This is a blog by Mark Verzijl, Consultant at Sciential.

The world has opened up again. This also means that life science events are happening again – especially this and next month. My tip to life science companies is to maximize the output of your attendance – especially when you are having a booth, doing a talk or participating in roundtables.

This is what I call “roadshow marketing”, basically meaning that you set up digital marketing campaigns based on:

◾ Behavioral targeting (e.g., the audience recently searched for the event on Google or visited the website)
◾ Proximity targeting (target based on a radius around a specific location).

This means that you can reach the audience – let’s say – several weeks/days before the conference. This way you can prime the audience to visit your booth. On the one hand, this drives conscious behaviour i.e., people actively plan to visit your booth. On the other hand, unconscious behaviour is stimulated by the so-called mere exposure effect meaning that visitors subconsciously favour you over a brand they have not heard of yet. Furthermore, another approach would be to target a radius around a specific location on the date of the event. This way you reach the audience at the exact moment. A combination of both is also possible.

Roadshow marketing is also relevant for companies not visiting these events. This way, you will still be able to be associated with the event, get noticed and convey your message without renting an expensive booth. After all, for most companies, it is financially impossible to attend all events. Using roadshow marketing, you do not necessarily need to choose.