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You’ve been selling trade show related products to your client’s for years, but are YOU exhibiting in trade shows…and are you maximizing your marketing potential at these shows? Many times the old story of the cobbler whose children needs new shoes is true for those of us who help others prepare for trade shows. The following strategies can help you grow your business, while setting a good example for your clients.
Trade show exhibiting offers a unique opportunity to gain new customers, strengthen relationships with existing customers, inform the public about what you do or sell, and ultimately get more business. Promotional products and their educated use in conjunction with exhibitions can mean the difference between “trick or treating for adults” and an extremely cost effective marketing tool.
According to Edward Chapman in Exhibit Marketing, there are more than 4,000 good-sized trade shows (300+ booths) annually in the United States and Canada. Which of these shows are right for you is largely a matter of your chosen marketing niche and long term strategy. Most business-to-business trade shows offer you a significant chance for face-to-face meetings with decision makers that you wouldn’t normally see. Chamber of commerce shows, and shows targeting particular market segments such as not-for-profit development directors, human resource professionals, or purchasing agents…all may be the key to your future growth and expansion.
A study by the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR) reported in Exhibitor Times indicates that 86 percent of trade show attendees have some buying influence and 59 percent plan to buy over the next year as a direct result of their show attendance. Not bad numbers compared to the many “gatekeepers” you’ll traditionally run into on your way to the decision maker.
If you’ve done trade shows and done them well, you know it is very demanding work. It can also be some of the best time and money you ever spend as a businessperson. To gain the maximum benefits from exhibiting, it’s important to remember that trade shows start long before the doors open and last well into the next business cycle.
PRE-SHOW
You need to start with goals for exhibiting. The most effective goals are goals that are quantifiable, realistic, and difficult to achieve. According to marketing author Meg Wittemore, only about 20 percent of companies exhibiting at trade shows set objectives and communicate those objectives to their staff. Booth staff will respond to how their efforts are measured, therefore a good match between your goals and your chosen measure(s) of success is critical. Common measures for trade show effectiveness include number of targeted individuals who visit the booth, dollar volume of sales attributable to the show, number of attendees who stop at your booth, number of appointments set, number of catalogs given or information requested, and many others – like increasing awareness of brand, general goodwill.
Ideally you should attend any show the year before you plan to exhibit. Observe the traffic flow and other exhibitors. Pay special attention to the number of attendees. Talk to exhibitors about whether their expectations are being met. When you have a choice of booth spaces, remember that most people move through an exhibition in an inverted pyramid. People tend to enter an exhibit hall and turn to their right, then proceed to the far right corner of the hall. Next they tend to go all the way across the back of the hall to the far left corner, then back to the front and out the exit. Each show has a unique traffic pattern that you need to know (and use) as you vie for attention.
You’ll want to talk to show sponsors and get your reservation in for the following year as soon as the show closes. Indicate your preference for booth space and consider things like traffic flow, visual pathways, and dominant neighbors. Positions at the end of a long isle or near a strategic location such as food are can be desirable (depending on the show size, audience behavior, and the presence or absence of alcohol). Booth selection and utilization is key to your success. Realize in most cases you are not restricted to color patterns of the “pipe and drape” of the show. Having your own custom backdrop can make you standout. Know and understand the show rules. You want to be a gracious exhibitor…and you want to maximize your exposure. Find out the maximum height your display can be…and use it!
You’ll also want to clarify things like costumed characters, potential sponsorship opportunities and opportunities to present a workshop or other session at the show.
Pre-show promotion
Statistics tell us that the average trade show attendee will visit 35 booths during a visit to a business or industry related trade show. For example, if the show you are exhibiting in has 210 booths, there is a 16.67 percent (35/210) chance that any attendee will randomly stop at your booth. If we add reality to the picture and realize that at best, one fourth of the people who attend the show are viable prospects for your business, there is a 4.17 percent chance that the right people will randomly stop at your booth (1/4 X 35/210). Clearly you need to take control and increase the percentage of appropriate people who stop at your booth. You want to be sure you contact the right people before the show and get them to choose your booth as one of the 35 they will visit.
Advertising in appropriate media and direct marketing are two of the most effective ways of reaching your target audience before they arrive at the exhibition. Targeted pre-show mailings are a form of direct marketing and you’re probably familiar with direct mail response rates of 2-3 percent. You can do much better than that. Carefully planned and executed direct mail campaigns to attract show attendees that have double digit return rates are common and rates of 30 percent or more are very achievable. A recent study published by the Center for Exhibition Industry Research found that a pre-exhibit promotional gift could increase exhibit traffic almost three times greater than a pre-exhibition invitation mailing without a gift. If a “companion gift” is used (one item is mailed with an invitation to stop by the booth to pick up a companion piece) exhibit traffic is enhanced further.
At the show
What people see and how they are treated when they come to your booth is your business in the mind’s eye of the visitors. Have you seen this at a show before? The bold banner reads, “We’ll give your business the same attention we give our own.” The sign is falling off the wall and the booth attendant is eating … and flirting with the exhibitor five booths down! Granted, the example is a bit extreme, but consider what kind of negative messages exhibitors send all the time. The 5 p.m. booth visitor who finds an empty booth because the staff left at 4:30 p.m. Or how about the well-targeted visitors who go to a booth they were invited to, and are ignored as unimportant because it was a “casual dress day” for them? Stereotyping booth visitors and lack of staff planning make powerful statements the public will not soon forget.
If you’ve done your homework right, there will be plenty of visitors to your booth. We can fairly categorize the majority of trade show attendees into three groups: browsers, potential prospects, and targets. The “browsers” have no buying influence. The “potential prospects” influence decision-makers and may themselves be decision-makers in the future. The targets go without saying: These are the people you exhibited at the show to see. They are decision-makers for your product or service and/or they have substantial influence regarding purchase decisions for your offerings.
You will see attendees from all three groups at your booth so it is appropriate to plan accordingly. Proper management of your collateral materials, promotional give-a-ways and staff time, are critical to efficient booth operation and maximizing results. One benefit of doing a pre-show mailing to a targeted audience is that when people present your mailing (or mention it) to receive their promised gift, you know they are someone you want/need to talk to. Another way to pre-qualify attendees at your booth is through the use of prize drawings. A pre-printed drawing form is preferable, but be prepared with stickers that fit on the back of a business card that ask the key questions for you. These key questions are typically, does your organization use our “stuff?”’ And, “Who is the decision-maker for buying our stuff?” If you freely offer a drawing and do not have a visible receptacle for depositing the entries…visitors to give entry forms to booth staff. This will encourage interaction and information exchange particularly if your entry form is a sales lead qualifying tool.
Your use of promotional products should reflect your knowledge of the various types of show attendees. Consider having three levels of promotional products, each representing the investment you are willing to make. “Browsers” need to be able to pick something up of yours that has logo permanence or at least gets you an additional logo impression with people after they walk away from your booth. You never know what drawer or hands your inexpensive item may end up in down the road that benefits you greatly…think $.10 or less value per piece for browsers. The promotional products you choose for the “potential prospects” should be kept off the booth surface and out of plain site to the “browsers.” Attendees must “earn” your mid-range give-away by interacting with booth staff and demonstrating at least minimal interest in what you do. Your entry forms will tell you who the potential prospects are. Think $.75-$1.00 per item for your potential prospects.
Be good to your “targets.” A special “thank-you” is appropriate for those who respond to your pre-show promotion or demonstrate during their visit to your booth that they are indeed part of your target audience. To have real staying power with your desired clients…you’ll need to spend $5-$10 or more (perceived value).
Of course the “bottom line” is that you want to turn booth attendees into future customers (or more frequent/sizeable customers). To do that, you must know who the visitors to your booth are and you must follow up with them. Use your drawing entry forms and any onsite data collection device available. You can have people enter your drawing directly into your computer lead database, and some shows offer scanners and other technology for data collection. In any event, be sure to use the information attendees give you…when you have made a lasting face-to-face impression on someone, you need to follow-up to close the deal. Practice being able to mail out a thank you note to show attendees within 48 hours…this shows you are interested in the prospects…and you will be days to weeks ahead of your competitors.