Finding new strategies to increase ROI is top of mind for every agricultural brand. There are multiple avenues you can use to juice your top line, reach potential prospects, and showcase your products and services, but few are as dynamic as agricultural trade shows and outdoor expos.
In this blog, we will talk about some of the benefits of these trade show opportunities. Then, we’ll show you how to choose a show that aligns with your brand. Finally, we’ll tell you about how Mad Genius assisted Southern AgCredit with strategy and execution of their booths at the Mississippi Ag & Outdoor Expo.
Benefits of Agricultural Trade Shows and Outdoor Expos
If you want to spend your marketing dollars wisely, bringing an agricultural brand to an outdoor expo or trade show can be a great investment. Here are some of the ways attending one can maximize your marketing ROI.
Highly Targeted Audiences
A premier benefit of trade shows and expos is how uniquely positioned they are to attract a highly targeted audience. The crowd is typically an uneven mix of industry professionals and potential customers. These events attract like-minded people who are already interested in the products or services being exhibited. If that audience is already interested in what you’re offering, closing deals becomes a lot easier. Trade shows and outdoor expos give brands like yours a place to showcase their products and services to the most receptive audience possible.
Networking Opportunities
The aforementioned targeting of industry professionals and customers means these events provide a network opportunity with other industry players to get ideas and make invaluable connections. Networking can often lead to highly beneficial partnerships, collaborations, and new business opportunities that can increase your business’s revenue.
Increased Brand Visibility
Exhibiting at a trade show or expo has the potential to increase a brand’s visibility and awareness among new customers. Showcasing your products and services and engaging with attendees allows your brand to build greater brand recognition. This can establish your business among the industry leaders, and provide potential customers with hands-on experience with your brand.
New Sales Opportunities
Businesses want to generate leads, make sales, and close deals—trade shows and outdoor expos give brands a fantastic platform to do just that. Your business can offer product demos, special promotions, face-to-face feedback, and informative brochures. These are just some of the tools you can use to entice attendees to make a purchase.
How to Choose Your Trade Show: Brand Alignment
What events should your brand sponsor or attend? The first thing to consider is brand alignment. Ask yourself these questions:
- Does the event’s reputation and values align with those of your organization?
- Do the event’s patrons align with your target and growth personas?
- Will aligning with the event make your brand stronger? Relevant? Memorable? Relatable? Sharable? Resonant?
In other words, is it a good fit?
Case Study: Southern AgCredit at Mississippi Ag & Outdoor Expo
Opportunity
Mad Genius’s client, Southern AgCredit, signed on to be the presenting sponsor of the Dixie National Rodeo and the Mississippi Ag and Outdoor Expo. Southern AgCredit offers a variety of loan products that uphold and promote the rural way of life for families across Mississippi and Louisiana, proudly boasting the “best financing in the country.”
The Dixie National Rodeo and the Mississippi Ag and Outdoor Expo brought together a diverse group of rural-minded individuals who make their living and lifestyle from the land, making these events excellent opportunities to promote Southern AgCredit’s mission and values and, of course, generate new leads for loan inquiries. Simply put: the Mississippi Ag and Outdoor Expo provided Southern AgCredit with a highly targeted audience.
Strategy
Southern AgCredit needed to take advantage of the networking opportunities on the floor of the expo, so the sales team arrived and started connecting with visitors. To draw them in, Southern AgCredit offered up a few undeniably attractive incentives.
Promotional Giveaways
We needed a “vehicle” to carry our message to a distracted audience. Something that would cut through the clutter of vendors, crowds, bulls, and rodeo clowns and get families interested and excited about their brand. But not any vehicle would do. It had to be rough and ready for the rural lifestyle.
We found exactly what we wanted in a Honda Pioneer Side-by-Side, valued at over $16,000. Paired with a Kay Park Recreation Fire Ring and a pair of Adirondack chairs, we now had the ideal promotional giveaways to engage the crowds. We promoted the giveaway for weeks leading up to the event across social media, generating awareness and helping to drive ticket sales. Now the question was, how do we convert their engagement into leads?
To answer that question, we first had to ask, how does Southern AgCredit sell? Not surprisingly, they sell by forging relationships built on common ground—referrals and credibility. We had to design a space for loan officers to interact with the crowds and begin brokering trust. And we had to design a system to capture and organize the leads in real-time.
Lead Capture
Knowing that these events draw massive crowds, most of which are families with young children, we needed something to offer kids. Something on-brand and fun. Our logic was simple; while the kids are occupied, offer mom and dad a water bottle and a chance to win an awesome ATV. So, the Southern AgCredit Furry Farm Friends Petting Zoo was formed.
We brought in lovable farm animals for the kids to play with, complete with an eye-catching friendly backdrop, that funneled parents to a custom table outfitted with iPads to enter the giveaway. We captured only basic contact information and asked if they were interested in purchasing land in the next 12 months. Each entry was printed and entered into a drawing on the event’s last day.
Indoor Trade Show Booth Design
Inside the trade show floor, we also needed to design a space to stop traffic flow and create a zone where our loan officers could visit with people. We used the Kay Park Fire Ring and Adirondack chairs to build an oasis inside the chaos of the Expo. Our oasis was flanked by a 10’ tall x 20’ long video wall showcasing stunning scenic landscapes, country homes, pasture land, hunting land, and lakefronts. In front of the video wall, we custom-built a deck boasting LED cooktops and landscaped with trees and plants to camouflage the trade show environment.
We then carefully arranged the chairs and fire ring into a natural setting, creating the perfect spot to rest and chat with a friendly loan expert. Of course, the area was properly branded with banners and photography promoting Southern AgCredit’s signature calls to action: Begin. Grow. Improve. Hunt. and Unwind.
You’re probably wondering why we brought in the cooktops. With crowds of this size, what better way to stop folks than by offering them free food? We hired a celebrity wild-game chef to demonstrate cooking techniques for venison and rabbit and offered delicious bites to grateful families tired of spending money.
Expo Results
The success of event sponsorships is often determined by whether you can make it work both inside and outside the arena. How can you sustain the audience’s momentum and excitement in other channels before and after the event has concluded? Internally with your workforce. In social media. Instore POS. In packaging. In sales collateral or new business pitches. The endless opportunities require setting goals and planning (tactics and strategy) to make them work.
Qualified Leads
The promotional giveaway provided us with contact information that was then fed into Southern AgCredit’s CRM. These leads were placed on two tracks—qualified leads and thank-you letters. Each received a custom outbound email follow-up, inviting them to explore Southern AgCredit’s website and read about various loan products.
Loan Inquiry Increases
In the months around the Dixie National Rodeo and the Mississippi Ag and Outdoor Expo, Southern AgCredit’s loan application pipeline was higher than ever before. In each instance, a loan officer connected with a family hoping to finance a land purchase and took an application from a potential borrower. The greater pipeline of leads generated from these events continue to pay dividends. In 2022, Southern AgCredit experienced a record year of loan volume, breaking its previous record in 2021.
Social Media Content
Southern AgCredit was able to use images of the winner receiving the Honda 4×4 on social media. Showing the winner receiving the prize was an effective way for them to build trust and credibility, as well as generate excitement and interest in attending future outdoor expos.
Speak With an Agricultural Trade Show Marketing Strategist
Still have some lingering questions about how to effectively market at trade shows and outdoor expos? Join us for a brief 30-minute Q&A with one of our agriculture marketing experts.
