Trade shows 'still popular for lead generation'

Three-quarters of the companies surveyed said they use trade shows to generate prospects.Face-to-face meetings through events such as trade shows are still a popular form of business-to-business (B2B) lead generation for many firms, a new survey has revealed.

According to the latest B2B Marketing in 2009: Trends in Strategies and Spending report from MarketingProfs, this technique is employed by 75 per cent of respondents, making it the third most popular way of collecting prospective clients.

The survey revealed that the recession has created new challenges that firms carrying out lead generation have had to respond to, with over half (54 per cent) of those that took part stating that they are planning on investing in specific segments selectively in order to make the most of their budgets.

However, opinions were generally positive among smaller companies when compared to their larger counterparts, as 31 per cent of businesses with annual revenues less than $20 million (£12.5 million) anticipated their budgets to have increased this year, compared to 16 per cent of organisations with revenues of over $500 million.

SBTV.com recently advised companies attending networking events such as trade shows to attempt to collect at least five leads from every person they meet.

It also urged them to plan ahead and ensure they take items such as a calendar and business card holder.