How To Set Up A Roadshow With A Marketing Suite
Setting up a portable marketing suite means that you are ready at a moment’s notice to take your promotional efforts anywhere they need to go, bringing your business closer to your customers in the process.
One of the ultimate ways to take advantage of this is to set up a roadshow, where you take your marketing efforts to various locations, which can be a particularly vivid way to get attention, build your network, increase the awareness of your brand and leave a positive, striking expression of your company and products.
A tremendous benefit of the roadshow format is its variety, something found with the most famous example of a roadshow in the UK: BBC’s Antiques Roadshow.
Whilst a roadshow can involve travelling to various locations, setting up your suite and inviting members of the public to experience your brand in a new, tactile, vivid way, it can also simply be a more versatile and flexible way to prepare your marketing efforts for trade events.
The key is that the best way to reach a particular group of clients, contacts or customers is to go to them, engage with them directly and lay the groundwork for a more involved connection.
Here is how to maximise the impact of your roadshow schedule.
Be Clear About Your Objectives
You must be clear about what success looks like to you and your roadshow campaign, as without this basic set of goals, not only will it be very difficult to succeed, it will be hard to even know what success looks like.
Your objectives will literally shape your marketing suite and roadshow itinerary, as well as guide where, when and how your roadshow will attract its audience.
At an early stage, these goals can be relatively broad, although with an eye to create firmer key performance indicators (KPIs) later.
Often a roadshow will connect to other business and marketing objectives, and can include, but is far from limited to:
- Launching a new product.
- Advertising or relaunching a brand.
- Networking with partners and clients in the industry
Know Your Audience And Go To Them
Once you have a purpose, the natural next step is to establish your target audience and choose your locations accordingly.
This process will be significantly different depending on whether the roadshow campaign is business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-customer (B2C).
In the case of the latter, choosing a target demographic is about identifying the main groups of people who are most likely to consume your product or use your service.
For example, if the goal of the roadshow is to target a new energy drink, the customer demographics for said beverages tend to be young adults, so a roadshow might aim to take the product to high streets, shopping centres, music festivals or other major youth-orientated events.
By contrast, launching a business-to-business product or service such as a new security system would tend to take place at dedicated events and exhibitions, where the marketing suite can help make preparing and storing the stands easier.
Prepare Your Itinerary
Once you have a rough idea of where you want to go and what you want to accomplish, it is time to fill in the details, and this is where a lot of the planning and preparation vital to a successful event comes in.
This will generally be split into the logistics schedule (the how) and the itinerary for your roadshow event (the what). Knowing what you need, when and how will allow you to start preparing a budget and a more detailed plan.
A lot of the practical considerations should be prepared as far in advance as possible, such as how you will move your marketing suite and any other equipment you need, as well as any staff involved that are stationed at the roadshow itself.
It also involves the question of accommodation, and ensuring that staff members who need to stay overnight are kept safe, secure and able to reach the event site in good time for the roadshow itself.
It also involves taking inventory of what equipment you have, what equipment you need, where and how it can be set up at each step of your roadshow, and whether you need to procure additional equipment (such as a power supply for electronic components) at the event’s location.
In terms of the itinerary itself, this is about the specific way in which your roadshow is scheduled.
Are there any additional activities or presentations at the event? What do you aim to showcase?
If the goal is networking, how do you plan to meet with your desired demographic?
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