Month: March 2010
(Video) Tip #31: The Trade Show Multiplying Affect
How do you measure trade show success?
Candidly speaking, most exhibiting companies fail to measure the return on their trade show investment due to the fact that there has not been a step-by-step process to calculate it. This may have been overlooked when the economy was booming but is no longer acceptable when budgets are being scrutinized.
At St. Louis Trade Show Displays, I provide my clients with a Marketing ROI CD entitled “Measurement Made Easy!”. The program is embedded with calculators that allows my clients to measure the success of their trade shows & events.
Some of the calculators built into the program include:
- Potential Audience
- Return on Investment
- Cost per Qualified Lead
- Cost per Current Customer Visiting
- Cost per Attendee Demonstration (Introduction of a New Product)
- Cost per Distributor Recruited
- Cost per Visitor Reached
- Cost per Visitor Impact
I’m offering this CD to you at no charge. And, I’ll even provide a brief training to demonstrate its capabilities and discuss how it relates to your trade show marketing plans.
For more information or to receive this Marketing ROI CD, click here.
How do you handle trade show follow-up?
According to the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (ceir.org), 79% of leads generated at trade shows are not followed-up. This is a statistic you’d want to share with your CEO or CFO, so I’m challenging you to change this for your company.
Here are 3 things you can do to handle trade show follow-up:
1.) Create a closed-loop follow-up system. Once the show closes, who’s responsible for the leads generated at your trade show? The follow-up should be a joint effort between both the sales & marketing teams. Separate leads into categories, such as A, B & C. The A leads, maybe 10% of those generated, should be the priority of sale reps. The B & C leads can be matured by the marketing team through continued communication from your company. You can tailor this system to your needs, but regardless, all information should be tracked in a CRM system.
2.) Customize your lead card and combine it with electronic systems or badge scanners. Have you ever received a business card that said “Call this person on Tuesday.” or “Hot! Hot! Hot!”. A follow-up on this “lead” isn’t much more than a cold call. Therefore, be proactive and customize your lead card, so that booth staffers can gain the proper information for your sales staff. Knowing important information such as the prospect’s personality, buying cycle, pain-points, etc. will dramatically improve lead follow-up effectiveness.
3.) Do something different and stand-out from the crowd. Is it reasonable to think that all leads generated at your show will close into sales? No, probably not. At least not immediately. Take your group of A leads and do something different. If your prospect requested a brochure or catalog, invest in Priority Mail or FedEx overnight. This will capture attention and allow you to track the package, so you can touch-base accordingly. Perhaps you’ve invested in a premium promotional product which you send as a result of viewing a product demo or scheduling a meeting. Regardless your preference, make sure you do something different — how many e-mails or postcards will your prospect get after the show, remember and act upon the call-to-action? Don’t run with the pack, instead stand out from the crowd!
