January 20, 2017

Five Mistakes You’re Making at the Tradeshow

More than two-thirds of exhibitors do not have a solid plan in place and end up making mistakes at the tradeshow as they exhibit.

5 mistakes you're making at the tradeshow

In fact, not having an organized, comprehensive plan is one of the most common mistakes that exhibitors make.

And it’s safe to say that nearly all exhibitors don’t have a solid grasp of the metrics of their success or failure that comes from that tradeshow appearance. Why? Because companies tend to put all of their energy, time and money into putting on a good show, and very little into counting the results after the end of the show. Measuring your results – leads, sales closed – is one of the most critical measurements you can make.

Let’s look at some of the common mistakes you might make as you exhibit at the tradeshow.

First, you don’t have a comprehensive plan. This means going from A-Z and planning to cover all your bases, from pre-show marketing and show execution to having an exhibit that accurately represents your brand and communicates your message to counting leads and sales after the show is done. Know what you’re selling, who you’re selling to, how you’re planning to get back your return on the investment and where your tradeshow appearance fits in your overall marketing strategy.
Secondly, you may have the wrong people in the booth. Tradeshow floors are a chaotic busy mess where hundreds or thousands of people come and go all day long. Without proper preparation, which usually means staff training and picking the right people, you’ll end up with sales people or other staffers that can’t interact with precision, veracity and alacrity with those visitors. They’re not asking proper questions, they’re letting big fish get away and they’re spending too much time on little fish or people that won’t ever buy.
Third: you’re repeating yourself. Do you ever see the same company at the same show with the same exhibit year after year, showing off the same products? On close examination it seems nothing really changes from year to year. A company that’s on top of their game will upgrade the booth regularly or replace it when necessary; they’ll have new products to show off and new ways of interacting with visitors.
Fourth: you’re cheapening your brand by having inappropriate brand ambassadors in your booth. Pretty models in skimpy outfits may attract a crowd, but they do nothing to improve or define your company’s brand unless, of course, your brand is built on pretty models in skimpy outfits. Otherwise, in today’s climate, exhibiting in the US using those types of representatives will likely get you negative feedback.
Fifth: the biggest tradeshow marketing sin of all – you’re not following up on all of those leads in a timely manner. The fact that tradeshow leads are cheaper by the dozen and more targeted than any other kind of lead, coupled with the fact that your competitors have many of the same leads in their bucket, means that you must strike while the iron is hot. Letting a lead sit more than a few weeks means it grows colder and colder until you might as well toss it out with the other dead fish.

We all make mistakes – it’s part of life – but the more you can minimize mistakes with oodles of tradeshow marketing dollars on the table, the better off you’ll be.

Click here to grab my Tradeshow Follow-up Checklist

January 18, 2017

What’s your Tradeshow Marketing Narrative?

We all have stories – narratives that we can use to let people know who we are and what we stand for.

In the recent US presidential election, it was truly a battle of narratives. One side was viewed as a stable, dependable candidate albeit having been painted as crooked for decades by the other side. The other candidate was viewed as an outsider looking to ‘drain the swamp,’ but was painted by the other side as vulgar, unpredictable and unstable.

We all know how the election turned out. But what’s interesting is that no matter how much fact-checking came into play by countless individuals and entities, that the narrative of each side was what mattered most. We tend to believe what we want to, and if the story that’s depicted resonates with us, we’ll be moved by it.

It’s the same with tradeshow marketing. I have a number of clients in the natural products industry, and each company endeavors to tell a specific story using images, colors, graphics and messaging as part of an exhibit. Each company backs that up with products that continue that story and personnel that believe in the narrative. If there is a weak link in the chain, the dissonance will be felt, even if it isn’t clearly seen or understood.

That’s why, when crafting your tradeshow marketing narrative, all elements are important. Think of it: you’re under the microscope in a location where dozens if not hundreds of direct competitors are being examined as well. Every little thing contributes to the overall perception of your product and company: your employees, the clothes they wear, how they present themselves; the graphics, messaging, images, colors, booth construction materials, the flooring – are all communicating a distinct message. And if your story or narrative is not fully understood by the people designing the booth and creating the graphics, there is a good chance that the message will be garbled.

From the whole grains company to the bread company to the natural deodorant company to the men’s hygiene products company, they are all working to tell their story so that it’s easily understood, that it’s intuitively inferred by visitors.

Smarter people that me have the knowledge to craft those stories based on their knowledge of images, colors, messaging and so on and how people absorb those messages. The top companies in any industry are the ones that do the best job of depicting a narrative that fully and simply tells the story that they intend to tell.

December 27, 2016

How to Benefit from Tradeshows Without Exhibiting

You can benefit from tradeshows without exhibiting – it just takes a little planning.

For example, the simple fact of tradeshows means that there is an assemblage of buyers, managers, clients and prospects all at the same time. Consider scheduling an informal meeting with several of them. Perhaps it can be a dinner or an after-hours party or gathering. One show I attend regularly throws a party for all regional folks to see the best of the region. Several exhibitors are organized to gather their products for a state-specific gathering to show off the best-in-state (make sure that your activities are approved and sanctioned by the show and don’t break show rules).

Work with another company. Is there a larger exhibitor that you have worked with in the past? Perhaps it’s a good fit to co-exhibit with them and show off your goods at their booth. It might be marketing partners, customers, vendors or others that are complementary. For instance, if your co-exhibitor makes bread, that might be a good opportunity to show off your toast toppings.

Speak at a show. Larger shows in particular have ongoing training and seminar programs. Show off your expertise by offering to give a presentation or join a panel. It’s not really an opportunity to promote products (it’s frowned on, obviously), but if you can show your expertise and knowledge it’ll improve your standing in the industry, which can attract prospects. Work with noncompeting speakers: meet and greet and see how you might assist them in future projects.

Research products and competitors. Some shows are worth attending just to see if it’s a good fit for you in the future. While there, you can find what companies have the biggest footprint, find out what your competitors are up to (and maybe uncover some new ones), and get up close and personal with new products and services that will either compete with your offerings or complement them.

Other ideas that might let you benefit from tradeshows without exhibiting include purchasing a mailing list of exhibitors and/or attendees from show organizers. Consider purchasing ad space in the event newsletter, website or app.

December 22, 2016

6 Unforgettable Tradeshow Tips

Here are six random but unforgettable tradeshow tips to take you to a successful tradeshow experience.

Standing out. Your tradeshow exhibit should stand out from others in any way it can. Of course, with hundreds or even thousands of booths trying to attract eyeballs, that may be difficult. But if you realize that every other booth is trying to do the same, you can stand out by being different. That may mean a dynamic color, a hanging sign, bright colors, bold statements and compelling questions in your marketing message.
Freebies. There are right and wrong ways to approach giving away trinkets and tchotchkes. Don’t give something away just for the sake of giving something away. Having a pen with your logo on it may mean something to you, but to a visitor, it’s like every other pen they got that day. If the giveaway is usable and memorable, it may get noticed longer. For instance, a premium giveaway for a special visitor that you’re really trying to sell may mean a metal coffee cup with your logo or something similar. Work with your promotional products company to find the appropriate freebie.
Business cards. When was the last time you went to a networking event or tradeshow and realized you didn’t have enou

gh business cards? It happens. In fact, it happened to me last week! Plan ahead and don’t forget to take more than you think you’ll need.
30-second pitch. Most standard sales pitches will be packed with features and benefits, but that is a good way to become very forgettable. Instead, come up with an engaging question, or an introductory question that gets a visitor to stop. Then you can go into a pitch that focuses on how you work with clients: “we help frustrated marketers that can’t find a good graphic designer, or they’re embarrassed by poor printing, or they don’t have an overall program to get their brand image out online – I don’t suppose any of these concerns or challenges affect you?”
Traffic Flow. If your booth is blocked off from the aisle by tables and chairs, people won’t come inside your booth. If they don’t come inside your booth, you can’t have a comfortable conversation with them about what their challenges are and how your product or service may help them. No matter what size your booth, the traffic flow should be a prime consideration of your booth design.
Have fun! Tradeshows are a short-term, high energy commitment. The more fun it looks like you and your staff are having, the more people you’ll attract. And tradeshow are all about attracting people and knowing what to do with them!

Take these 6 unforgettable tradeshow tips and use them to make your next tradeshow appearance a successful one!

December 20, 2016

How to Measure Tradeshow ROI and ROO

There are many ways to measure tradeshow ROI (Return on Investment) and ROO (Return on Objectives). Let’s count a few of the important ones.

Web traffic. You might not think web traffic relates to tradeshow success, but trust me, it does. Knowing how your traffic ebbs and flows before and after tradeshows is one indicator that is worth noting in your overall information gathering.
Social Media Reach. Compare before and after numbers of social media likes and followers. Your level of engagement, or reach, during a show, can show a spike in engagement on your most-used social media platforms.
Booth Visitors. Count the attendees in your booth. Yeah, it’s a pain to do, but if you can manage to at least get a rough count of visitors to your booth each show, you can compare from year to year and show to show.
Show Buzz. Do you have visitors that showed up at your booth because there was some show talk that drew them there? If you have an indication of that, try to find out if they were interested in your booth or products or both.
Networking. How many industry colleagues did you and your team connect with during the show? How were those conversations? Could you consider many of them fruitful, leading to future steps?
New product launch or demo. Count the number of people that attendee presentations or demos, or the number of product samples that were given away. Count the number of leads at those demos, which leads to…
Lead Generation – new leads in particular. Lead generation is THE key metric you need to track from show to show and year to year. That and…
Sales. How many dollars were generated as a direct result of leads generated at the show.

To determine your ROI, take the total revenue generated, subtract the investment in the show and you have your raw number. To get the percentage, divide your original investment into the net income.

To figure out your Return on Objective, identify your objectives prior to the show. You may have non-financial event goals such as customer meetings, samples given away, press coverage, branding, name recognition improvement, collecting emails, enhancing client relations and so on. Then make notes by observing and documenting as much related information as you can. ROO looks at items that do not directly translate to immediate sales or sales opportunities.

You can evaluate such things as:

What was the best part of the show?
What was the least valuable?
Did the booth size work, or was it too small or too large for your purposes?
Did your signage convey the right messages?
Was your pre-show promotion effective?
Were there enough visitors throughout the show to keep your staff busy? Were they overwhelmed?

No matter your overall approach to tradeshow marketing, the more information you are able to gather relating to your ROI and your ROO will make you a better marketer.

December 16, 2016

Tradeshows Bring Buyers

It may be obvious, but tradeshows bring buyers to your booth. Often, as exhibitors, we’re so focused on presenting a cohesive message, making sure our staffers are on top of things, keeping the booth clean, greeting visitors and answering questions that when someone is ready to buy we miss a beat!

In some tradeshows you’re looking for distributors, in some you’re looking for customers, in some you’re looking to solidify and strengthen relationships with existing customers, distributors and clients. But at the bottom line, you’re at a tradeshow to connect with more buyers. More people who will say YES and open their wallet to your products and services.

By keeping this YES top of mind during the show, your staffers will be more prepared when the question does arise. Certainly not everyone in your booth is a buyer, but buying decisions and referrals are made at tradeshows. THAT’S WHY THE ATTENDEES ARE THERE: TRADESHOWS BRING BUYERS. They’re there to check out new products, new services, new releases, new iterations of current products and so on. If they’re at the show, there’s a real chance they may either eventually BUY from you or know someone who will.

Exhibit Surveys Inc’s Trade Show Trends Report from a couple of years ago shows that 49% of tradeshow attendees come to a show with the intent to purchase. Yes, that’s why they’re there – to BUY, and hopefully from you.

Are you doing all you can to facilitate the buying activity?

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December 5, 2016

3 Tradeshow Webinars That Are Worth Your Time

I love webinars.

No wait, I hate webinars.

I’ve attended so many webinars over the years that it’s easy to come away with both feelings: love and hate. Hate when you spend an hour only to have the presenter take the first 20 minutes giving you his poor sob story, 14 minutes of actual information that you can use, and 26 minutes trying to sell you on his $2,000 product.

But then there are those that cut to the chase, make it worth your while by delivering the goods. So I thought it might be fun to cruise YouTube and try to track down a handful of tradeshow webinars that are actually worth your time.

To begin, Ruth Stevens teams up with Lands’ End in 2013 for a tradeshow webinar called “Get More Out of Your Tradeshow Marketing,” which last about a half hour and is packed full of great information presented professionally.

Udi Ledorgor, author of the Amazon #1 Bestseller “The 50 Secrets of Tradeshow Success,” joined Pepperi for a fun-and-info-filled webinar. It clocks in at just under 40 minutes, so if you’re keeping score and home you now have almost 70 minutes of education to soak up by staying on this page. And if you do, of course, Google will love you, I’ll love you, and more people will find me. So you’re watching these now for TWO reasons: you’re going to learn something that will make you better at tradeshow execution and for the good of all mankind.

But wait, there’s more!

I ran across a rather long, but worthwhile webinar called “5 Tips to Maximize Your Tradeshow Experience” put on in advance of a show in 2016 called QuickBooks Connect by Kelly Bistriceanu of TSheets and Yoseph West of Hubdoc. While there are a number of QBConnect-only mentions for meetups and so forth, these two speak very knowledgeably and discuss some good ideas on planning and execution of tradeshows during this hour-plus webinar:

Okay, if you managed to make it through these webinars, I’ve taken up a couple of hours of your time by now. But y’know what? You’re smarter! And you’ve earned a break and probably a cup of coffee.

December 1, 2016

10 Things to Look for in Your Competitors’ Tradeshow Booths

Of course you’re busy at the tradeshow, but make time to check out your competitors’ tradeshow booths. You’ll learn useful stuff! Here are ten things to look for:

New products or services. What are they launching, what is there that wasn’t last year? What is not in the booth that was there last year?
Size of booth. Did they increase or decrease the size of the booth? What else changed?
Lead generation. Can you get a good sense of what their lead generation and capture methods are?
People. Who’s there? Do they have management along with booth staffers? How many?
Preparation and engagement. Does the booth staff act prepared and trained? Do they greet visitors properly, or do they sit in the back behind a table and wait for eye contact?
Exhibit function. Is there easy access to their booth or do they have tables or other items blocking the path? Does it look cluttered or clean? Is there significant meeting space?
Messaging. is their brand message consistent throughout or does it leave you wondering?
Visitors. are they getting a lot of visitors? Do you recognize any visitors as targets you’d like to connect with?
Giveaways. Do they have giveaways? If so, what are they handing out, and is there any conversation that goes on prior to the visitor getting the freebie?
Presentations. are they giving presentations in the booth? If so, is it a hired pro presenter or is it some member of management? If you can’t tell, go ahead and ask.

Once the show’s over, debrief with your comrades and learn what you can about your competitors’ appearances at the show. I’ll bet that information will come in handy some day.

November 29, 2016

Millennials and Tradeshows

My oldest son is a millennial. Born in 1992, he’s toward the end of the age range, which to marketers are those born between 1980 and 1996. So as we slip into 2017, the oldest of the millennials are hitting 37 years of age, the youngest are just reaching the legal drinking age in most states. I’d like to think that I am at least familiar with how millennials act and what drives them. But I still find myself surprised at some research findings.

So do millennials like tradeshows? If so, what does it take to attract them?

As an aging boomer, I’m a generation ahead of millennials, but I talk to them a lot. In fact, I would say many millennials are in positions at companies that coordinate or help assist the coordination of tradeshow marketing. So yes, a lot of them go to live events such as tradeshows. In fact, according to a recent EventBrite , about a third (30%) of millennials say they met someone at an live event that became a good friend. Even more, 79% of millennials say that going to live events with family and friends deepens their relationship. With the advent of social media and online connections over the past decade or two, it doesn’t surprise me that millennials in particular are looking for more ways to bond other than a digital connection, and live events are a significant way for them to do so.

From the executive summary of the EventBrite research report, which was conducted by Harris, “they are increasingly spending time and money on them: from concerts and social events to athletic pursuits, to cultural experiences and events of all kinds. For this group, happiness isn’t as focused on possessions or career status. Living a meaningful, happy life is about creating, sharing and capturing memories earned through experiences that span the spectrum of life’s opportunities. With millennials now accounting for over one fourth of the total U.S. population, their high focus on experiencing life supports the growth of an economy driven by the consumption of experiences. The combination of this generation’s interest in events, and their increasing ability to spend, is driving the growth of the experience economy.”

Other key findings: millennials prefer experiences to things. Yes, it appears they always want to have a new phone or electronic toy (as advertisers would have to believe), but more than ¾ would choose to spend money on a desirable experience over buying something they want.

So how do you attract and impress millennials?

According to GES’s Chief Creative Officer Eddie Newquist, you should craft a holistic experience for millennials. Also: don’t overdo the technology, give them something to DO in your booth ferhevvinsake, be creative and bold, and give them an opportunity to buy in at the last minute. They also respond more to digital marketing efforts, so that last minute to attend might have an impact.

Bottom line: millennials like live events, they attend tradeshows, but they’re looking for more than just the average exhibit or experience. Learn to step it up when targeting them.

November 28, 2016

How to Get People Talking About Your Tradeshow Exhibit

There are three phases to getting people to talk about your tradeshow exhibit. First, you’d love to get them talking about it before the show. Second, you want them talking about the exhibit during the show. And finally, you want to make it memorable enough so that they’re talking about it after the show.

Realistically, I suppose it’s hard to achieve all of those bits and pieces with every exhibit and every show, but as my old football coach used to say, “It don’t hurt to try, do it?”

Prior to the show, set some goals. Figure out what you’d like to accomplish at the show in terms of booth traffic, leads generated and sales generated. Having these numbers in hand will help you focus. Drive traffic to your booth starting a week or so prior to the show by teasing products or in-person appearances in your booth on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn, making sure you use the standard show hashtag. If you do a pre-show mailing, you can increase your booth traffic by increasing a promotional product in that mailing.

During the show, the best way to get people to talk about your exhibit is to have all hands on deck. Your staff should be well-trained and well-prepared for the show. They should be dressed appropriately (uniforms, matching tees?). The electronics in the booth should be tested and working properly, graphics should be attractive and functional. On social media, send out time-sensitive tweets and posts that invite people to see something new or meet somebody, or interact with something in the booth that appeals to the five senses. If you can pull off a few of these ideas in a clever and memorable way, show attendees will go out of their way to mention your booth.

After the show, follow up with all leads generated in a timely manner. Post photos of your exhibit and visitors over the next few weeks on social media. Mention any press you many have gotten online or in a newsletter. If you’ve created a list of email addresses or phone numbers of booth visitors, reach back to them to ask their opinion.

Word of mouth is an effective way to market your business. And even though you’re at a tradeshow, getting people to talk about your exhibit and presence at the show can start prior to the show and linger afterwards!

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