Latest whitepaper: how to make the best of a trade show

Once feared to be a dying breed, trade shows have defied the digital age and continue to be an invaluable source of leads for many businesses.

But useful as they are, finding the right shows can be one of the hardest tasks a marketer can undertake. A good event will bring great rewards for years to come, whereas getting it wrong could be potentially disastrous for your business, both in terms of lost revenue and brand damage.

With so much at stake, we got to thinking about which are the key considerations for choosing an event and how to make a show deliver optimum value for your business.

What events should I attend?

The first and most obvious question you’ll need to ask of any trade show is: ‘What’s the show about?’ This should be followed shortly after by: ‘Who’s going?’ and ‘How many people are attending?’ Once you’ve ascertained that it’s a relevant subject matter and your target audience is attending, you’ll be in a good position to start making some analysis.

As a rule of thumb, a generic event must attract your target audience in large volumes, whereas smaller events must be specific to your product or service. It’s simply a numbers game: you will generate a higher percentage of leads at a niche event than you would at a generic one.

Just to be clear: by ‘generic’ we mean generic within your marketplace. For example, if you sell marketing merchandise e.g. branded stationery and are attending a marketing exhibition, you may be reaching the right people, but you have no guarantee that they are looking for products like yours. In this scenario, high volumes are essential to increase the likelihood of attracting people to your stand. On the other hand, if you attend a promotional marketing exhibition, you know that delegates are specifically looking for products like yours (if not yours specifically) and are therefore far more likely to drop by your stand.

An important question to ask is: ‘Which of my competitors will be attending?’ Request information on both those that attended the previous year and those who have re-booked. This will tell you whether the show is regarded well amongst your competition and whether it could be valuable for your business.

Be brutal with ROI

However large or small the event, be ruthless when it comes to estimating your return on investment. And do be aware of sales people who try to tempt you into attending an event based on business names and/or size of business. Household names are all very well, but if the event is only attracting 100 delegates and is not specific to your product or service, what is the likelihood that you will walk away with leads and ultimately contracts from those businesses?

As an example you could be a computer hardware manufacturer that has paid £5000 for a stand at an IT conference and exhibition. The conference is reaching 100 IT decision-makers, all from companies like Lloyds Bank, Vodafone and Topshop.

On the day, out of the 100 businesses, 70 are already satisfied with their current hardware supplier and are not looking to review this. Of the 30 that are looking, only 15 haven’t already found a preferred supplier. Of the 15 that haven’t found a preferred supplier, only 10 will be looking at the conference. Of the 10 businesses, only 5 have the time to visit your stand. Of the 5 only 3 actually give you their contact details. Therefore you walk away with 3 leads and with a current conversion rate of 20%, none of them convert to sale.

The business has achieved no ROI and lost more than £5000 from attending the event.

We have deliberately created a bleak scenario here to demonstrate that leads are dependent upon much more than job titles and that it is easy to be wowed with impressive sounding names that in reality mean very little. Yes, if the exhibitor had won a single contract with Vodafone it could have brought in a large contract, but with the likelihood so reduced, it wouldn’t be worth the gamble.

How much should an exhibition cost me?

Another key consideration is the actual cost of each lead. Essentially, the amount that you spend is entirely dependent on how much you are prepared to pay for each lead.

Exhibition leads are always more costly than, for example, direct mail or website leads, so you should expect your cost per lead to be higher than usual. However the cost per lead still needs to bear some relation to the average contract/sales value. For example, if you are a car retailer, with an average margin of £5,000 per car, your cost per lead can be higher than for say, a laptop manufacturer.

Use your cost per lead to determine whether a show is cost effective for you. So for example, the car manufacturer may decide that their CPL should be no more than £150. If the event costs £10,000* and they expect 100 leads, at a CPL of £100, it’s worth attending. In theory, if the car manufacturer spent £150,000 on an event and realistically expected 1000 leads, at a CPL of £150 it would be extremely valuable to their business.

As in the example of the computer hardware manufacturer at the IT conference, do be brutal in your lead estimations. It’s often useful to visualise an event, or even attend the show in question as a delegate, to inform your decision.

*Do consider that costs include more than just stand space and must factor in accommodation, carpet laying, contractors, meals and equipment hire etc.

How to exhibit

Your objectives should always influence the scale and nature of your presence to some degree. For example, if you are launching a new brand and exposure is critical to success, make sure that you go the extra mile with the stand design and size, so that it won’t be easily missed. Also concentrate on maximising visual exposure at other points around the exhibition hall, for example through sponsoring a seminar area. Equally if lead generation is more important you may not want to go all out on stand size and sponsorship, but instead focus on ways to attract visitors to your stand through aggressive pre-show promotion.

In most cases trade shows are all about leads. However, don’t forget that leads and brand are mutually supportive in marketing i.e. you can’t have one without the other. That means regardless of what’s most important to you, don’t neglect your leads or brand, even if you weight your spend differently according to your objectives.

Standing out

The stand must look slick, eye-catching and inviting and be positioned in a high traffic area e.g. near a cafe or rest area. If there is a dedicated zone for your type of product then it is advisable to exhibit in this area, to avoid missing visitors that are looking for your product and could bypass your business otherwise.
The stand must be well manned at all times and preferably include an interactive feature e.g. a demo area, or plasma screen presentation. There should also be an easy way of capturing leads, either through your own lead forms or hand-held data capture devices.

Your sales people must be alert and on hand to help at all times. Huddling, surfing the Internet and ignoring visitors will all be detrimental to your brand.

Sponsorship

Sponsoring an event is extremely costly and is usually more applicable to larger players in the market who quite simply have more money to spend. If budgets are limited, it is best to keep sponsorship to times when you are promoting a new product or service so that you know you have something exciting to shout about.

It is also important to challenge exhibition organisers’ perception of sponsorship value – only pay what you feel something is worth and make this clear to the organiser. Also have an idea of how much value the sponsorship will add to your presence at the show, to help quantify how much you are prepared to spend.

Sponsorship should never just be the plastering of a logo on signs and merchandise. Try to do something different and preferably interactive e.g. a breakfast networking event where you have the opportunity to promote your product or service, or cafe area sponsorship with customised messages, for example on takeaway cups, that clearly communicate your brand.

Think about how else you can add value to the event e.g. through case study speakers, or your own demonstration and/or seminar rooms. Again, only opt for extra presence if you feel that it will significantly increase your brand presence/lead count - depending on your aims for the event.

Do consider making use of any visitor mailing lists, for contacting delegates both before and after the event. Not all event organisers will make these available, but some will offer mailshot opportunities either via third party email, or their own mailing houses and it is usually wise to make use of these.

Preparation

Crib sheets with sales messages for the show are essential to ensure consistency from your sales people. What do you want people to say about your business? Are there specific products/versions you want to promote? What is your Unique Selling Point (this is a common exhibition question when visitors are faced with a lot of companies selling the same product)?

If you are promoting a new product or service, is everyone well-versed in the key features and benefits? Some responsibility must be placed on your sales people to be well prepared for the show, therefore it is not unreasonable to make it clear that penalties may be applied for those who are unprepared on the day.

Set targets for sales people so they have an idea of what they’re aiming for and budgets permitting, factor in a post-show reward. Include conversion rates and expected sales from show leads, to put their work into context. Even if it’s simply a bottle of champagne for the person who generates the most leads.

It’s important to issue a pre-exhibition pack with dates, times, directions, targets, crib information, where they can find follow-up templates, accommodation, evening events etc. Try to include something fun, like drinks events you may be attending to keep people’s interest up and motivate them prior to the event. This pack will prevent you (in theory at least) from answering endless queries. To this end, issue it at least 1 week prior to the event.

Follow-up

Key to making an event work is how you handle follow-up. Follow-up should be conducted promptly, either the day following the show or at another date agreed with your new contact. Make sure leads are categorised into low, medium and high priority, so any delays due to low staffing don’t impact your ‘hot’ leads.

Prepare your follow-up materials in advance of the event so that they are quick to access in the aftermath. Use templates that can be easily edited and mail merged so that communication is consistent but fast.

If you can send something with your communication to make it stand out from other exhibitors, then this will help you to continue making an impact on your prospects.

Never a given

Even with your tried and tested shows, make the organiser work for you. No-one should assume your continued support, however successful the show may be.

Most importantly, trade shows aren’t right for every business. Good event organisers will recognise this, but always beware those that don’t have your best interests at heart. If in doubt, go along for a look, but leave the decision until next time.