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- Weekly Update September 12th
Weekly Update September 12th
5 Ways to Make the Most of Expo East
Hey ,
Happy Monday! Are you going to Expo East this year? If so, I want to breakdown how to set goals to make the most out of any tradeshow.
PS. If you were forwarded this newsletter, please
.
5 Ways to Make the Most of Expo East
Tradeshows are a great way to build personal connections with potentially thousands of people in the food and beverage industry. They are filled with opportunities, but you need a plan going in to take advantage of them. As a brand, here are the most common goals you may have:1) Meet buyers and distributors to ultimately make sales2) Find ingredient suppliers3) Build your brand awareness so people (Press, incubators, consultants) seek you out and write stories about you.4) Turn industry insiders into customers5) Network with other founders and supporters in personLet's break down how to succeed at each.
1) Meet buyers and distributors to ultimately make sales
From my experience, few deals close at Expo East. Distributor shows are where you want to go if your main goal is to make sales from a trade show. That said, being at Expo can play a big role in your sales process.
Reach out to buyers before Expo to generate interest in your brand
Schedule time to meet one on one with a buyer or distributor either at your booth or in a quiet location.
Pitch your brand by showing that you've done deep research into the retailer, their customers, and why your product will be a good fit for them. Provide samples and have them taste on the spot to see their reaction. Set next steps for after the show.
Follow up until you close the deal.
2) Find ingredient suppliers
One big benefit of Expo East is that there are hundreds of ingredient suppliers attending too, so it's a great way to meet new primary or backup suppliers. With TeaSquares, we had a great green matcha supplier, but it wasn't until attending expo that we found a great powdered black tea supplier.
3) Build your brand awareness so people (Press, incubators, consultants) seek you out and write stories about you.
Expo is filled with hundreds of brands, so it's difficult to stand out. When I last attended, I feel like I only walked by 1/3rd of the booths -- it was a much bigger show then but still. To get noticed, you need to make your booth exciting. One of my favorite examples was a ginger beer brand that hosted a "happy hour" at the end of the day at their booth. There wasn't any alcohol, but there was music and a party-like atmosphere. It attracted dozens of people who came by to see what the commotion was about. If you just sit back and hope people discover you, they won't.
The other way to get good attention is to reach out to media writers before the show, encouraging them to come by your booth. We have a
, or reach out via Linkedin.
Create an e-mail list / newsletter specifically for brand supporters. These are people who want to hear all the latest updates about your brand and progress, but aren't necessarily customers. This way, you create a tribe of supports who will look out for opportunities that benefit you.
4) Turn industry insiders into customers
Expo East will have tens of thousands of natural product enthusiasts, who are all looking for delicious products to sample... and guess what? They are ALL avid consumers as well. Each week they fill their virtual and physical shopping carts with their favorite products, many of which they discover at events like this.
So instead of looking at people's badges to find that "one buyer", treat everyone who stops by your booth as a potential customer.
Here's the
ultimate sampling process
, courtesy of our friend
:
HOOK: Get the shoppers attention in a way that causes them to ask what you're about. Hand them a sample.
STORY: Tell your story in 10 seconds and if their interested, have a 20-second elaboration ready.
OFFER: If they provide any sign of interest, make an initial offer to get their e-mail address. Create a QR code for them to scan, which takes them to a brief form to fill out - and then they get a coupon.
UPSELL: A heavily discounted, one-time only offer available only for Expo East attendees.
AFTER EVENT AUTOMATION: Use e-mail to immediately increase interest in your brand and increase the lead quality in the contact list. Keep this event-specific.
E-mail 1: Welcome Video
E-mail 2: Provide value and reiterate brand story with a link to purchase.
E-mail 3: A fun and interactive survey to gauge their interest level.
BUILD RAVING FANS: Ongoing, creative, offering of value. All about creativity and commitment to ongoing contact. Build a relationship!
5) Network with other founders and supporters in person
Of course, for many founders, one of the key goals is simply to connect with other founders and supports while everyone is in the same place! Use this as an opportunity to reach out to people you only know virtually so you can build an even stronger relationship.
Make it easy by using a calendar app so people can book time with you, say in 15min increments. Those conversations may go longer, but instead of making people wait, invite them to join the conversation! People will come in and out, but it's a great way to network.
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All of these goals are totally worthwhile, but I can tell you it can be tough trying to accomplish too many of them. So have a primary goal, and 2 secondary goals so you can leave the show feeling like you accomplished something big!
Jordan Buckner
Foodbevy
FEATURE YOUR PRODUCT IN LIVESTREAMED COOKING VIDEOS
If you're looking for a new way to reach customers check out
Livestream events! They bring on content creators together with brands to create delicious recipes using their products. Then viewers can purchase directly from the stream.
WIN $20,000 IN CASH AND PRIZES
The Enthuse Foundation is looking for women entrepreneurs in the food, beverage, and CPG industries to apply to its Pitch Competition. This year’s grand prize is worth $20K+ in cash and prizes, while second place is valued at $15K+ in cash and prizes. Applications are open now and close at 11:59 ET Monday, October 3rd.
WHOLE FOODS LOOKING FOR LOCAL VENDORS
Whole Foods is taking meetings with brands at Expo East.They are looking for innovative, mission-based brands that are not currently selling at Whole Foods Market that are interested in 15-minute meetings with their Local Forager team attending the event.Apply by emailing [email protected] by 9/16 to be considered.In your email, please include:- Founder name- Phone number- Email- Production and headquarters location- One-page sales deck- Short description of your brand and why you want to supply to Whole Foods Market
FREE AFFILIATE MARKETING RESOURCES
Are you considering using affiliate marketing to grow your brand? Rexxy has an outstanding set of free resources for you to download to get started. Rexxy founder Kelsey wants to give back to founders to help you get started. Her free tool kit includes:
Affiliate/Ambassador Program Brand Kit: A complete handbook of the essential materials your brand needs to share in order to grow your company through the power of word-of-mouth marketing.
Optimizing Your Instagram Guide: Almost anyone can set up an Instagram account, but only a small percentage of brands are successful in using Instagram to grow their business. Get our complete checklist for auditing your company’s Instagram account and implementing key strategies for business growth.
Affiliate/Ambassador Program Activity Template: Use our template to track all of your affiliate program performance and outreach in one place.
TikTok Marketing Guide: Learn the tricks that the fastest-growing startups are using to leverage the unprecedented marketing power of TikTok. Get the winning strategy to connect with high-converting affiliates and ultra-targeted customers.
FREE Membership to Our Affiliate/Ambassador Marketing Community: Network with the leaders of up-and-coming brands and discover affiliate marketing partnership opportunities.
ATHLETIC GREENS INFLUENCER MARKETING TEARDOWN
Dive into the Athletic Greens influencer marketing strategy if you are trying to scale an eCommerce or SaaS business without a bottomless pit of money.Athletic Greens was bootstrapped for a very long time, from 2010 to 2021. They didn't raise outside funding until they hit $150M in revenue. The bootstrapped approach helped them stay conservative with their marketing expenditure as they didn't have the cash to blow up on performance marketing or billboards. They chose influencer marketing. Optimizing each stage of the influencer marketing funnel was the only option to ensure maximum ROI....
GO AFTER YOUR 2022 IMPOSSIBLE GOAL PROGRAM
It's September of 2022 and that means you have four months left to get closer than you ever thought possible to that big goal you set waaayy back in January.I want to teach you the five step process and offer you support and accountability to do hard things and make the impossible, possible.
Bonus Materials
90 minute Achieve Any Goal Workshop (live 9/13 + replay)
2 hour Goal Power Hour working session + feedback
Three 60 minute goal coaching calls [October, November & December]
Bonus - Create More Time Bootcamp (4 part series to be more productive)
NEW PODCAST EPISODE: 57. Building a Successful Brand in 2022
Jane McKay and her co-founder Meg Barnhart founded the Zen of Slow Cooking a line of spice blends made for easy slow cooker meals. What started off as a blog quickly turned into a CPG company that grew from selling in Farmer's Markets to Walmart. Now, Jane helps other founders grow along the same journey through her company Astute Ideas. We'll also discuss her current work in the Low/No alcohol space and the future of that category.
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- Mindful Goods
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- Chop
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The Accountrepreneur
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can store information in a spreadsheet that's visually appealing and easy-to-use, but it's also powerful enough to act as a database that businesses can use for customer-relationship management (CRM), task management, project planning, and tracking inventory.
With your help we're building an amazing community of Food and Bev entrepreneurs helping each other!
Jordan
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