Best tradeshow marketing tips and case studies. Call 800-654-6946.
Best tradeshow marketing tips and case studies. Call 800-654-6946.

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Tradeshow Marketing Analysis, Part 4: Which Shows to Attend

Check out Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of this ongoing series.

One of the most pressing challenges for exhibitors is determining what shows to exhibit at on a regular basis. Just because your company has been going to the same show for twenty years doesn’t mean it’s the right show for you to go to. The exhibit industry changes and evolves. Audiences and interests change. Some shows expand. Others downsize. Some vanish altogether or are folded into similar shows. All of this means that you should examine what shows you go to on a regular basis and determine the reasons for attending – or not attending.

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I’ve seen companies that exhibit at shows for years suddenly drop out because their business model changed. One company exhibited for years at the Natural Products Expo West and one year they just didn’t show up. It turns out that so much of their business moved online that it didn’t make sense to put out the large amounts of cash just to keep going to a show that didn’t give them the return they needed – and were clearly getting elsewhere.

Other companies have downsized or simply taken a few years off from certain shows as they re-examined their purpose in being at a particular show. So yes, it does matter that you take a look at the big picture of why you’re going to show in general, and why you are exhibiting at a particular show.

In the process of determining your ‘big picture’ of the shows you attend, those you don’t and might want to consider and your whole reason for tradeshow marketing, here are a series of questions to help you examining it.

  • What shows do you exhibit at on a yearly basis?
  • What shows did you used to attend but haven’t for several years?
  • If you listed a show(s) here, how long has it been since you exhibited?
  • What shows are you considering exhibiting at but haven’t done so yet?
  • What is your potential audience at each show? What is your overall potential audience for the year?
  • How many leads do you bring home from the each show?
  • In your opinion, what are the most obvious things you’re doing right?
  • In your opinion, what are the most obvious things you’re doing wrong?
  • What’s the biggest goal you have for tradeshow marketing in the next 2-3 years?
  • How much money is budgeted for the year’s events?
  • How much money is actually spent on the year’s shows?
  • How much business can you directly attribute to the leads that were gathered from the shows?
  • What’s the ROI on the sales leads you gathered from the shows?
  • Can you identify other benefits of going to the shows that don’t directly impact your bottom line, such as branding, earned media mentions, new distributors, strengthened ties with current distributors and more?

By knowing the answers to all of these questions – and by sharing that knowledge with your team – you’ll be much better prepared to answer the question ‘are my tradeshow marketing dollars well-spent?’ As you’ve seen me mention many times, one of the best things you can do for your company is to continue to increase the knowledge base of your co-workers. By knowing the answers to all of these questions and more, that knowledge base increases. In the long-term, you’ll be better-equipped to make good choices on which shows to attend, what to focus on at the shows, and which shows you might decide are simply not worth it.

Tradeshow Marketing Analysis, Part 3: Pre-show Preparation

Check out Part 1 and Part 2 of this ongoing series.

Tradeshow pre-show preparation and marketing involves more than just a short look at how to attract visitors to your booth, or determining what graphics you’ll need to update on your booth. While there are more areas in your pre-show preparation that you shake a stick at, for the purposes of this article let’s take a look at just the target market and the products you’re focusing on:

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So who, or what, exactly is your target market? Are you trying to reach grocery store owners, food distributors, software engineers or end users of your product? Keep in mind that your target market can change from show to show, and it can also change from year to year as your company matures. For instance, one eco-friendly diaper company I’ve worked with for years has seen their target market shift along with their strategy for each show as their products are in more stores now than a half a decade ago. They don’t need the distribution that they once yearned for. Now it seems that they need to focus more on the relationships with the clients they do have by providing them with the best service and product updates as possible, and add new distribution channels only if appropriate.

Typically, pre-show preparation will often focus just on pre-show marketing, and there’s nothing really wrong with that. If you focus exclusively on that, you may forget a few other items such as staff training or critical booth upgrades. Still, how you address your pre-show marketing will be crucial to the outcome of your show.

With pre-show marketing, here are some questions to ask:

  • How will you reach them before the show?
    • Email
      • How far in advance of the show do you email your group?
      • How many times to you email them before the show?
      • What is your message?
        • Product
        • Service
  • Social media
    • What platforms do you promote your show appearance on?
      • Twitter
      • Facebook
      • LinkedIn
      • YouTube
      • Pinterest
      • Other
  • Direct mail
  • Telephone
  • Other
  • What is your message to the market?
  • What are your top 1, 2 or 3 products/services you’re focusing on for the next show?
  • When do you typically roll out your pre-show marketing?
    • One week in advance of the show
    • One month in advance of the show
    • Two months in advance of the show
    • Three months of the show
    • Other
    • How often do you communicate with them prior to the show?
      • 1-2 times
      • 3-5 times
      • More than 6 times

By walking through this flowchart, you can identify areas that you’re strongest at, and determine what areas might need more attention. There’s no wrong answer when it comes to what pre-show marketing you should do or when you should do it, or even what you should focus on. But it is important that you create a plan, make sure that everyone involved in your tradeshow marketing efforts are aware of the plan and are able to do their part.

Expo West 2014 Tradeshow Guy Booth Performance Awards

Just returned from Expo West in Anaheim where I had a number of tradeshow booth clients, including Bob’s Red Mill, gDiapers, Aisle7 and Hyland’s. One of my goals at this particular show was to do informal assessments of a couple of dozen booths, including booths that I picked at random, and those of companies that responded to my 2-minute video I posted about ten days before the show.

Since I have a handful of client booths at the show, I am disqualifying them from winning any awards (although I think they all were top-noth projects)!

Before getting to the awards, a few comments: first, these are for fun only. Nobody actually wins anything substantial except a mention in this blog. Second, while I spotted a number of booths that would qualify for awards such as ‘Most Cluttered,’ ‘Most Confusing’ and ‘Shouldn’t Even Be Here Because Mom Didn’t Approve it’ the point is not to speak ill of booths that should be improved. Hey, I can’t help everybody, right?

So, without furthre adieu, let’s begin:

Cleanest Look & Most Pristine Representation of a Brand: R .W. Garcia. Not a custom booth, but an aluminum frame-and-fabric construction, nonetheless this captured my attention with its attention to detail. The graphical heirarchy was clean: company name at the top with secondary bullet points describing the company’s products. The back wall graphic was dominated by images of chip bags, so there was no doubt about the company’s products.

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Most Iconic Use of an Icon: Guayaki Brand Yerba Mate. Okay, I only caught one photo of this, but the use of a life-size cutout of the Pope drinking tea stopped me in my tracks and made me want to have Yerba Mate with His Holiness.

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Best Story on a Booth: Amy’s Kitchen debuted their new booth in 2013, and this 30×30 island clearly captures the company’s natural image, including a back wall section with photos and captions detailing the company’s history.

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Best Interactive Booth: While there were several booths that invited attendees to write notes on a board, YesTo asked people to write what they would say YES to.

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Best Use of Shipping Crates: Several booths use shipping crates as part of their booth to save on time and shipping expense. Ridgecrest Herbals showed how its done with branded shipping crates that doubled as counters, benches and product display.

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Best Dancing Mascot: SweetLeaf, with their Sweet Drops Sweetener doing his/her shaking to a live guitarist.

Best Use of an Olympic Stud: Drink Chia! How can you top an impromptu aisle race featuring Olympic athlete Justin Gatlin? (check out his race here)

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Most Elaborate Use of Booth: Clif Bar. The 40×40 island that Clif Bar used to represent their brand included not one, but two enclosed client meeting rooms, two sample stations, messaging that showed their love of fun and helping Mother Earth and the creative use of repurposing old wood for something new. And more. Hanging plants in wooden boxes. Bicycle gears. Old window frames. The steep usage of the word ‘organic.’ With all of this disparate yet congruent elements, this booth came close to a Terry Gilliam dream (go ahead, look him up. I’ll wait.).

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And finally, Best MashUp of a Beatles Album Cover: Love Birch. With their wacky replacement of John, Paul, George and Ringo’s heads with leaves, Love Birch took the iconic Abbey Road album cover and turned it on its head, and in the process stopped people in their tracks.

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This is the 13th consecutive year that I’ve attended Expo West, and it still seems fresh and fun, bigger and bolder and more overwhelming every year.

A few final observations: while there was a lot of use of social media this year, it didn’t seem to be anything out of the norm for most companies. Several companies invited attendees to ‘like’ them on Facebook, or tweet out a photo for a prize, but not as many as you might think would.

I was also on the lookout for QR Codes, and was a bit surprised to find only one on display. I had tasked myself with testing each and every QR Code I ran across to see if it worked. This one didn’t. The invitation next to the code was to ‘like’ us on Facebook, yet when I scanned the code, I was taken to a home page of a website – not optimized for a smartphone – and there was no indication of how to get to Facebook from there.

With QR Codes seemingly fading from popularity at least at this year’s show, perhaps that’s a good thing since it seems that so many QR Codes fail at least one part of the test: tell people what they get when they scan, make sure its optimized for a smartphone, and then test it all to make sure it works.

Join me at Expo West in Anaheim for the TradeshowGuy Booth Performance Test

Natural Products Expo West is the biggest natural products tradeshow in the US, with some 3,000 exhibitors and 60,000 attendees. Yes, it’s the big time.

2014 will be my 12th consecutive year at the show. Many of my tradeshow clients have been exhibiting there for year.

For example, come see Aisle7 in booth 1668, gDiapers in booth 3605, Hyland’s at 1804 and of course Bob’s Red Mill at booth 3546.

One thing I like to do at Expo West and other tradeshows is check out the booths. There are thousands of them and with that many to look over, frankly, it’s a bit overwhelming! This year, however, I’m going to try something new. I’m going to take a look at a few dozen booths with the specific intent of seeing how they do in the TradeshowGuy Booth Performance Test!

If you’d like to have me subject your booth to the performance test, just tweet me at @tradeshowguy and I’ll be glad to swing by and take a look!

Savvy and Systematic Tradeshow Marketing (slide deck)

Last week I flew into Houston to give a presentation for ISES Houston for their monthly meeting. This one focused on tradeshow marketing and was hosted by 2020 Exhibits. The presentation went over the various aspects of what it takes to compete on the tradeshow floor.

Definitely a fun time had by all: thanks to Vivian at Juz Do It Productions and Becky at 2020 Exhibits for making this all come together.

Check out the slide deck:

2014 Tradeshow and Exhibit Industry Predictions

Once I thought I was a prognosticator, but that didn’t turn out very well. So perhaps we should see who else in the industry is trying to predict the future…

CEIR Predicts Slow, Steady Industry Growth (okay, this one wasn’t too hard)…

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Top Event Tech Predictions

Top Event Tech Predictions, Part 2

2014 Global Meetings and Events Forecast from American Express  (PDF download)

10 Event Trends for 2014: Event Manager Blog

and finally: Tradeshows to Grow 4% in 2014

Again, none of these are that earth-shaking, but it all appears to be good news in line with how the economy as a whole is doing.

If I were to predict anything, it would be that mobile marketing will continue to grow very quickly, and that any tradeshow marketer who is not paying attention to that little fact is doing themselves a big disservice.

Just added!

Four Fabulous Meeting Technology Predictions for 2014 (thanks, Jeff Hurt on Twitter!)

3 Event Tech Predictions for 2014 (thanks, Michael Brewer!)

Top Event Tech Predictions for 2014 (thanks, PCMA Convention Center)

Top Ten Predictions for the Event Technology Industry for 2014 (thanks, Conference Info)

14 Meetings Technology Trends to Watch for in 2014 (thanks Meet MR Holland and CorbinBall)

and finally:

Susan Friedmann, the Tradeshow Coach, with her top 5 predictions for 2014…

Tradeshow Marketing Analysis, Part 2: Budgeting

Read Part One of this series here.

You can get lost in the numbers. But sometimes it’s fun – and enlightening.

Visitors spend an average of 8.3 hours in 2.3 days on a tradeshow floor, giving exhibitors the chance to reach thousands of potential customers in a very short time (Center for Exhibition Industry Research, 2008). 39% of visitors come to the same show at least two years in a row, giving exhibitors a loyal base of committed potential customers (CEIR, 2008). 50% of attendees already have a buying plan when attending shows (CEIR, 2007). And finally – decision makers love exhibitions: 87% of survey respondents state that national exhibitions are an ‘extremely useful’ source of needed purchasing information (CEIR, 2004).

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Tradeshows account for an average one-third of a company’s annual marketing budget. Much of that money is simply flushed down the drain. Why? Because many company tradeshow and exhibit managers don’t have a thorough, detailed plan for each show and often the booth staff is unaware of the reason for even being at the show, other than the general ‘business-building’ excuse.

Companies continue to go to tradeshows in spite of the amount of money that is spent. In fact, the event industry is on the rise. Since the recession late in the last decade, most industries and events have seen climbing attendance.

Tradeshow marketing is attractive because the cost of reaching a potential customer face-to-face is $219 with an exhibition lead, compared with $1,039 without one (CEIR, 2009). Add to that the fact that as human beings, we relish the idea of meeting colleagues, vendors, clients and prospects face-to-face: two-thirds of visitors place a high level of importance on face-to-face interaction during the pre-purchasing stages of the buying process (CEIR, 2003). Executives cited conference and tradeshow participation returns ranging from $4.00 to $5.91 per dollar invested (Oxford Economics, 2009).

With all of those numbers floating around, it’s attractive to leverage a series of tradeshow appearances into growing sales, a burgeoning market and a healthy bottom line. If only we knew exactly where all that money was going, right?

So here’s a series of questions that you should ask yourself regarding your tradeshow marketing budget.

  1. What is your annual tradeshow marketing budget?
  2. What percentage of the company’s overall marketing budget does the tradeshow division make up?
  3. Who determines what the annual tradeshow marketing budget is?
    1. How often does that assessment take place?
    2. Is that assessment shared throughout the company, or is it generally kept quiet?
    3. Is the budget increasing, decreasing or staying about the same?
    4. Is your current budget enough for what you plan to do? What you’d like to do?
    5. What’s the breakdown of the budget?
      1. Booth space rental (shipping, drayage, other show costs)
      2. Booth upgrades, etc.
      3. Travel/lodging
      4. Promotion
      5. Giveaways
      6. Product samples/displays
      7. Other
      8. What is the company decision-making process for creating a new tradeshow booth?
      9. Does the company’s marketplace success directly impact your tradeshow marketing budget?

Items to include in your budget – feel free to download the COE budget (link):

  • Booth Design and construction
  • Show Services
  • Personnel
  • Advertising and Marketing
  • Shipping
  • Lead Gathering
  • Post Show Sales Data
    • Leads
    • Cost per lead
    • Number of known show sales
    • Average sale
    • ROI
    • Miscellaneous

Even if you aren’t the person who crunches all the numbers on a regular basis, if you can make yourself do this on a regular basis, not only will you understand the bigger picture much better, but you become more valuable to your company!

Download a free Tradeshow Marketing Budgeting Template from Communication One Exhibits here (Excel spreadsheet direct link).

Here’s the rest of the series:

  1. Where to Start
  2. Budgeting
  3. Pre-Show Preparation
  4. Which Shows to Attend
  5. The Booth
  6. Booth Staff
  7. Lead Generation
  8. Post-Show Follow Up
  9. Record Keeping
  10. Social Media Engagement

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Tradeshow Guy Blog by Tim Patterson

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