The Exhibitor's Resource – Trade Show Marketing Blog

While aspects of the face-to-face marketing industry – which includes trade shows, special events, meetings, conventions, and the related travel & hospitality - have all felt the effects of budget cuts in the past year, there is plenty of justification to continue this type of highly effective marketing.

According to a recent survey of Fortune 1,000 Chief Marketing Officers, meetings and events provide the highest return on investment of any marketing channel. According to a recent study by CEIR, the Center for Exhibit Industry Research, exhibitions and events remained at the top of MarCom spending, accounting for 20% of the budget despite reductions in overall marketing spending.

Still, as a result of the downturn, exhibition budgets for 2009 are down by 17% and an equal 17% of exhibitors have reported that they will participate in fewer shows in 2009. The US Travel Association estimates that 200,000 travel related jobs were lost in 2008 and expect another 247,000 to be lost in 2009 According to the results of a Meetings and Conventions magazine, 52% of respondents claim that the economic downturn has influenced their company’s decision to hold events.

So why should companies still exhibit during an economic downturn?

To Close Deals & Sell More Product – Why would you want to shut off a stream of revenue when every bit counts?  Studies have shown that sustained marketing during a recession yields higher sales in the short term. And market share increases accomplished in while weathering a recession are often maintained or expanded during the recovery and subsequent boom years.

To Remain “Top of Mind” for Prospects and Existing Customers – Let them know that your company is still strong, or maybe even take this opportunity to kick it up a notch and stake your claim to the top player position in your niche.

To Take Advantage of Less a Crowded Space – Perhaps your company can secure more prominent booth space that may have been vacated by the competition. And with fewer exhibitors, there will be less noise, allowing your message get through and resonate longer with attendees and the media.

To Make High Quality Connections – Although the industry has seen a drop in the number of total show attendees and the sizes of booth spaces have been reduced, the QUALITY of the visitor now is much better. Companies may no longer be sending 25 reps to a conference or industry expo, now it’s maybe 10 or 12 – but those that they are being sent are the key decision makers and top representatives of companies you are looking to connect with. While companies are watching travel and entertainment expenses, they still feel that it’s important for their staff to stay connected, stay current on emerging trends in their industry, and to participate in education opportunities typically offered in conjunction with trade shows and other events.

Face-to-Face marketing experiences are personal, sensorial, tactile, emotional, and tangible.  No alternate or surrogate for that kind of direct contact exists.

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A - Get the word out to prospects, clients and trade show attendees ahead of the conference.
B - Make the most out of every minute on the expo floor, and then network as much as you can to drive traffic to your exhibit outside of expo hours.
C - Follow-up on show leads and other connections immediately and persistently after the trade show, or even while still at the show.

A) Pre-show mailers, email blasts, and calls to set up at-show appointments are the three tasks you and your team should be focused on one to two months ahead of your show. Your team’s goal is to “get on the dance card” of every potential customer. Consider an incentive to get pre-qualified prospects to your exhibit space. Take advantage of show-sponsored marketing tools, such as postcard mailings to all attendees, or email blasts to lists of attendees from your target segment. Many shows can break out lists of just your target audience, often by their professional title.

B) Schedule enough booth staff to cover your exhibit space for the entirety of the expo hours, factoring in snack, lunch, and bio breaks. Make sure that knowledgeable staff are available continuously until the show hall is empty. Once you and your team leave the expo floor, make an effort to connect with prospects and clients at after hours receptions and networking events. Encourage those you meet outside of expo hours to drop by your trade show booth to see that demo or meet with that colleague that has experience with their situation. Do everything you can to drive traffic to your booth on the next show day.

C) If you’ve done A and B, you’ll have a long list of interested prospects to call on after the show. This is a great problem to have, but you need a strategy in place to make sure you turn those leads into sales. One idea is to handle as many requests and follow-ups as you can while still at the show. This offsets the work you’ll need to do when you return to the office, but also ensures that you are seen as responsive and engaged. But once you’re back to the routine of the office, it’s important to make time for proper follow-up on all of the leads acquired at the show.

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As an event marketing manager, you may be asked to justify the costs of face-to-face marketing. Here is a quick list of the benefits of event marketing that no other marketing effort can offer:

Start a dialogue. A two-way conversation is better than mono-directional broadcasts, and face-to-face marketing on the trade show floor, or at other events is the best way to begin that communication. Of course you’ll want your booth staff to be on-message, but because it’s a conversation, they will be able to give the visitor best-targeted message.
A personal connection builds trust. Meeting face-to-face, with your company’s brand and message on display around your, a prospect is likely to be comfortable being approached and learning about what your offer is. A trade show exhibit space is one of the few places today where a “sales pitch” isn’t taboo.
Access to a receptive audience for your message (they are likely there to learn about emerging trends in their industry).
Immediate fulfillment of prospect requests. Booth staff can answer questions, provide information, deliver catalogs, and set up accounts on the expo floor. The interested client doesn’t need to wait for a returned call, a sample to ship, or a sales person to schedule a meeting in order to get the process started.
Establish or reinforce brand awareness and industry prominence. Even if your company is lucky enough to enjoy a dominant position in your market, it’s wise to reinforce that lead position and stay top-of-mind for your existing clients in addition to maintaining or enhancing your brand awareness to those who haven’t yet joined the majority.

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Trade show marketing requires a lot of preparation, coordination, and imagination. To make trade shows pay off in this new, over-saturated marketing world, an exhibitor must change the way they define their goals and how they execute their plan. As mentioned in previous posts, pre-show communication with prospects AND clients to get them to stop by your trade show booth is essential, as is having something to show them when they ultimately show up.

But an exhibitor can extend the payoff of their trade show investment into the future in the form of press releases, blog posts, photos, video footage and other buzz created while at the show. A trade show presence is an irreplaceable venue for interaction with key industry players, but it’s also a wonderful place to get in front of the media. Reporters from media outlets throughout the country, and indeed the world, attend trade shows looking for trends to report on. The better prepared you and your staff are, and the better your trade show display looks, the more likely you’ll be featured in a news story from the trade show floor.

And you can create your own media splash from the event yourself. An emerging trend in trade show marketing is for companies to launch a new product, announce a new service, or feature exciting demos within their trade show booth space, and document it all with photos and video footage. They then use the content they captured from that blitz across all the media formats and outlets they can. They immediately add posts to their blogs, send out press releases, and distribute the video. The trade show display acts as the stage in many cases, making sure their name, their brand, and their unique offer is seen and understood by whoever sees the photos and watches the clips.

Pulling that sort of coordinated marketing effort together may seem a daunting task, but have no fear, there are resources available to help you. A trade show consultant from an exhibit design firm is a great start, and can help exhibitors develop a strategy, create a design that supports your show activities and goals, establish a budget and help you stick to it, and handle all of the logistical details of the show itself. Because a seasoned trade show consultant has managed many exhibiting programs, they can suggest best practices to save time and money and help exhibitors catch potentially disastrous problems before the show. Exhibitors that work with trade show consultants have more time to devote to other planning for the show, such as rehearsing that demo presentation or energizing the sales professionals that will be staffing your exhibit.

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The best investment an exhibitor can make in addition to exhibiting at a trade show, is to get the word out ahead of the trade show that they will be there. There are several effective ways for exhibitors to do this. One is to send out a pre-show mailer or email campaign. A postcard or blast announcing that your company will be exhibiting at an upcoming show, complete with your trade show booth number is a start, but you can further entice prospects to visit with a special offer such as a giveaway. Many exhibitors have found that they have success with promoting special in-booth presentations or new product introductions during the expo. In addition to mass-marketing efforts like those, you should also mention your show presence to each prospect AND client you speak with in the months or weeks leading up to a show. It can even be a good reason to place another call to that prospect you haven’t heard back from. Sales staff can personally call and schedule in-booth visits with key prospects and existing accounts. Even if it’s just a mention of when that sales person plans to be in the booth, such personal invitations are highly effective.

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Have recent economic pressures created a situation for your organization where you’re trying to accomplish more with fewer marketing staff on hand to manage everything? Are your trade show management tasks now part of your marketing manager’s growing list of responsibilities? Are they struggling to keep on top of all of the exhibitor deadlines and planning tasks?

Well, you’re in luck. There is an easy, readily available, and cost-effective solution to your problem: Outsourcing Trade Show Management to an expert. We have found that many of our clients have realized a lot of benefits from letting us handle the myriad of details that come with preparing for exhibiting a trade show, freeing up their staff to focus on the wider marketing strategy and messaging campaigns.

We help companies of all sizes design, plan and execute their event marketing programs. We have seen companies reduce their event marketing expenses by increases in efficiency, reduction in mistakes and late or rush fees, and identification of cost-saving opportunities.

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What’s the best way to get prospects to visit you at your office? Set up shop on the trade show floor! Many sales professionals would jump through a lot of hoops to have hundreds of qualified prospects visit their office in just a few days. Yet some sales people are less enthusiastic about staffing their company’s trade show display. Are expo days long? Yes, they are! Are your feet tired by the end? If you’re not gelling, they may be. But look at what you get out of it: lots and lots of leads, many introductions, several good starter conversations, a few really promising business relationships, and a handful of sales or pending sales. Is it worth it? Absolutely! You just need to think of your trade show display as your office away from office. Or showroom away from showroom. Would you show up for your work day without appointments on the calendar? Of course not! Be sure to set appointments at your show just as you would at the office. You need to get on your prospect’s dance card. You need to make time for existing clients. Reach out, be a good host, and make the most of your satellite office!

Office Away from Office

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