Dropped $2,400 on a booth at a security expo and got 11 bad leads
I used to think trade show booths were the best way to sell our endpoint tool to IT guys. We grabbed a 10x10 at a regional expo in Denver back in March and walked away with 11 scans, and 9 of them were college kids grabbing swag. The one real buyer told me he only came by because our stress ball looked like a tiny firewall, which honestly stung. What changed my mind was a $300 webinar we ran the next month that pulled 40 signups and 6 demos from actual security managers. So now I'm wondering if anyone here has cracked the code on expo ROI, or is it just a swag tax we all pay?
Read somewhere that most expo leads go cold within 48 hours unless you book the meeting on the spot, which tracks with your 11 scans turning into basically nothing. Sounds like smaller niche events or virtual stuff just filters out the swag hunters way better.