DADBA Expo Pre-Event Marketing Stats

Yesterday I attended the Downriver Small Business Conference hosted By DADBA (Downriver & Detroit Business Association) and DCFCU (Downriver Community Federal Credit Union). Prior to the event I sent out 65 post cards to current customers and prospects that I had met over the past few months (about half of which were NOT DADBA members).

The post card was simple (see below) telling the recipient to stop by my booth and pick up a Free Gift and also enter our drawing to win Free Promotional Products custom imprinted with their logo.

Of the 65 post cards sent, 4 people stopped by my booth and asked for their Free Gift, the response rate was 6% – which I think was very good. I purposely did not mention what the Free Gift was, a Stapler, in hopes of stimulating their interest.

On my table I had a sign and container stating “Enter to Win Free Promotional Products”, what I didn’t even consider is out of the 18 cards that were in the container, 3 of them were from people that received the post card. So I figure they still remembered the event, came to the event and stopped by my booth. My guess is they either forgot the post card or were simply embarrassed to claim the Free Gift, of maybe I wasn’t at the booth at the time they stopped by.

Nevertheless I have to count those additional business cards, bring the response to 7 which is just over a 10% response rate. Out of the 7 that responded 4 were DADBA members and 3 were not.

The entire event was a great success for me and my business; I am working up no less then 4 quotes and sending out some item specific catalogs to a few prospects that requested them. Then I will be using my Send out Cards account to follow up with all the cards I collected at the event.

Would the event have been a success for me without mailing out the post cards? Most defiantly, but by leveraging the event and a pre-event invitation to get a free gift I maximized the opportunity to expose my business, even If they did not attend or claim their gift. My company name crossed their desk and will be remembered 1 month, 6 months or even a year later.