Leads captured at the trade show exceeded 2000%. The team’s outbound tactics post-event resulted in a 400% increase in scheduled demos. The biggest challenge was getting busy lawyers to show up at their appointed times. Still, online demos resulted in a 10% conversion from demos to new customers.
Additionally, our press release was also picked up by major publications which also resulted in a radio interview of the founders with an NPR affiliated radio station in Arizona.
Outbound Sales Calls
Outbound efforts continued with the team calling warm leads, scheduling appointments and giving walkthroughs of the Lawpilot platform.
Press Release
The team decided that it was more prudent to create a post-show PR launch and as such different versions of the press release was created targeting the mainstream publications but also Spanish language publications.
If one tactic from demand generation is not working, you keep trying and find something new until it works! - Bob Tripathi. Click To Tweet
Planning for a booth at your next industry conference? Partner with Digital Sparx Marketing and see how our team can help you to generate demand for your product.
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