In the business-to-business world, tradeshows are the primary venue for connecting with potential purchasers, engaging existing customers and filling the sales funnel with qualified prospects leading to increased revenues. In the past, exhibitors relied on paper lead forms with stapled business cards to collect specifics about visitors for post-show follow up, but BlueStone Nexus is a comprehensive technology solution for exhibit marketers and their staffs.
BlueStone BD, an Israeli start-up based in Kfar Saba, has an app for gathering this data on an easy-to-use platform for tablets and smartphones, but it does a lot more than just collect lead information. Included is an e-literature sharing platform where post-event data is importable into a corporate customer relationship management (CRM) system for tracking and determining return on investment (ROI) at each event.
“BlueStone Nexus is a bridge between what takes place at a tradeshow all the way through the sales and marketing management process,” said Avigdor Sapir, co-founder of BlueStone BD.
Introduced only two years ago to limited markets, BlueStone Nexus is gaining momentum, visibility and accolades from its clients. Joe Bleau, director of afimilk’s North American business unit, was an early adopter. When asked how his salespeople reacted, he talked about how it has impacted his business.
“The overall response was very positive,” he said. “It’s easier than anything we ever tried in the past. It’s as beneficial on sales calls as it is in our tradeshow exhibits.”
BlueStone Nexus also features InfoItems®, an e-literature sharing platform, which gives tradeshow staff the ability to provide product information to attendees immediately.
“One thing really stood out, because we have a lot of material for our clients, is that the staff had easy access to marketing collateral and didn’t have to look all over our stand to find information for visitors,” said Henning Brunk, customer relationship manager at RINA Germany GmbH. “We also received compliments from attendees on how quickly they received the InfoItems® we provided for them to share with their colleagues. They usually had it on their smartphones before they left the booth.”
Brunk also said the platform was simple to use and that he hadn’t planned on using it at a tradeshow but afterwards he was convinced.
BlueStone Nexus was designed to easily collect contact details, complete customizable lead qualifiers and digitally distribute marketing collateral to potential customers. Prospects then receive an email link to the BlueStone Nexus collaboration platform, also known as an e-literature site, so they can securely view, annotate and share marketing collateral they received from the exhibitor. The sharing platform doesn’t require a log-in, which is a benefit most business people like because it speeds up the process.
After the event, salespeople can download all their contacts for post-event action and have them organzed for the follow-up process.
BlueStone Nexus also provides sales and marketing managers with business intelligence via multiple reports. Salespeople can prioritize leads and actually quantify the effectiveness of their marketing collateral.
“This feature gives us a behind the scenes look at what information our account executives and their clients are sharing,” said Brunk “It helps us learn which sections of our marketing material are most important to our customers.”
Another feature is the ability to import data into an internal CRM systems which provides trackable data to aid in determining ROI for each event an exhibitor attends.
BlueStone Nexus also recently added marketing automation as an add-on service for its customers. This ability to nurture leads after the event enables its users to extend the reach of the tradeshow long after it closes.
