The Exhibit Source Blog

On December 14, 2011, the U.S. Commerce Association (“USCA” and based in New York City) awarded the “2011 Best of Newton Center Award”  in the “Display Designers & Producers” category to your humble friends at The Exhibit Source.  You can read the details about the details about the U.S. Commerce Association and this particular award by visiting our new web page that is dedicated to the subject.
 
Here is the bottom line.  The award is based on information gathered internally by the USCA and by data provided by “third parties”.  “Third Parties” include all of you who we’ve partnered with for your display marketing efforts.  Your positive feedback to the USCA regarding how our products and services helped drive your business sales and revenue was foundationally important to us being selected as the winner.

We can’t thank you enough for your direct contribution in our earning the U.S. Commerce Association’s recognition as America’s best Display Designer.  To those of you who we met and served for the first time in 2011, it has been our sincere pleasure to work with each and every one of you.  To those of you who we’ve been serving over the long term (some for over 23 years now), we want you to know our appreciation for you and respect for what you do grows steadily over time.

The recognition as the U.S. Commerce Association’s Best Display Designer for 2011 is directly attributable to our satisfied customers, so congratulations to you too.  We close our 2011 blog with this sincere message of thanks and warmest regards for you business and friendship. 

We’ve recently referred a number of your to our website’s “Exhibit Design Search” , a tool which helps your target exhibits to your exact specifications from our vast selection of sizes and  price ranges.  We appreciate your feedback that this feature is an excellent way to quickly view hundreds of exhibits across any number of different price ranges.  

A very common question called into us is “What are the most popular choices for exhibit construction today”?  A great question, so we’ll refer you to our “top 5” of recent weeks:

• Sacagawea Hybrid Displays
• Magellan Hybrid Displays
• Eco-Smart Displays
• Table Top Displays
• Intro Fabric Panel Displays

We encourage both new and returning customers to browse our product offerings on the web as we add new products and features on a regular basis.  Then please call us and as always, we are glad to assist in targeting the perfect exhibit display to promote your products and business.

Happy Holidays from all of us at the Exhibit Source.  

Here are some steps on measuring your trade show ROI:

Get Your Leads:  Gather up your list of trade show leads from each show. At least do the shows you really want to track first, like the expensive or largest shows. Find out who came to your trade show booth and put the list in Excel. You’ll need the spreadsheet for extra columns and calculations.

Get Your Customer List: Somewhere in your company is a list of all your customers and what they bought. It may not be neat and tidy and available, but it is there somewhere. It may be in a database, it may be invoices…you may need to look and compile.

Compare Leads to Customers: Look up every company listed as a lead that visited your trade show booth to see if they are also in your customer database. Are they there? If yes, add in your leads Excel file a column that says “bought” and mark them as Yes. Then add a column and type in how much they spent.
 
Calculate ROI: When you total up the sales you can attribute to the trade show, compare that to the cost to exhibit at the show. So, if your sales were $100,000 and your costs were $10,000, then you've got an ROI of $100,000/$10,000 = 10 to 1. Now you have a yardstick to compare which trade shows to exhibit at and which ones to drop. And you have a metric to compare trade shows to other marketing media.

Bonus No. 1: Tracking New/Repeat Business: Keep track of the date of all sales from leads from the trade show. Were they already a client before the show? So, you helped influence a repeat client. Did they buy repeatedly after the show? Then total up all those sales, not just the first one. Did they buy for the first time after the show? Then your trade show lead became a new client.

Bonus No. 2: Tracking Product/Segments: If your client database has the info readily available, you can also check out and record on your spreadsheet what products and services they bought. Did they buy the new product you introduced at the show, or your popular existing products? Do the products and clients fall into more than one market segment for you? If so, see if the biggest segments were the ones you targeted at the show. You may be surprised, and you may want to change your trade show exhibit messaging and promotions.

It takes some work initially, but it is worth the effort to finally determine your Trade Show ROI.

TSNN.com

The New Year is almost upon us, and it is time to think of some resolutions for your business. Resolve to spend your marketing dollars wisely. When you choose to go to a trade show, you need to do it right. Or, if you are spending your dollars on a smaller scale training meeting, your money still needs to be well spent.

The Exhibit Source provides a complete selection of event marketing and trade show exhibits, from national trade show promotions and key product launches to small-scale training meetings.

We can help you calculate your budget, create the displays and trade show exhibits as well as take care of the shipping, installation and dismantling logistics. Let us help you resolve to make the most of your marketing budget, contact The Exhibit Source for trade show booths and displays.