The most preferred methods for learning about contract manufacturing
services are tradeshow and conference booths, and word of mouth
recommendations from colleagues. Pharmaceutical exhibitions often have
thousands of prospects in attendance, almost all of which have projects
either underway, or near underway, and projects that are in need of
services from a contract manufacturer. When marketing your company at a
tradeshow, it is getting the leads which is important.
Because there are so many competing pharmaceutical vendors that
attend pharmaceutical expos, a pharmaceutical manufacturer needs to drum
up some excitement at their booth to draw attention from the audience.
The first step to capture leads is to draw in the crowds. This can be
achieved by promotional giveaways. Typical promotional giveaways
include: various gift cards, lotteries for iPhones and iPads, bottles of
wine and other high value items. By offering a raffle item, you will be
able to capture the interest of more prospects, and by requiring that
the visitor either leave you a business card or swipe their electronic
card, you can ensure a higher rate of success by leaving the tradeshow
with a lot more leads than you would have had otherwise. Another
strategy to attract visitors to a booth is to have a rotating video. The
video can provide a virtual tour of the manufacturing facility.This
works especially well if there are visitors
interested in developing their own pharmaceutical drug, or they are
wanting to create generics that can later be commercialized.
Once there are more visitors at the booth, it’s imperative that a
team of experts are readily available to answer complex questions. The
average marketing representative is not capable of answering many of the
questions that potential clients have, especially in the pharmaceutical
industry. Having a team of expert scientists available to answer
questions will increase the confidence in potential clients with your
company’s services, and increase the likelihood that they’ll want to
leave their contact information with you for future follow up about the
projects discussed.Pharma Manufacturer
Finally, once you have the visitors, it is necessary to collect their
business information. Sometimes, those who attend tradeshows get a card
that can be swiped at the booth that will then electronically transfer
that client’s information into ta database for you to follow up on
later. You can also use card scanning tools. Once the information is in a
readable and editable database, you can quickly create mass mailings
and other marketing materials to be sent directly to those leads. Since
most attendees don’t walk around with pens and paper due to time
constraints, it is advantageous to use a tool like described above to
get a larger number of attendees leaving their information with you.
When competing with hundreds of other booths, anything that can set
you apart will help you capture more leads. Renting a booth space that
fills a 30 × 30 foot space will draw more attention than if you rent a
booth space that only encompasses a 10 × 10 footspace. The larger the
space, the higher chances you’ll be seen.