Inbound Marketing for Manufacturers Blog

You attend trade shows to obtain valuable leads for your company. But do you have a plan in place for what to do once you’re back in the office from the trade show so you can move those leads closer to a purchase?

It’s every marketer’s nightmare: an algorithm or software change that upheaves what we thought we knew about a system, how it works, and how we strategize our marketing efforts to use it. If iOS15 and the changes Apple brought upon us in late 2021 triggered these marketing night terrors for you, you’ve come to the right place.

Every marketer I know loves a good puzzle to solve and a challenge to overcome. This latest development in privacy rules is no different. Now that we’re a little bit distanced from the release, it’s time to analyze the changes, impact, and opportunity this presents.

After all, Steve Jobs once said. “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.” 

Throughout the past year and a half, the marketing world (like many other industries) has been turned upside down by a plethora of COVID-related restrictions -- less in-person networking and more virtual trade shows and connections. However, with those same restrictions loosening, FABTECH 2021 marked the return of in-person trade shows. 

North America's largest metal fabricating and finishing event is back in-person! 

While the incoming new technology and networking is exciting, the biggest goal for manufacturers in 2022 will be recalibrating their marketing and sales practices post-COVID*.

In-person trade shows are slowly, but surely returning! With all the uncertainty 2020 presented, this news provides numerous exciting opportunities. Trade shows can give a huge boost to your business and marketing campaign, IF you approach them correctly.  

Change happens daily for marketing and sales teams, and it can be difficult to keep track of every single contact and their information. And once you combine the number of contacts you have with the different stages of the sales cycle, you can quickly become overwhelmed.

This is where B2B marketing automation tools come in.

The HubSpot CRM can be most likened to an onion; tons of layers to peel back and discover, and almost endless uses in recipes (in this analogy, recipes = marketing / sales strategies). 

Now that you’ve become a master of trade show email efficiency by utilizing pre-written trade show email templates and leveraging HubSpot’s email platform to send them, it’s time to take the next step: analyzing the email results. 

This year (on October 17, 2019 to be specific) marked the first year of the Manufacturing Marketing World conference in Jamestown, NY. 

protocol80, in partnership with MAST, the NWIRC, and the SBDC, worked to create the first educational conference geared toward helping manufacturers reach more prospects and generate more sales. This goal was achieved with the help of dedicated speakers, covering an array of topics throughout the day.

To say “you had to be there” would be an understatement. But, for those of you who couldn’t make it (or for anyone who wants a refresher), we’ve put together this recap guide with the key takeaways from each session, and a video glimpse of the day.

You’ve explored pre-trade show email templates and templates to send after the show is over (and if you haven't, what are you waiting for?!) to help become more productive and save time reaching out to trade show leads.