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Hosting-StammtischPractical knowledge for website owners

As of:

Translated from German. In case of discrepancies, the German version applies.

Field marketing

Your task: You are exhibiting at a trade fair, hosting an event or have a presence in retail, and you want it to produce more than a stack of business cards – and to know afterwards what it achieved.

What field marketing means

“Field” refers to being out there, on site: marketing that does not take place at a desk or online, but where people are approached in person. The term is used with two meanings:

  1. In retail and consumer goods: field teams who place products in shops, run promotions at the point of sale, hand out samples or train sales staff.
  2. In a B2B environment: regional marketing activities that support sales – trade fairs, specialist events, customer evenings, roadshows – often with the aim of generating leads for the sales team.

What both have in common: personal contact, limited time, high effort per contact. All the more important that the contact does not fizzle out.

Incidentally, the Hosting-Stammtisch itself was field marketing in the best sense: a meeting on site from which projects and business relationships emerged.

Connecting the appearance with the website

Before

  • A dedicated page for the occasion on your website: what are you showing, where can visitors find you, what is only available there? This landing page is the target of all printed references.
  • Decide on a short, memorable link to this page (e.g. your-domain.de/fair) that redirects to the landing page with campaign tagging.
  • Tag the links: add UTM parameters to the target address, e.g. utm_source=trade-fair-name, utm_medium=offline, utm_campaign=2026-autumn. This way your web analytics can tell trade fair visitors apart from others.

On site

  • QR code on the stand, flyer and business card, leading to the tagged link. Test it beforehand with several devices – and print the short address next to it for anyone who does not want to scan.
  • Only collect contacts with a purpose and consent. Anyone who collects visitors’ data needs a legal basis under the GDPR and must provide information. If you want to send promotional emails later, you need consent for that (see Newsletter marketing). A business card left at the stand is not consent to a newsletter.

After

  • Evaluate: visits via the campaign tagging, enquiries, conversations. Compare them with the cost of the appearance.
  • Do not delete the landing page; after the event, redirect it to a suitable permanent page. Printed codes live longer than any trade fair.

Common mistakes

  • The QR code leads to the home page instead of a relevant page.
  • The QR code leads to an address that no longer exists after the event.
  • No tagging – afterwards nobody knows whether the trade fair brought in visitors.

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General information, not legal advice.