How do you know when it’s time for your company to invest in a new exhibit? While the answer will vary from company to company, there are a number of common factors that can help answer that question.
Is your current exhibit old? In the exhibit world, a tradeshow booth is old somewhere between 5-7 years. Now, that doesn’t mean you should automatically replace your booth as soon as it hits that age, or if it’s older. But an older exhibit is a sign that it might be time to consider upgrading. Of course, some companies use the same exhibit for decades. Yup, seen it happen.
What do your main competitors’ booths look like? If your company has stayed put while most of your main competitors have invested in new booth properties, it can make you look a little old and out of touch. In some industries, that’s the touch of death. In others, not so much.
Has your company’s exhibit needs changed significantly? One client I worked with found that their target market had matured to the point they were no longer needing to display so many products, but instead needed to assist those distributors with other things. That meant downsizing the booth to accommodate those needs. If you have new products or services that are not getting the notice they deserve, that may mean an upgrade is needed.
Has your company grown significantly? Some companies need a booth to match their market presence, which means a larger booth. It also means keeping up with the Joneses.
Is your current exhibit stretching your shipping budget because it’s very heavy to ship? Shipping and drayage for wooden crates and booths can eat up a significant portion of your tradeshow marketing budget. Unless heavier materials such as wood and metal define your company’s looks, it’s worth considering a lighter approach. Fabric graphics, aluminum frames and structures and the like can significantly cut your shipping costs for years to come. With fabric graphics that are easily changed for different exhibiting needs, a new lightweight booth may be just what the doctor ordered.
Beyond these items, you may have another reason to put a new company tradeshow booth into place in the near future. I’d love to hear about it. Leave a comment!
This is a guest article by Todd Millet, known as Tradeshow Joe.
When was the last time you were managing a trade show booth with way more visitors than it would ever be possible to talk to at once? You probably already know how frustrating it can get. Even so, this is obviously a good situation for your business, and here is how to take full advantage.
Acknowledge every visitor.
No matter how busy you are, it is essential to say hello to everyone who stops at your booth. A simple, “Hi, I’ll be right with you,” will keep your visitors from feeling ignored and lost in the crowd. The reassurance will help give them the patience to wait for you to help them out. This concept is even practiced inside many large corporate retail stores within specific niches, such as pet stores or sporting goods stores. Even on Black Friday, employees are commonly instructed to acknowledge every shopper, even if they have to wait a moment to be helped. This is shown to increase conversions in retail, and to the same effect, it can increase conversions at the trade show!
Provide self-help resources.
People are curious by nature. If you can provide ways to appeal to their curiosities, they will spend their waiting time learning about your company. They may even have a question in mind and begin observing your booth in more detail while attempting to find the answer. Even visitors that leave before a conversation begins will learn something new about your business.
Determine interest level of time consuming visitors.
We are all too familiar with those booth visitors that just won’t leave you alone! It’s like they have an endless grab bag full of questions, many of which are pointless. Yet, we don’t want to be impolite. After all, it might result in a sale! This is exactly why it is important to interpret the intentions of these visitors. Are they actually interested in buying from you or helping your company in some way? Asking questions about their company can help accelerate this process. Sometimes, it is worth your efforts, but when it is not you should have a plan to divert them away so you can get back to focusing on the rest of the crowd. Have a business card ready to hand them and kindly wrap up the conversation, directing them to another resource for more information. In cases where the visitor might be a promising lead but they are still taking up entirely too much time, ask if they would like to meet at a later time or schedule a phone meeting after the show.
Try to get visitors into group discussions or demonstrations.
This mostly applies to new visitors that are still in the question phase and not yet ready to convert into leads. When you are overcrowded, getting group discussions going can be a very effective way to handle the situation. Everyone can learn about your company or products collectively. You will find that this approach is not much different than greeting a single visitor. The initial routine will be the same. Just get a little more wind in your lungs and speak up!
Use your booth staff wisely.
If you have more than one employee at the booth, having a specific focus for each staff member can make things much more efficient. When one person is taking an order, the other should be available to help the rest of the visitors. If some of the staff members come and go at your booth, make sure you have a direct, and instant, line of communication. If your booth gets crowded in a hurry, you can call for backup.
So, are you ready to face the crowd? Take a long breath, put on your armor, and pack a sandwich. It’s going to be a long day and the outcome is in your hands.
Todd Millett is a web marketer and content developer at Trade Show Joe (TradeShowJoe.com). He graduated from University of Louisville in 2011 with a Bachelor of Science in Communications. His interests also include music production, video production, blogging, and web development.
Put the pedal to the metal! Time to gear up for fall! Summer is winding down and we get to return to normal soon!
Whatever normal is.
And whatever it is, the chaos, hustle and bustle of a big tradeshow isn’t anything near normal for most of us. Depending on the show, there could be a few thousand attendees to tens of thousands. Not only that, but you’re onsite for several days. And chances are you traveled hundreds or maybe thousands of miles to get there.
So how do you prepare for such an event? I would wager there are two main areas to address: physically and mentally. If you want to go further, you can prepare emotionally or spiritually but I’ll leave that to you.
Prepare for long days. Even if you’re out late at corporate meetings, dinners or parties, do your best to get a good night’s sleep. And those late nights come after a long day of mostly standing on your feet talking to booth visitors.
Eat well. It’s so easy to fall prey to eating junk on the road. You grab a burger here, a soda there and before you know it you are running on inferior food. Eat the good stuff: salads, veggies, high protein meat, low carb foods. You know it’s good for you and it’ll keep your spirits up.
Keep to your routine as much as possible. I typically drink decaf coffee, but for a long time when heading out on the road, I would grab the ‘real’ deal – fully caffeinated – thinking I needed the extra boost. I soon found myself jittery from the extra boost, and threw me off, especially when giving a presentation later in the trip. Now I stick to the script: “Decaf!”
Realize that it’s a marathon. But a short one. Yeah, kind of counter-intuitive. But if you understand that you’ll be doing this all day long, for three or four days and then you can really crash, it’s easier to keep the event in perspective.
Be open to good things happening. Every time I attend a show, something good happens. I think deep down I’m a skeptical optimist: I hope for good things, but prepare mentally for the worst. So when good stuff happens, like making a good connection, getting a good lead, killing it in a presentation, be grateful.
Understand that not-so-good things will also likely happen. Could be that a long-time client is going elsewhere for business, or part of your booth didn’t show up, or somebody on your booth staff gets sick and you’re undermanned. It all comes down to the old Boy Scout motto: Be Prepared.
And of course, remember to wear comfortable shoes. You’ll be oh-so-glad you did.
Where are you in the life cycle of your tradeshow booth? What impact would it be to your company to upgrade at this point vs. waiting another year or two?
The life of a tradeshow booth generally goes something like this:
Realizing your company has outgrown the old booth and making plans for a new one.
Designing a new booth based on current company needs.
Brand new booth and loving it!
Year 1 – 2: It doesn’t exactly fit your needs but you’re still doing fine.
Years 2 – 4: Making small adjustments and liberal use of on-site repairs. You feel like MacGuyver.
Making bigger adjustments and repairs as time goes by. The thing is starting to rival Frankenstein’s monster.
Realizing that you’re about to outgrow the booth in so many ways, like that old bathing suit from when you were a teenager.
Finally putting a budget together for a new booth.
Repeat every 5 – 7 years.
Admittedly, every company and booth experiences the booth lifecycle in its individual way. Some companies want a new booth every couple of years, and others are proud that they’ve used the same booth for nearly twenty years! True! I’ve talked to them!
Once the booth crates or cases make it to a floor, they run into hundreds or thousands of other companies trying to setup their booths as well. Forklifts run wild. Ladders fall. Screwdrivers are dropped. Graphics and other pieces don’t fit as advertised and are hammered into place.
You can see why, given the somewhat destructive nature of how a booth ‘lives,’ it’s no surprise anyone that they need constant attention, repair and TLC.
So how can you extend the life of a tradeshow booth and when can you tell it’s time to move to something completely new?
One simple recommendation is to update graphics regularly. Refreshing the look of a booth with re-skinning it with new graphics is an economical and quick way to makeover the booth. The skeleton, or the main structure, of the booth, usually is good for five to seven years. By dressing the skeleton in new clothes regularly, the life cycle of the booth can be extended.
If you purchase a booth that’s designed to be expanded by using modular components, it doesn’t take much to expand that 10’ inline booth to a 20’ or 30’ or even a 20’ x 20’ island. That way you aren’t really buying a new booth, you’re just adding to your existing property. A good exhibit house will discuss these options with you when you first consider a new booth. That way the initial investment is a part of the booth as its given new life.
Maintaining longevity means being flexible. It means being willing and able to adapt to changing needs in your company. If you purchase a 10’ x 30’ booth that can also be setup as a 10’ or 20’ inline, you have the flexibility to attend several different shows with different layouts. If your designer is aware of your long term needs (any good designer will be by asking good questions before starting a design concept), flexibility will be built-in from the very beginning.
Add to that flexibility by adding and subtracting items such as counters, iPad kiosks, workstations and more depending on the needs of a specific show. Change out fabric graphic panels, add wings to the walls or a swoopy thing here and there to draw attention.
Getting the most out of your investment is key to increasing the usability and life cycle of your booth, not to mention increasing the overall ROI of your investment.
Tradeshow marketing takes place in a challenging environment. The more you can plan and prepare for the longevity of your booth, the further you’ll extend the dollars you are investing.
Looking at your trade show strategy, you may already be doing a lot of things right: a perfectly designed booth, a well-trained staff, high foot traffic, and the ability to build great rapport with customers and prospects.
You may also be part of the shrinking majority of trade show exhibitors still writing orders on paper. If this is the case, it’s likely that you’re still not getting the most out of your trade shows.
For anyone who’s ever attended a trade show, it quickly becomes apparent that they can be extremely hectic. In a sea of competition, both vendors and buyers are looking to maximize their time on the floor. Customers often have a long list of booths to visit, while exhibitors need to work quickly in order to see as many buyers as possible.
In this environment, the slow, tedious process of writing orders on paper can result in lost business due to queuing, distracted buyers, and smaller orders. More and more wholesale brands are realizing that this inefficiency is hurting business, and that the solution can be found in technology.
Sales order management software, for instance, allows brands to store product information, images, customer details, order history, and sales reports on a mobile device. Orders can be written with just a few taps and swipes, and sales reps see more customers on the trade show floor. Read on to learn how technology can expedite your customer interactions at trade shows and yield big results.
Building the Case For Technology At Trade Shows:
You Aren’t Slowed Down by Product Catalogs and Samples
Any sales rep knows that flipping through a paper catalog and sifting through a pile of samples isn’t the optimal way to sell. It’s a time-consuming process, and it can be overwhelming for the buyer.
Technology can expedite this process in significant ways. Imagine that your entire catalog is available digitally on an iPad and organized in easy-to-navigate categories. You can browse the catalog with just a few swipes, zoom in on high-resolution product images, and add products to an order with a quick tap.
If the customer sees a physical product that they like in your display, you can scan the barcode to add it to the order. Think about how much faster (not to mention cooler) this experience will be for the customer.
You Have Existing Customer Information Readily Available
If you’re writing a lot of business at trade shows with existing customers, having their information available on your digital order-writing interface is invaluable. No one likes to go through the tedium of answering questions like “What’s your shipping address?” and “Can I get your phone number?” for the umpteenth time.
By having access to contact details, shipping and payment preferences, and order history during your face-to-face meeting, you can just pull up their record, check out their past orders and preferred products, and start writing the new order.
If you’re meeting with a new customer or prospect, you can just type in the details, or snap a photo of their business card for later.
You Can Duplicate Past Orders in Seconds
For a customer that simply needs to place a reorder, you can use order management technology to just pull up the past order and duplicate it. You can use the saved time to share new items from your line, and hopefully increase that order size before it’s processed.
You’ll Have Accurate Inventory Information
Accurate, up-to-date inventory information is extremely valuable on the trade show floor. Customers may ask about inventory availability, and calling your back office to confirm quantities before placing an order can slow down the process.
Order management software can give reps access to inventory information in real time. Having a reality check on your inventory numbers can also allow you to sell more strategically. If you’re low on inventory for certain items, you can notify the buyer (and avoid unpleasant surprises later) or simply steer them in a different direction.
You Can Automatically Apply Customer-Specific Discounts
Remembering customer specific pricing can be a major thorn in a sales rep’s side. In the craziness of a busy show, having to remember those details can be a nightmare.
With sales order management software and mobile order writing, vendors can store those customer-specific discounts, so that there’s no need to do anything more than choose products. The correct pricing will be automatically applied. If you’re negotiating with customers in real time, one-time discounts can also be added.
Ultimately, what all of these features add up to is major time savings—for both you and your customers. It’s time that can be used to have more high quality conversations with buyers, and to ultimately increase your return on investment at each and every show you attend.
Author Bio:
Sarah Leung is Content Marketing Specialist at Handshake, where she creates high-impact sales, marketing, and technology-related content for wholesale brands. When she’s not writing, she’s talking with sales reps, sales managers, and other industry professionals to source new topics of interest and further understand how Handshake has helped them increase sales and build their businesses.
Earlier this month I attended Natural Products Expo West at the Anaheim Convention Center. Yes, it’s a big show with a few thousand exhibitors, and over 70,000 attendees. And it continues to grow.
I spoke with literally a few hundred exhibitors, and almost all of them said the show was ‘great,’ ‘excellent,’ ‘busy’ and so forth. I say ‘almost’ because there were a few exhibitors who felt they weren’t getting all they could or should. One exhibitor said that he felt ‘stuck out in left field of Dodger Stadium!’ and wished his small 10-foot booth could have been in a busier hall.
A very lonely booth?
I get it. As a first or second time exhibitor at a big show, stuck in left field of Dodger Stadium, wondering where the crowd is – that’s a tough place to be.
Is there an answer to this dilemma? Depends. If you’re a first or second time exhibitor who didn’t have much money to spend, you might end up out in left field, away from the madding crowd. So even though attendance at the show was up it might not do much for you.
If you anticipate that you’ll be in this situation, here are the steps I’d suggest you take in order to alleviate a crowd shortage.
Promote, promote, promote.
Pre-show marketing is more important than ever if your booth location will prevent a bulk of the audience from casually running into your booth. This can come in many shapes and sizes (and should), but at the minimum, spend some time letting your current clients know where you are.
Email: If the show offers access to an email list of attendees, think about renting the list for a one-time email blast. If you have an internal list, make sure they know about your booth location and product or service offerings.
Prizes: In your promotional material, offer prizes or free samples to visitors. Consider offering a premium giveaway for the few that respond to a small promotion, or to those targeted distributors or potential clients.
Social media: Whether it’s done internally by one of your staffers, or you hire an agency, keep the chatter going about what’s going on in your booth, and what specials or attractions you have.
In-booth guests: Is there some tie-in with a notable author or other figure in your industry? Perhaps that means an author who’s looking to promote a new book, or a speaker who’s willing to chat and sign autographs in your booth for an hour for a fee.
Unfortunately, many exhibitors that get a poor location come away feeling that the show really didn’t do well for them, even though attendance was up and most exhibitors grabbed a lot of leads. Yet when asked what they did to promote their appearance, they don’t have much of an answer.
Having a poor, less-trafficked location can be a show killer, but it also means that the success falls upon you much more to make the best of it. The audience is there. It’s up to you to let as many of them know as possible.
It’s not the first time I’ve heard the comment, whether directly or implied.
“Why do exhibits cost so much?”
That question comes up with potential new clients who are in a growing company and want to make a big splash at their next show, so they’re looking at getting a new custom booth.
It also comes up with companies that have been hand-crafting their booths for years, but are ready to have a better look with their brand, along with well-planned and executed storage, meeting, product display and demo areas in the booth.
But when they’re told the price of those potential exhibits, that question lingers: Why do they cost so much? At least that’s their impression. But it is true? Do exhibits really cost a lot?
It’s not a hard conclusion to come to, especially if you’re not familiar with average costs in the exhibit industry. After all, when you learn that companies can spend a quarter of a million dollars on a custom 40 x 40 tradeshow booth, you think, “I could build a heckuva house for that money and it would last a hundred years!” That exhibit might last five years, or seven or ten, depending on the company’s needs and budget and other factors. And if it does, that company has certainly gotten their money out of their investment.
And make no mistake; a new tradeshow booth is an investment. But with a custom booth (and even with more modular ‘off-the-shelf’ booths) a lot of different people have their hands in the creation. Just like that 4 bedroom, 2 bath house with a double garage that requires a general contractor, architect, electrician, plumber, roofer, etc., an exhibit needs a booth designer, graphic designer, production/fabrication team, marketing team and a project manager to guide the project from start to finish.
Costs add up, and typically the biggest cost is labor. Things don’t just happen by themselves. Graphics don’t magically appear; designs don’t hop out of bunny holes. Everyone on the project gets paid. It’s a good bet that when you hire that team, you get access to expertise that adds up to dozens if not hundreds of years of combined experience in design, fabrication, project management and production.
But still, you say: a 10-foot inline exhibit that can cost anywhere from five or ten to twenty thousand dollars brand new? How is that possible?
As you go through the process, you’ll be looking at custom materials, printing, design and the labor to put it all together. And chances are in the US you are hiring domestic talent, which will be higher priced than importing a pre-built exhibit from overseas that you found on the internet. Of course, you could buy a lower-cost version of the same exhibit and save ten, twenty, thirty percent or more. But what happens when something breaks down on that imported booth and you need to replace a part? It’s probably much easier to call up your exhibit house or rep and ask than it is to track down a manufacturer in China or South Korea. So now where does that savings apply? You spent less on the exhibit, but you have a short warranty (or none) and a difficult process to take care of the repair or replacement.
What if you simply can’t spend that kind of money on an exhibit? Then what? You do have several options, such as putting up a low-cost, high-impact graphic back wall, or renting an exhibit at one-third to one-half the cost of purchasing a new custom booth. Or you get creative with a minimalist approach in the space and make something else happen there that attracts visitors and generates leads.
New exhibitors looking to buy should take a look at industry averages, which will help prepare you when you go shopping. For instance, according to the Exhibit Designers & Producers Association 2012 survey, custom exhibit costs average $138 – $154.50 per square foot. So that brand new custom 30×30 booth (900 square feet) will run in the neighborhood of $124,200 – $139,050. That doesn’t mean you can’t do a 30×30 for under a hundred grand. Or course you can. It means communicating your needs and budget clearly to your exhibit house, and letting them use their experience and expertise to bring you a cool booth for your budget.
Finally, your exhibit needs to be designed and fabrication so that it can be dismantled and packed into custom-jigged crates for shipping and protection. Your house usually doesn’t need that!
All of those items – design, fabrication, graphic design and production, crating and the rest of the ball of wax – means that yes, your exhibit can end up costing “a lot.” But if you are prepared you can budget for that great exhibit and get it when you can afford it. If you need something sooner, work with an exhibit house and a limited budget to get what you need and make it fit your budget. Or invest in pieces over time so that those upgrades happen more gradually.
In any case, the more prepared you are with valid and realistic pricing information and a decent budget, the better your exhibit and the better your tradeshow marketing experience.
The following is a guest article by Margaret Colebeck of Vantage Advertising LLC.
When it comes to preparing for an upcoming trade show, first impressions are everything. From trade show displays and signage to product demonstrations and presentations, the first impression your brand creates with trade show attendees sticks with them for life.
In order to create the ideal first impression for your brand, you must have a team of highly skilled and reliable trade show event staffers at your booth. But, what skills should they have? Below, we’ve listed the top ten most important skills every trade show event staffer should have. Use this list as a guideline to determine which skills are the most beneficial to your booth.
10 Important Trade Show Event Staffing Skills
Tech Savvy – This is a big one! Without question, every event staffer at your booth should be knowledgeable and skilled with using technology, such as smartphones and tablets. This is most important when it comes to social media. Your booth staffers should be able to easily access your company’s social media accounts and share your social information with others. Social media, especially Twitter, is very popular for networking and lead generation at trade shows, so be sure your event staff come prepared with technology and social media skills.
Strong Communication Skills – When it comes to trade show event staffing skills, your team’s ability to communicate effectively is one of the most important. Communication is the basis for everything at trade shows, so it’s important to fill your booth with event staffers that have strong communication skills. Lack of strong communications skills should never be a reason your team doesn’t meet their trade show goals.
Listening Skills
– Along with great communication skills, your team must also have great listening skills. Why? Because as important as it is to communicate your brand to attendees, it’s more important to listen to their needs so as to effectively provide a solution to their problems.
Persuasion – If your event staffers can’t persuade attendees to try out your product, follow your brand on social media, or sign-up for more information, then why bring them to the trade show at all? Consider what your team’s trade show goals are and only bring team members that will be able to help achieve those goals.
Multi-Tasking Skills – Trade shows are a busy place where multi-tasking it a must. Make sure your team is full of event staffers that can handle the fast-past, busy trade show environment. If the team members you select can’t multi-task at the office, they definitely won’t be able to on the trade show floor. So, don’t bring them
Stamina – This skill should be a no-brainer for exhibitors that have worked trade shows in the past. Trade shows have long, draining hours the require event staffers to remain on their feet the whole time, while also keeping their personalities and moods turned on.
Go-Getter Skills – It’s also important for your event staffing team to be full of people interested in achieving. Go-getters are the type of people who are motivated to approach as many attendees passing by your booth as possible. They are amazing networkers and typically have an incredible elevator speech.
Flexibility – Flexibility is an important aspect of any trade show event staffing team because without flexibility a team can quickly fall apart, especially when problems arise and last minute adjustments are made.
Negotiation Skills – The trade show floor is unpredictable. You never know what’s going to happen or who you’re going to run into. By having the skills to negotiate with attendees, your team will increase trade show leads and sales.
Problem Solving Skills – Finally, no matter how hard your team plans for a trade show and no matter how many precautions your team takes, something will go wrong. And, when it does, your event staffers need to have the problem solving skills and patience to create an effective solution. Because as they say, the show must go on!
Margaret Colebeck is the Marketing Manager for Vantage Advertising, a nationwide event staffing company that provides exhibitors with experienced trade show models and booth talent for their events. She manages and writes educational content for their blog & social media pages in an effort to inform and inspire trade show exhibitors about trade show marketing, lead generation, event staffing, and more.
You may have a spectacular booth, a cool product and a well-trained staff. You may have a great spot on the floor near the main entrance. You may even have a special guest star in the booth for a few hours.
But all of that can go for naught if you can’t draw a mob on a consistent basis. In a recent meeting with a potential client, we asked the following question: when you get back to the office, what is the one thing that you would point to that would indicate your exhibiting experience was a success?
The answer? A sheer mob – almost all of the time.
So drawing a crowd is deemed important; probably the most important part of a tradeshow, in fact.
So how do you consistently draw a crowd to your tradeshow booth exhibit?
There are more ways to draw a crowd than there are ways to portray Dr. Who on television.
One favorite way is to hire a professional or two. Having a professional presenter in the booth that has the experience in attracting a crowd and informing that crowd about the exhibitor’s products and services is one of the most effective methods. The presenter can be an actor, presenter, magician, juggler, or unicyclist. Or maybe all at once!
Another way to attract a crowd is to have live music in the booth. This was done effectively at CES recently when large exhibitors were able to hire bands such as the Foo Fighters, Black Eyed Peas, Maroon 5 or others.
Okay, you don’t have that big of a budget or booth. So now what?
Some would shout the praises of money-blowing machines, prize wheels or free giveaways. But I would ask if these curiosity-arousing items are really attracting the right people. It depends on the show. CES is one place where a band would work. The local or regional industry show might be better for using a money blowing machine or prize wheel, but you would still want to have a method in place that allows you to ask attendees questions to quality or disqualify them as potential clients or customers.
As Anders Boulanger says in this great article, ‘do not leave free gifts out in a bowl for passer-by to grab and go. It is important that they don’t get it until they give something first,’ such as an email address, phone number or business card.
One way to attract a crowd is to have some sort of interactive element that relates to your product or service. If it’s software, for instance, you can offer a brief demo. If you’re selling iPad kiosks, have one or two that can show people how they work by opening them up and taking them apart. If you are promoting your service that helps put your company on the social media map, you can show attendees how it works with case studies and other demonstrations.
Or have an in-booth trivia game based on your company’s products and services. Every hour giveaway prizes to attendees that can answer the most questions based on the available handouts or brief onscreen interactive presentations.
What draws a crowd? In a word: curiosity.
Other methods of drawing a crowd can involve pre-show marketing or creating a buzz on social media outposts such as Twitter, which are heavily followed at most shows.
But there’s more to taking home a lot leads than drawing a crowd. If you hire a professional presenter that is prepared to draw dozens or hundreds of people to your booth two or three times an hour, is your booth staff prepared to sift through them and find the good hot leads, collect contact information and confirm the next step?
If not, what’s the point of drawing a crowd? Attracting a crowd isn’t hard. But making sure you have a system in place to benefit from that crowd is the very important second step to your tradeshow marketing success.
Now you’re back at the office. The booth has been buttoned up and shipped, the staff are back at their desks, and you have a stack of leads that need to be follow up with, and perhaps other tasks, such as going through multi-media (photos/videos) to be used in a variety of ways.
Let’s break them down:
Sales leads
Staff debriefing
Logistical notes
Photos/videos and other content creation
Sales leads would of course be handled directly by your sales follow up team. Each company’s methods are their own, so as long as you know how that works, it’s not my job to make that over. Just make sure it DOES work for you!
Staff Debriefing: While it’s not always ideal to make it work on the show floor, you can gain a lot of insight into how your booth works, how visitors perceive your company and more by holding daily debriefings on the show floor. Even if it’s only a quick 15 minute wrap, by allowing all staffers to share perspectives, offer ideas and feedback, your company will benefit.
Back at the office, another way to benefit is to spend a little more time debriefing each staffer individually. This allows you to offer more intimate feedback and encouragement, and to identify any specific areas that need improvement. It’s also helpful because in a one-on-one conversation they’re likely to be more candid than they might in a group on the show room floor.
Make notes on the feedback for your tradeshow file.
Logistical Notes: Any notes you have made before, during, and after the show should be reviewed. Did the set-up crew have any problems? What questions came up from visitors that you didn’t expect? Did the electrical grid plan work effectively? What was missing? What surprised you at this show?
What about competitors? Did you or any of your staff get around to review your competitors booths and see what their staff and products were all about? Were any of your competitors there in bigger or smaller booths? What could you sense or what did you learn from seeing the booths and products? Were any of your competitors missing? Gather all of these notes as well, and be sure to ask your staffers and management staff what they thought.
Finally, what photos and videos did you bring back from the show? If you have an active content-creation group, you may have dozens or hundreds of photos, and perhaps a dozen or more short videos. These may be photos of visitors, other booths (competitors as well as partners), video testimonials or demonstrations. These can all be used for research, and many can be used on social media platforms to share with your audience what you were doing at the show. Without getting too deep into the use of social media for your event marketing (more on that in the next few days), by capturing multi-media content for research and future use, you can extend your visibility at tradeshows by weeks, months or longer, and use the content to tease your audience in another 11 months when you are prepping for the show again.
