The bigger the
trade show, the greater the opportunity for profit, and the more difficult the
challenge in execution. For example, at an upcoming event like the Pittcon
Conference and Expo (March 9th – 13th, 2009), the
probability of a customer visiting your booth is about 1 in 50. Typically, 49
out of 50 attendees will miss your booth entirely, and the one that does visit
is often not your target customer.
In this two part series we will cover what you can do to improve your chance of
success with your target customers.
In this first article, we’ll discuss show strategy and pre-event promotion. In
the next, we’ll cover booth execution techniques and post-event follow-up.
Generating
traffic is a start, not a solution
The most
important element of an email promotion is the Subject Line because without a
good Subject Line, the reader will probably never even open your email.
If the email isn’t opened, a carefully crafted message with a great call to
action and meaningful product photographs go unseen. Using the same logic, the
most important elements of trade show planning concern generating traffic
because, like the Subject Line of an email, even the best efforts will be
wasted if no one comes to the booth to hear your message and see your products.
Suppliers often go to a show with the intention of meeting new customers and end up spending most of their time with old ones.
However, even big traffic can have a downside. In 2000, an exhibitor at Pittcon
had a drawing for a Honda Insight. He put the car on display in the booth and
the giveaway created a huge buzz just as the exhibitor hoped.
However, the execution was flawed. There was no plan to deal with unqualified
traffic and the exhibitor’s staff was overrun with busywork so the conduct of
real business took a back seat. Generating traffic is a good start, but not the
entire solution.
Understand there
is a trade show paradox
One of the
leading rationales companies use for exhibiting at a trade show is to meet new
customers.
Yet research by Exhibit Surveys indicates that about 50% of the visitors at any
given booth are current customers. This means suppliers go to a show with the
intention of meeting new customers and end up spending most of their time with
old ones, a real trade show paradox.
Of course talking with existing customers is not entirely bad since they are a
great source of new business. However, there are other vehicles to reach out to
existing customers that don’t involve the finite window of opportunity created
at a trade show.
New customers do make lists and purposefully visit unfamiliar exhibitors.
However, inducing these people to put your name on their lists remains a challenge.
Trade shows are
a numbers game
Large events
like Pittcon or a National ACS Meeting can attract over 10,000 attendees;
smaller ones like EAS or GCC might attract about half as many. Depending on the
product, the customer base, and the show, an exhibitor might anticipate that
between 10% to 50% of those attending will be prospective customers.
However, according to exhibit surveys, even spending 8 hours on the exhibit
floor including lunch, trips to the bathroom, and social chit-chat, the average
attendee will only visit around 32 booths. My estimate is that they will
probably spend about 15 minutes at each.
This means with over 1200 exhibitors at Pittcon and about 150 at an event like
EAS the typical trade show turns into a tough numbers game with a lot of time
and cash on the line.
Step One: You
Need a Strategy
To some,
“strategy” implies research, study, planning and other activities only remotely
associated with the practical goal of “revenue generation.” I’ve even heard it
said, “I don’t have time for a strategy – I am too busy working!”
One marketing
pro I know even went on record declaring “strategy is just not fun.” However,
an exhibitor’s strategy becomes the solid foundation on which he can build the
“fun stuff” of practical tactics.
Exhibitors planning to swim against the tides of the trade show paradox and the
numbers game need to become real strategists. Up-front planning simplifies
tactical decision-making and execution. I suggest you begin your
strategy-making with a full cup of coffee, an empty piece of paper, and a list
of questions as follows.
Strategy
Question 1 – Why are you exhibiting at this show at all? Let’s assume that the
driving reason to attend the show is to seek new customers. Your specific goals
might range from additional penetration of an existing market to the
introduction of a new product to a new audience. Other reasons for attending a
show may include seeing existing customers, testing a new market, or
“soft-launching” a new product giving customers a chance to see it and you a
chance to judge its reception by the market. Identifying your own specific
reason for exhibiting at an event is an important initial step.
Strategy
Question 2 – Who is your target customer? Do your target customers attend this
event? Do you know what drives them? Do you know what keeps them up at night?
Do you know what the competition is saying to this audience?
Strategy
Question 3 – Are you ready to present a pertinent story to these customers? Ask
yourself what they want to hear rather than what you want to say. Can you give
them enough information to embrace your product? Will they understand what’s in it for them? Will you be
showing them a product or service that actually works or a non-working
prototype? The key is to consider how you will connect to your customer’s
needs.
Strategy
Question 4 – What are you going to say, and how will you say it? Do you have a
killer application, new product, or a lower price? Determine your unique selling proposition and how you plan
to connect it with your customer’s actual needs.
Strategy
Question 5 – How can you display and demonstrate your product? Words and
product displays are great. Any take-home literature puts something in an
attendees hands they can refer to later. However, a cogent demonstration has
immediate and emotional impact that is truly memorable.
Strategy
Question 6 – Do customers know who you are? Why should your customer look at
you instead of your competitors? Ask yourself, what you might do to draw
attention to yourself.
Strategy
Question 7 – Should you handle visitors who are current customers
differently? Yes! Prospects and
current customers are really two different animals, and you need to consider
what approach you will take with each type – as well as how to maximize time
for new prospects.
Going to a trade show without a strategy is like deciding to go on a road trip
without a destination in mind. You might have an interesting experience along
the way, but it is unlikely you will achieve the full potential of the opportunity.
After the
strategy, then the tactics
With a sound
strategy as your foundation, tactics, execution, and follow-up activities will
naturally leverage each other.
Advanced
promotion is a terrific tactic. Some types are easy, inexpensive, or even free.
Here are a few ideas:
- Modify your email signature to
promote your show participation.
- Put a printed notice in every
shipment.
- Mention your booth number in your
ads.
- Put a banner ad on your own website.
- Don’t simply announce your booth –
explicitly invite people to your booth. This is like asking for an order – you
just have to do it.
- When you invite people to your
booth, tell them what’s in it for them.
- Take the time to fill out the
exhibitor profile. This helps
attendees with their on-line searches and their use of the printed exhibitor
directory.
- Take advantage of any
publisher-offered opportunities for pre-show publicity.
- Put a giant logo on your briefcase
or on one of those plastic bags many exhibitors give away. Those bags are used
by attendees to contain literature and other hand-outs. However, the company
logo on the bags are displayed all across the show floor.
- Wear logo-embroidered clothes at all
times.
Reach out to
your entire audience
There are two
audiences for advanced paid promotions – those who will attend and everyone
else.
Actual attendees can be identified on a pre-registered list and through
at-event publications such as a Show Daily, an Event Directory, or other
special publications such as Pittcon’s Pocket Guide. This audience can receive
a “frontal attack” because you know they will be at the event. After the event,
you can go after them again with an email or snail mail follow up for repeated
exposure.
The “everyone else” category includes your own customer/prospect list, plus any
circulation or advertising list. Although only a small percentage of this
audience will actually attend the trade show promotions to this audience is
never a wasted effort – it is simply another opportunity to build a general
promotion to your entire prospect list. In fact, it may be more important to
address this list, because the numbers may be higher and the odds of
success greater.
Driving Traffic
with an Offer
You may want to
give away an iPod, GPS, gift card, or other Gizmo. However, you should also
offer a product-related item of value such as a white paper, a CD of
applications, or a special trial offer.
In driving traffic be sure to promote all your activities at the show, not just the booth.
Don’t fall into the trap of promoting the Gizmo over your business. The Gizmo
may get their attention, but customers should be visiting your booth to learn
about your product.
Instead, use the Gizmo to bring visitors to your booth and the product-related
item to qualify the visitor. Then, add only the qualified names to your
prospect list.
Also, be sure
not to give the product-related item to your visitors at the event, send it to
them as a follow up. Creating and fulfilling their expectation of a future
reward builds and maintains interest. However, do keep a small supply on hand
for those who insist.
Finally, in driving traffic be sure to promote all your activities at the show,
not just the booth. That includes everything you do and give away at the show
from product-related news, to papers and posters.
Set Up a Virtual Show
Create a landing
page on your website that includes all your product news, plus any
presentations going on at the show. It is a vehicle both to tell attendees how
to get to your booth and to provide the non-attendees with a chance to win a
Gizmo, and obtain a product-related item.
Of course you don’t want to revolve your entire marketing efforts around a
trade show, but if it makes sense to drive show traffic using broad-based and
diverse promotions, then why not expand it just a bit and reach all your
customers with the same effort?
In practice, use all of your promotions. Don’t simply mention your booth number
– mention your landing page too.
Beyond using your own customer list, consider buying access to a list from a
publisher. With an attractive offer, you could win control of some new names –
whether they attend the show or not. These names can then be added to your
regular promotions.
You should also put a link to your virtual show on your company home page. This
will expose the promotion to everyone who visits your website.
Synchronize your virtual show with the real one. Don’t post the product news or
technical material on the landing page until the opening day of the show so
that both the website and show appear linked. You can make the landing page
even more useful by linking it to post-show follow-up emails.
Finally add a personal touch by posting the names of the winners of the Gizmos,
and maybe a few photos.
Consider adding a block of show-related links to your site such as the show’s
own website, and magazine websites like: www.specialtygasreport.com.
You don’t need to re-focus your entire website on a trade show. Building an
“events” landing page or “virtual show” provides a new opportunity to broadcast
news about other trade shows, open houses, or other events such as webcasts and
seminars.
It then becomes a dynamic Events Page you can use to lure customers back to
your website.
In part two of this series we will discuss
how to mange execution techniques and handle post-event follow up activitIes. SGR
Scully
Communications is a marketing communications consultancy in New Jersey, USA. Kevin can be
reached at +1,
201, 825, 4186 or at Kevin@ScullyComm.com
