Education
Trade show success hinges on choosing the right industry networking events that directly impact your business goals.
This insight provides a framework for you to choose the right trade shows to get the best return on your investment.
Section 1: Identify Your Trade Show KPIs
The backbone of any trade show strategy is a perfectly articulated business goal. It's the single most important decision that sets the direction for everything else that is to follow.
Connecting Trade Show Goals to Your Big Picture Results
A 'goal first' approach starts with understanding higher-level business goals, then translating them into specific goals for the industry trade show participation.
Are you targeting increased brand awareness, lead generation, a new product launch, or simply retention amongst your existing customer base? Each of those higher-level goals will then dictate what sort of trade shows to attend as well as the KPIs you need to track. For instance, if market penetration is a primary business objective, you may want to find industry-specific trade show programs in new geographical regions or new market segments to target.
Defining and Measuring Your Core Trade Show Objectives
After you've set your big picture business goals, it's time to determine and measure your major trade show objective. Make sure these are based on the SMART criteria: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Sensitive. For example:
Lead Generation: Aiming to collect 200 qualified leads from decision-makers within your target audience
Brand Awareness: 20 percent increase in brand awareness in a particular industry segment, measured via post-shows surveys or social media mentions.
Product Launch: 10 product demos secured and 50 product inquiries generated for the launch of a new product.
Industry Networking & Partnerships: Setting dates for 15 meetings with strategic partners or key distributors.
Setting up Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Performance Benchmarks
To evaluate the success of your trade show efforts in terms of your predefined objectives, you’ll want to develop relevant Key Performance Indicators (marketing KPIs) as your baseline. Typical KPIs lists include:
Number of Qualified Leads: A count of how many leads (lead tracking) and the quality of them were generated via lead capture tools.
Cost Per Lead (CPL): Indicates how much it takes to get a lead. Identifying this can help with trade show budgeting and calculating event ROI.
Booth Traffic: The number of people stopping by your booth. It can also be referred to as foot traffic in some cases.
Conversion Rate: The percentage of leads that become actual customers.
Social Media Tracking: Audience engagement performance metrics such as mentions, shares, and interactions generated by social media promotions through your exhibit space.
Return on Investment (ROI): The biggest indicator of profitability.
Section 2: Knowing Your Target Audience
Your trade show marketing plan is only as good as your audience. If you go to a show with the wrong people showing up, your message, product, and marketing efforts will be ignored, no matter how great your booth layout is.
Targeted Demographic Information
Get more specific than just a customer profile. Deep dive into their demographics: job, industry, company size, purchasing authority, age, and location. Equally important are their psychographics: their pain points, motivations, challenges, interests, and buying triggers (what sparks their buying activities).
Differentiating Between Trade Show Types for Audience Alignment
Trade shows vary significantly in their focus and attendee composition. Understanding these differences is key to your tradeshow strategy:
Industry Show Events: Highly targeted events focusing on one industry, drawing in industry specific professionals and decision makers to your business.
Regional Shows: Low scale, geographically focused shows that can be great for local market penetration.
International Shows: Open doors to international markets, but bring about higher logistical complexity and cost.
Buyer-centric Shows: B2B shows that are tailored to the needs of business buyers looking for suppliers.
Customer Engagement Quality
Although the number of attendees walking in through the door may be enticing, focus on lead quality and potential of those visitors. Research exhibitor lists from previous years to check if your competitors are there - a good indicator that your target audience will be present.
Moreover, study the people who show up on the attendee demographic data provided by trade show organizers, and how long ordinary people tend to spend at the show. High attendee engagement potential indicates that people are looking for solutions and are more likely to interact with your brand.
Section 3: Trade Show Budgeting
Running a successful trade show takes careful financial planning. Because exhibitor costs can quickly skyrocket, realistic budgeting and meticulous ROI calculation are a must.
A Complete Trade Show Budget
Your budget has got to include a lot more than just your booth space costs. Consider the following expenses:
Custom Trade Show Booth: Customization, furnishings, graphics, and technology.
Shipping & Logistics: Shipping your booth, product, and materials.
Staffing: Your travel, hotel accommodation, per diems, and staff training.
Marketing Campaign: Pre-show marketing, during-show, and post-show marketing materials.
Giveaways and Collateral: Brochures, promotional items, and product samples.
AV and Tech: Equipment, rental, and event support services.
Drayage and Handling: Fees for moving items within the venue.
Return on Investment (ROI) and Return on Objectives (ROO)
Measuring your return on investment is essential for making your trade show case. The calculation is: [(Revenue Generated - Investment Cost) / Investment Cost] x 100.
Not all goals are revenue-based. For non-financial targets, calculate your Return on Objectives (ROO), which looks at how well you achieved your desired outcomes, whether they are non-monetary or not.
Sponsorship Opportunities
Trade shows often come with sponsorship packages that can increase your brand's visibility and influence. Consider whether sponsorships make sense for your business goals. For instance, sponsoring a particular session or networking event may be the best way to connect with a specific niche of attendees or promote your company as a thought leader. Consider what the sponsorship offers and how it fits into your overall ROI.
Planning: Exhibitor Success
The key between a successful exhibitor experience and a costly mistake is not buying a random booth space - it's about having it in the right place, at the right event, and amongst the right people. Adopt a goal-first approach, define your target audience, research, and lay out a solid financial plan. By doing so, exhibiting becomes an expense you can account for that can be calculated to meet business objectives.
Level's custom booth fabrication services devise the best strategies for sustained trade show success, which maximizes conversion rates long-term.
