The Exhibit Source Blog

It’s time to change the conversation about trade shows. Stop thinking about monetary ROI from trade shows and move on to more urgent and practical matters.

What do you want to get from trade show spend?

There is a simple answer: Leads and sales.

Exhibit marketing isn’t like the other popular B2B marketing tactics. B2B marketing needs personal selling.

Websites, Webinars, SEO, paid search, e-mail, PR, print advertising, direct mail and social media are all one or more steps removed from personal selling.

Executives demand need evidence of ROI in the above, because they can readily suck up time and money without clearly driving sales.

But exhibit marketing is different.

It’s so closely tied to personal selling that you shouldn’t demand elaborate proof of ROI in it. You can’t demand that sales people prove their ROI with charts and graphs of phone calls, travel, hospitality and gifts.

Judge a trade show, like a salesperson is judged.

In assessing trade show performance, this is what executives want to know:

• Does the show help our company communicate effectively?
• Does it help us establish industry leadership?
• Does it let us identify promising accounts?
• Does it help us educate and develop buyers?
• Does it create valuable relationships?
• And does it, when all’s said and done, produce sales?

To accomplish the above, send the right people and have the right trade show display. For a captivating trade show exhibit, contact The Exhibit Source.
 
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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.

When planning your trade show displays, you need to think about how you are going to transport your booth once it is created. The Exhibit Source will help you design portable trade show exhibits keeping transportation costs in mind.

If you are considering a tall trade show display, consider having it designed so it can be broken down easily.

If using a transportation company to move your trade show display, be sure to incorporate the transportation expenses into your trade show budget.

The Exhibit Source can build high quality, trade show booths that are transportable. But here are some tips if you are using a transportation company to move your display.

Contact the trade show organizers and find out what the earliest available delivery and set-up times are. If you know this you can provide a bigger delivery window to the transportation company and get off-peak rates.

Instead of printing your trade show materials beforehand if the trade show is located in another town or state, have your marketing material made into digital files. You can have them printed near the trade show location to save on transportation space and fuel.

Contact The Exhibit Source for portable and impressionable trade show displays.

Trade shows are designed to let businesses meet numerous potential customers face-to-face in a short period of time.

Every size business does well at trade shows. Overall, booth space is inexpensive and small companies can usually afford attractive trade show displays. With creative marketing and trade show exhibits, small businesses can appear as substantial and profitable as larger corporations.

Those who use captivating and sophisticated trade show displays do well at trade shows no matter what their size, while those who show they are small and inexperienced can waste thousands of dollars and possibly do more harm than good.
 
Trade Show Benefits
 
The Trade Show Bureau claims that the average total cost of closing a sale in the field is $1,080, while the cost of closing a sale to a qualified trade show prospect is $419.
 
Generating sales leads is the most common reason exhibitors participate in trade shows. To do this, you need an appealing and compelling trade show booth. Contact The Exhibit Source for your display needs.

Trade shows. For a small to medium sized company, preparing for them can be time consuming and overwhelming. What are some of the DO’s and DON’Ts of  trade show exhibits? Deciding what to include in your exhibit and how to set it up is one of the first decisions you’ll have to make. But even prior to that: how big is your booth and do you have electricity?

Once you have the answers to these questions, you can begin to think about the actual trade show displays, what you want and what you can do.

Don’t Jam Pack it. Often simple is better. Overcrowding a booth with products, logos, displays and information turn people away and don’t send a clear message of why attendees should stop there.

Make your message simple. What is the main objective? Is there one main product you want to push or introduce? Having fewer, but larger visual elements in your exhibit will reduce clutter and get more attention from attendee’s while creating a lasting impression.

Just a few products. Don’t bring your entire product line to the trade show. Just show the products you want to showcase or the products that make you the highest profit margin.

Moving trade show displays are better than static ones. Have something rotating or moving. At the least, have a tv showing a looping video.
 
If you have a large trade show booth, be sure to have an area set aside, with table and chairs to bring prospective customers to sit and chat.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss your trade show display, contact the Exhibit Source. 

Are you heading to a trade show? Are you trying to make a window display? Do you want the foyer in your business to stand out? Display walls from the Exhibit Source are the answer.

You get maximum exposure in high definition. You also get two options.
 
Set up your wall display, with no tools, in 10-15 minutes. Maximum graphic exposure because the aluminum frames are hidden. You can even take advantage of both sides of the frame with two different graphics.

These wall displays are elegant and durable, but best of all, they are simple to use and transport. So many uses for portable display walls. Contact The Exhibit Source for more information.

There are numerous trade shows this year in the Boston Area. If you want to stand out in the crowd you need a trade show exhibit that sets you apart, shows off your brand, and draws potential clients to your booth; but it also needs to function flawlessly.

You need large-scale graphics that utilize color saturation and seamless designs, and if you want it, you should have an exhibit up to 10' dimensions.

The Exhibit Source provides a complete selection of event and trade show exhibits for clients ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. Our concept-to-completion suite of services includes exhibit design, construction, shipping, install and dismantle, graphic design, and signage. With an extensive product line and custom modular trade show displays, we deliver the look of a custom exhibit with all the practical benefits of a modular product.

The Exhibit Source's turnkey approach factors in all aspects associated with cost and efficiency including graphics, show services, shipping, ease of installation, dismantle, and more for each marketing solution.

Contact the Exhibit Source for your trade show and event booth displays.

Trade Shows can be expensive endeavors. It is important that you capture the right potential customer’s attention and draw them to your booth. In this scenario, a trade show exhibit that is different and captivating is always best.

The Exhibit Source is proud to announce the first ever fabric backlit pop up display. Our exclusive lighting system creates images with color and pop far beyond what traditional front lit systems achieve.

Grab customers’ attention! It has never been easier or more economical to own a 10 ft back lit trade show display.

Quality & value

Our Quick Fab™ is built from the highest quality components combined with a wrinkle resistant fabric graphic that stays attached to the frame. The ability to back light the fabric graphic, makes this the most reliable and versatile fabric pop up on the market. 

Lighting fixtures

Our exclusive Light Blanket creates a uniform glow to illuminate and draw attention to your graphics. Lighting fixtures use standard bulbs that can be found at most hardware stores. Light Blankets are easy to attach. Only one plug is required and will work with any standard outlet.

Portable & lightweight

The Backlit trade show display  is easy to set up - the display can be set up by one person in five minutes, with no tools, and the entire display, including the lights, collapses into a sturdy rolling hard case for convenient storage and mobility. Lights are wrapped in a protective fabric sleeve.

Contact The Exhibit Source for more information on eye catching exhibit ideas.

Did you know that your trade show booth display has about 3 seconds to stand out from the others?  In order to get the attention of the potential customer at a trade show, you need to set yourself apart in a crowd.

To get the job done, your trade show booth display needs to grab qualified prospects and draw them in. The Exhibit Source understands the importance of your trade show display, which is why we offer numerous options of display styles.

We offer ten foot and twenty foot displays that are lightweight and easily transported, effective displays “no tools required”, and table top designs with or without pop up enhancements. The Exhibit Source is perfectly able to help you design and create the perfect exhibit for your trade show booth .

Click “trade show exhibits” for more information.