The Exhibit Source Blog

With the right planning, B2B marketers can use trade shows to speed up the sales cycle, reduce the cost of sales, and reach customers and prospects.

Many feel that exhibit marketing is the most cost-effective means of reaching customers and prospects; it reduces the buying cycle; it allows you to reach hidden buyers.  Most important, though, is that it can reduce the cost of a sale by as much as 75%.

However, to attain those kinds of results, planning is essential.  And that’s where many trade show exhibitors fall short.

71% of all exhibitors have no measurable goals or objectives or even a written marketing plan.

Here is a 12-step planning process that can be very helpful for B2B companies who are actively marketing or considering marketing at trade shows.

1. Define the Situation – Who is your company? What is your product and its real benefit? Who are your competitors?
2. Identify Your Target Audience – This needs to go beyond just the procurement people. Think about the end users and those who influences the buying decision.  You probably have multiple, distinct audiences.
3. Pre-show Research – Not all trade shows are a good investment of your time and money.  
4. Set Goals and Measurable Objectives – Sales goals are not a realistic metric given the long sales cycles for most B2B sales, but other goals should be set and measured such as contact and qualified leads.
5. Have Management Support and Input – To be effective, management needs to perceive trade show marketing as a cost rather than an investment.  Don’t exhibit if you can’t get management support and input.
6. Strategies and Tactics – This contains the specifics of how to achieve the goals and objectives from #4 above.  Unfortunately, many exhibitors skip #’s 1-5 and start here.
7. Include Current Advertising and Corporate Communications – Your trade show message needs to be consistent with all other corporate brand touch points.
8. Pre-Show/At-Show Promotion – After you’ve determined who you really need to see at the show, develop a promotion beforehand targeting that group to drive them to you.
9. Design a trade show Exhibit to Support Steps 1-8 – Take the perspective of the visitor whose mindset is “what’s in it for me?”
10. Plan the Follow-Up Plan – According to some experts, 80% of exhibitors don’t follow up on leads. By developing a follow-up program beforehand, this problem can be eliminated.
11. Involve and Train Your Staff – One of the biggest challenges is getting staff to listen to visitors before jumping into a presentation.
12. Measure Results and Make Money – This involves getting back to management, comparing results to objectives and determining if a return to that show is in order.

Business to Community

Trade shows are your company’s chance to debut a new product, find better vendors and suppliers, reach out to potential clients and find new talent to bring in to your company. But if you want to grab people’s attention at a trade show, then you will need to make and follow a plan and use some good trade show techniques. The company that is prepared to maximize the opportunities at a trade show is the company that will walk away feeling like the investment in the event was worth it.

Marketing Materials

One of the biggest mistakes companies make when they prepare for a trade show is a mediocre trade show display and deciding to use the existing marketing materials they have on hand. In order to make a big impact at a trade show, you need to give people something that will make your products stand out. You need to have new marketing materials and pop up trade show displays made up for the products and services you will be featuring at the show.

Make and Follow a Plan

Your company is investing a lot of money into being on a trade show floor. Do not go into the show without having a plan. Your trade show booth may look impressive, but if you do not have a message for attendees that they can understand, then you will not draw traffic.

If you want to release new products at this trade show, then develop your approach around those products. If you are going to use this trade show to try and attract new distributors for your products, then you will need a presentation more geared towards the benefits of doing business with your company as opposed to just product benefits.

Have the Right Team

If you are focusing on product sales at the show, then you will need sales people and you will need product engineers to answer detailed questions. If your presence at the show is designed to attract vendors or distributors, then you will want members of the logistics team, marketing department and executive team on hand to make a good impression.

The Giveaway

Too many companies underestimate the power of the free giveaway at trade shows. Giving away toys or notepads with your company logo on them is nice, but if you give people something they can use word will travel fast among the crowds.

When you have a good plan for a trade show, then you can maximize your investment in show resources. Take the time to plan your presence in advance so that you can attract more visitors and collect more useful information.

LuxeLounge

Finding the right trade show to take your business to is very important. Trade shows can be expensive, when you consider staffing, your trade show booth, promotional items and literature, and you want to make sure you’re going to be getting the best value for money. Going to the right trade shows means you will find the right target audience.

Determining your objectives

The first thing that you need to think about is what you actually want to accomplish at the trade show. Do you want to generate leads? Meet existing customers? Get exposure for your brand? Meet industry experts? Branch out into a new sector? Get contacts in the media?

Once this is decided, you can better research which types of events would most likely to help you achieve your objectives?

Finding an exhibition

Of course you have some knowledge about what events take place throughout the year, but it always pays to be thorough. There are several ways you can find out about exhibitions that are taking place.

• Trade show search engines and directories – yes there are such things! These are databases of events that are taking place that are searchable by various criteria such as dates, location and industry. Try http://www.tsnn.com/, http://www.biztradeshows.com/ .
• Industry publications – these are really good for finding events in your sector. They’ll probably list all the big industry-wide events. Individual publications may also list events they have organized themselves.
• Your contacts – Ask around people in the industry that you know. You can find out quite a lot by word of mouth. This can also help when narrowing down your list – if someone mentions that an event was badly organized, you might think twice before signing up.
• Your competitors – take a sneaky peek at your competitors’ websites. They may have lists of or news items about the exhibitions they’re attending over the next few months. And if you go to the shows your competitors are going to, it not only gives you the chance to compete for the same audience, but also to find out what your competitors are doing in terms of marketing, products and services.
• Industry associations – check their websites for event listings or give them a call to find out if there are any upcoming events.
• Local event and convention centers or chambers of commerce – these will often have events listings on their websites, or you can call them up and ask. If you’re not looking to go too far afield, this could be a good option for reaching new local customers.

After you have done your research, you need to collate the results and weigh them against your objectives. Which shows are most likely to help you achieve these? And how good is the ROI likely to be? Those trades shows that require you to travel, consider whether the expense is worth it.

Your customers

Think about where your customers are most likely to be. If you can, talk to them and see if they’re going to any upcoming exhibitions or trade shows. If your existing customers are going, then the chances are that other attendees will be interested in you too.

Once you have narrowed down your list a bit, you could also try contacting the organizers of the exhibitions and asking them for lists of last year’s attendees. This will help you narrow down your list even further. Review your list whilst keeping your objectives in mind, and you should arrive at a shortlist of the events that are most likely to help you achieve them.

Then all you need to do is sign up for each event and contact The Exhibit Source so we can get to work on an incredible trade show booth display that will wow your target audience and make them want to know more about you.

Business 2 Community

The first thing that comes to the mind of many small and medium small business owners when thinking trade shows is “expensive”.
 
That doesn't mean that trade shows can't deliver a great return on investment. The key to trade show success is how hard you are willing to work.

Many businesses are willing to spend big bucks travelling to and from and exhibiting at trade shows, with little other than a hope of traffic, orders and success. They certainly book appointments, but do they pull out all the stops?

A successful trade show can be measured in less quantifiable ways than orders written on site, such as new leads, enhanced customer relationships, brand building, product demoing, and sales training.

However, as well as these successes, it never hurts to get a show to pay for itself. Here are some ideas:

1. Contact your existing customers with a personalized message asking if they will be attending the show and requesting a formal appointment time. A call to action needs repetition from several methods to be most effective.

2. Contact the trade show association or organization and request a pre-registered buyer’s list for the upcoming show. Then, repeat the first suggestion about contacting customers with an introduction to your key product or service and how it can help run or grow their company. Request a formal appointment time.

3. Offer a free gift with a high retail value that can be acquired by you factory-direct at cost as a reward for showing up on time for a pre-booked appointment.

4. Overcome objections like; “I’m not booking appointments but I’ll stop by” with simple logic: “With all of our key staff on site and best products on display, we don’t want to run the chance of not being able to speak to you when you drop by. An appointment will guarantee you get our undivided attention.”

5. Use an online calendar to make sure no one gets double-booked and independent sales reps, if you have them, can see your availability in real time.

6. Advertise in a daily show magazine if there is one published on site. This is as captive an audience as you are going to get and the most likely chance that a print ad will translate into immediate action.

7. Offer show only specials.

8. Offer a daily prize in exchange for business cards dropped at your booth.

9. Rent the bar code scanner that some trade shows offer so you can scan the badges of buyers at your booth to ensure you get the most up to-date customer data. That’s your key to post show follow-up.

10. Deliver annual awards for “dealer of the year” or “distributor of the year” so that lesser-performing customers have something to aspire to.

11. Capitalize on celebrity endorsers, if you have them. Have them come for a picture and autograph signing or a meet-and-greet to draw attention and reward clients.

If this all sounds expensive, it is likely a still a fraction of what you are paying for floor space, flights and accommodations. A lot of it requires sweat equity more than dollars.

Using these ideas will allow you to book a couple hundred or more meetings over a four day show.  That kind of result practically guarantees the show’s success and return on investment.
 
An “if we build it, they will come” attitude is no more likely to work at a trade show than it is with a business idea. Exhaust your opportunities to confirm success before you get there.

Original article – The Globe and Mail

Many small to medium sized businesses participate in trade shows. For most trade shows the cost is tens of thousands. And that is before you pay your sales people.

According to the trade show bureau, it takes 3.6 touches to make an average B2B sale from a trade show lead rather than 6.7 touches from other leads.

So, are trade shows worth it?

For companies whose primary marketing strategy is direct sales, the general consensus is “Yes” trade shows are worth it. They must be properly executed, and when they are, there is no bigger marketing investment.
 
It is very important to pick the right show and have a customer focused strategy. But unfortunately, many companies execute a trade show poorly.

Your trade show displays should be a visual bill board. Your trade show exhibits must be part of the strategy of drawing potential customers and clients to your booth. But you must also have other effective strategies in place as well.
 
If your goal is branding and attracting customers, trade shows can be worth your while. But an attractive trade show booth displays are integral. One that can be assembled, transported and reassembled in the next location, can be highly effective and economical as well.

For information on trade show booths and displays, contact The Exhibit Source.

Trade shows take a lot of hard work, logistical planning and budgeting. From securing the space, figuring out what to display and outfitting the booth, there are many details that have to be managed.

But trade shows can generously pay off in quality leads, credibility, awareness and insight if they are well planned and executed.

Make your trade show investment a wise investment. Start by setting objectives. Identify what you want to accomplish by being there. Do you want to generate sales leads, increase brand awareness, promote a new product or service?

When exhibiting at a trade show, you'll need to consider the costs of registration, travel, lodging, meals and transportation, and the cost of your booth space, which will vary by size and location. Research what booths will be around you and identify whether the site is a high-traffic or low-traffic area. The budget also will need to include booth fixtures such as signage, additional lighting, extra-thick carpeting, giveaways for booth visitors, etc.

Your trade show display should represent your company's overall image, so keep it tidy and organized, display products in a way that will draw customers into your booth, and place marketing materials in easy-to-find areas. And if your booth space allows, have seating available.

Hold a short training session for booth staffers to explain the objectives and what is expected of them at the show. Be sure supplies are on hand to conduct business: product literature, pens, paper, business cards, media kits and order forms. Check to make sure any slideshow presentation or internet connections are working properly.

Attracting attendees should be one of your key objectives. In addition to friendly customer service and an appealing trade show exhibit, branded giveaways should be something attendees can take away from the show and use.

Once you get show participants into your booth, staffers should provide friendly and timely greetings, and be prepared to answer questions, offer demonstrations, and be able to create interest in your products or services.

Post-show follow-up is crucial. Send an email, letter or make a phone call shortly after the show wraps up to thank those you met with, answer any further questions and provide additional information.

With adequate preparation, the right trade show exhibit, the right booth staff and timely follow-up, trade shows give businesses the opportunity to build strong relationships and ultimately turn those relationships into valued customers.

Original article – Post Crescent

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. 

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.

A business needs great planning to master the deadline-driven world of trade shows.

Too often, important marketing planning gets overshadowed by urgent logistics planning. Because of the flood of deadlines, businesses get more distracted by the “what to do” rather than the “why to do” it.

But, it’s just as essential to plan your marketing. Things such as your goals for the show, your marketing messages for your graphics and staffers and creating a promotional trade show booth that will get more of the right people to your space.

In regards to your trade show booth –
Four months out:

• Pick Booth Staffers: Review last year’s qualified lead counts by booth staffer to identify the staffers you want. Be sure they can attend. Ask your best booth staffers who else they would recommend.
• Research Technology: Consider how you can integrate technology into your trade show exhibit to help get more attention, tell your story, and facilitate better conversations between attendees and booth staffers.
• Invite Exhibit Builders: If building a new trade show booth, set appointments to meet with exhibit builders and give them access to your key marketing decision-makers.

Two months out:

• Choose Staffers: Finalize your booth staff choices.
• Order Services: Order any show services you need according to your list from the show book.
• Choose Your Exhibit Builder: Award the new build and then continue to quickly and thoughtfully respond to their questions and requests for graphics art to ensure timely completion of your new trade show exhibit.
• Order Promotions: Select and order any promotional items you will be mailing pre-show. Some can take only a few days, some can take over a month, depending where they are made and imprinted.

Original article – TSNN.com