Tradeshow Marketing Expert & Dynamic Public Speaker/Trainer
Exhibit renting vs. exhibit purchase: which makes more sense? There’s no one answer, and often there’s not a clear answer. But I spoke to Mel White, VP of Marketing and Business Development for Classic Exhibits in Portland, Oregon, to go over some of the aspects of the question on today’s TradeshowGuy Monday Morning Coffee:
“Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.”
― Isaac Asimov
There are countless books written about how you can do something better, whether it is tradeshow marketing or underwater basket weaving. But the real secret to improvement is to approach the task with the intent of seeing what works and what doesn’t and use that information to increase your outcome the next time.
Which means that no matter what book you read, you are responsible for the success or failure of that venture. Or, as Peter Shankman recently said, “Lose is not an option. Your options are to win or learn.”
Frankly, even the most seasoned tradeshow marketers run up against forces that give them less than stellar results, leaving them to question their approach.
But if you’re a rookie tradeshow marketer, the learning curve can be steep with many bumps and potholes along the way. Don’t let that dissuade you. Yes, you’re under pressure from the boss to bring home more leads than last time, and to have your sales team close more sales from those leads.
What if the lead count is not what you want? What if the sales results are not optimal? Your choices are to keep moving forward and ignoring the reasons why you had those results, or dig into the various moving parts to learn what happened. Was your booth visitor count down? Did your booth staff perform poorly because they were not as well-trained as they should have been? Did your competition have a better product or service?
All of these and more can affect your results, and the more you understand about why you got the results you did, the better you can respond and improve.
Learn. Review. Adjust. Act. Repeat.
Many companies I work with are in the process of increasing the size of their booth, is that the right move for you? Perhaps downsizing is a better choice. So what comes into play when you consider the decision?
Often the choice is strategic. You may know that some of your major competitors are either not going to be exhibiting at a specific show where you want a presence, yet you don’t want to do the full exhibit that you’ve done in the past. Or it’s a show where the attendance is down, so having a smaller presence doesn’t hurt you.
Your brand is morphing into something different, and investing in a new exhibit doesn’t make sense. In this case, you can go for a smaller presence for less money. You might also consider renting an exhibit, which can give you significant savings in the short term.
You need to show a better ROI to the powers-that-be. Investing less in an exhibit is one way to cut up-front expenses and increase the overall ROI.
You’re planning to invest more heavily in pre-show marketing. This is a simple re-focusing of your marketing tactics. Putting more emphasis on reaching visitors prior to the show with direct mail, for instance, can bring people directly to your booth with an appointment and plan in hand that is congruent with your goals.
The bigger shows get even more expensive, and yet you still need a presence there. One way to keep your presence at the show is to have a smaller exhibit. Smaller booth space may also mean you don’t have to send as many people to staff the booth, saving yet more money.
You’re reassessing your overall tradeshow marketing plan. I’ve seen some companies simply pull out of a show for a year or two. They’ve had a major presence for years, yet taking stock of the value of the show was important enough to them to not exhibit and to rather just send several members of management to meet with other exhibitors and partners offsite.
Having decided to downsize your exhibit, make sure that the smaller version of your brand is still impactful. This means that graphics have to be well-designed and of high quality, your exhibit structure should be of high quality, the booth space needs to be kept clean, your staff should be well-trained and well-prepared and your products and service offerings should be your latest and greatest.
it’s a holiday, but hey, I’m still in front of the camera and microphone for TradeshowGuy Monday Morning Coffee! A quick look at Memorial Day, unpacking the new 50th anniversary Sgt. Pepper, entertaining and educational podcasts and more:
Listen to the podcast and subscribe here.
Show Notes:
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band 50th Anniversary Edition
Your Tradeshow Visitors Want These 6 Things From You
Podcast: S-Town
Podcast: No Such Thing as a Fish
Podcast: In The Dark
Podcast: Rolling Stone Music Now
As an exhibitor, one of the prime directives you have is to deliver the goods to your tradeshow visitors. So what exactly are your visitors looking for? Let’s go over the shortlist:
They want to be engaged. Lots of choices here: interactive exhibits, professional presentations, products that dazzle, and more. Give ‘em something to do or see for a short time and you’ve given them something they want.
As exhibitors, it’s easy to think about what’s important from your perspective. And that’s very important. But put yourself in your visitor’s shoes, and walk a mile or two.
Well, these might not be actual tradeshow marketing secrets, simply because by its very definition, a secret is something that is not well known. The following items are fairly well known and no doubt you can easily find them online – but the question is: are you using them to their full capacity and capability?
What does it take to create better focus? I take a look at a few things that work for me, and a few more that might work if I used them. Also, a quick recap of the Sunday adventure where, thanks to car problems, a 3-hour drive took about ten hours:
Frankly, I don’t know that much about tradeshow giveaways. I tend to leave that to the people I know who have been doing it for years. Maybe it’s easy to pick something out of a catalog and submit an order. Choosing the right giveaway that resonates with your audience takes more thought and insight.
So I thought it might be fun to see what shows up when you search for tradeshow giveaways + blog posts + 2017.
First, here’s a post from the Delta Marketing Group. It’s a 2014 post that was updated earlier this year. It highlights tech giveaways such as smartphone smart phones, cable dock magnet mounts, keystands and more. There are also several with non-tech items such as socks, adult coloring books and more.
Perry Office Plus offers a look at light-up items, chargers, LED flashlights and others.
EmbroidMe offers a variety of items in this infographic.
The idea behind tradeshow giveaways would seem to be to make something useful so that they keep the item around for a long time. IAEE looks at some of these items, which included phone chargers, wearable tech and others. If your giveaway is environmentally friendly, it leaves the visitor with a positive impression of your company.
Metro Exhibits looks at some of the best ideas for 2017 giveaways, including keychain LED lights, sports bottles, drawstring bags and more.
Let’s wrap it up with this blog post from Crazy Dave’s Promos, which offers tradeshow giveaways such as USB flash drives, totes and bags, stylus pens and more.
Of course you can easily go online and order tradeshow giveaways. But to me it makes more sense to find a trusted partner that you can work with over time. It’s a good way to keep you aware of trends. This helps you come up with unique offerings that match with what your company is trying to do with tradeshow giveaways.
Twice a month we send out some great deals – and nothing else! Get on the list now – click here!
Monday afternoon and I thought I’d have a little fun unpacking a cool thing from Cairn.
Grab our free report “7 Questions You’ll Never Ask Your Exhibit House” – click here!
Dale Obrochta joins me today for a wide-ranging discussion of tradeshow marketing, focusing on how to draw a crowd at a tradeshow booth, and once you do that, what you do with it! Dale and I had a great time on this interview – which didn’t make it live to Facebook because I’m still wrestling with the software that interacts with Facebook live. AAAND, when I checked the video screen recording, his video was gone, but the audio remained. Must be a Ghost in the Machine, makes me #wannacry. Yikes. But we punted: Dale sent along a handful of photos which almost makes it look like he’s live with me if you squint or forget to put your readers on. Take a look – or listen to or download the audio podcast below:
Find Dale here:
