Why are we exhibiting at this Tradeshow?

With tradeshows and events often taking up the largest part of a company’s marketing budget, CMOs should be asking the question ‘Why are we attending?’ followed by ‘How do we measure success?’ before deciding whether to exhibit or not.

Often the reason comes back with ‘we always exhibit there’ or ‘we’ll be conspicuous by our absence’, without further thought as to why the company is exhibiting or how to maximize the value, leading the ‘naysayers’ to conclude this is an expensive appearance, generating no value to the company. The truth is, there are many different reasons for attending a trade show, and many ways in which it contributes to the growth of the business. The key point is to understand what that is, and measure how it contributes.

5 Reasons for Attending a Trade Show and How to Measure Success

Before signing up to attend a trade show, companies should identify the reasons for attending, and how success will be measured. This may be a combination of reasons, and different for each trade show, depending on the industry, audience, and format. It will lead to different strategies within that show (for example size of booth, spending on pre-marketing, training of sales staff). Here are five important reasons for attending a trade show, the key attributes of exhibiting and specific metrics that should be captured for each.?

1.???? Face-to-face Meetings for Distributors, Channel Partners, or Key Customers: Exhibiting at a trade show provides a unique opportunity to strengthen relationships with distributors, channel partners, and key customers – especially if this is an event they always attend. Where else are your sales team and senior executives able to have face-to-face meetings with partners – all in one place?

It is a good opportunity to show the company’s appreciation to these partners for their business and how valuable they are to the company. Ensure they have the opportunity to access and speak with senior executives and if possible, take the opportunity to have an organized review meeting with their sales representative to review key business metrics. If the company is seeking representation in a new market, this is also an opportunity to meet potential distributors.

For this reason, the trade show booth should be focused on hospitality, providing areas to easily meet, perhaps serving coffee, and ensure individual meeting rooms are available. Booth size should be based on the expected turn-out – if hospitality is the only focus, there may not be a need to have a huge booth; instead the budget can be focused on the experience, or even have an off-site evening or lunch event.

Metrics: The company should measure the number of meetings held, the % of partners met and maybe the business that was concluded or won in each. This should be balanced against the cost of travel for the sales team to have done the same business without the trade show.

2.???? Building Brand Awareness / New Company Visibility Trade shows serve as an excellent way to build brand visibility and introduce new companies to the market. The goal is to increase brand recognition and market presence, while gathering feedback on the company and the product/service.

Many conferences have now started to hold ‘technical’ sessions to complement the booth hall. This is a good opportunity for the company to hold a session, demonstrating their innovative knowledge, and through that, inherently position their brand. It also allows them to drive traffic back to the booth for further conversations.

Metrics: Recommend carefully tracking booth traffic and results. Give some thought as to the best way to capture this.

-??????? How many people stopped at the booth?

-??????? Were they interested in the product?

-??????? Gather tangible and intangible feedback on the company/product/service.

-??????? Have they heard of the brand? (gives a baseline for brand awareness %)

-??????? Consider if you want to capture their details to ‘nurture’ them until the product is commercialized.

Get feedback of the engagement on social media during the event and mentions in industry publications – key for brand exposure.

3.???? New Product / Solution Introduction Introducing new products or solutions at trade shows allows companies to tap into an audience already interested in innovation. The objective is to generate excitement and interest around new offerings, while educating the audience on what the product does and what it can do for them. Some trade shows have an ‘innovation corner’ enhanced by a competition of the ‘best new product’. Companies can also piggy-back off the trade show by holding a press event for the product introduction, either at the show or at a location close by.

Metrics: Number of demos conducted, immediate feedback collected, and pre-orders taken at the event. A company may also measure how much press exposure was garnered through social media, digital and print.

4.???? Lead Generation Generating leads is often seen as the primary reason for trade show participation. The focus is on collecting high-quality leads from attendees that can be nurtured into future sales. Different trade shows attribute different levels of focus on this for the exhibitors, so if that is a key goal, ensure the trade show facilitates driving traffic. Care should be taken on how to collect the relevant information from interested parties, so that when these leads are passed onto the sales team, they can act effectively. The booth should be set up so it’s easy for the staff to demonstrate the value of what the company stands for and engaging for the visitor. For example, working models in the case of products, or software demonstrations for Saas companies. Thought should be given about to engage with these customers.

Metrics: # number of leads gathered, the quality of these leads (as assessed by follow-up interactions), and the conversion rate post-show.

5.???? Market Research Participating in trade shows allows companies to conduct valuable market research. This can take one of two areas:

Competitor / Market Research: ?With many competitors also exhibiting at the trade show, this is a good opportunity for the Product team to gather competitor developments, understanding emerging industry trends. If this is the ONLY purpose of the trade show, it may not be necessary to exhibit at the show, instead attending will be sufficient.

Metrics: # of Competitor analyses completed, list of insights from competitors. Cost of acquiring these through other means. Allocate this to the NPD budget.

Customer Feedback: Getting feedback on a proposed product / solution as part of the product/solution design process. Most often used when a product is going through prototyping/preproduction, it can be used to gather data on the value of features, understanding price points and determining whether the proposed GTM strategy will be successful. Product Managers should carefully orchestrate this information gathering to ensure that it is correctly categorized and will be actionable on return. Additionally, if the design is particularly proprietary, the company may choose to have it screened off, and only take select attendees to view (this can also add to the excitement of having a new product under development).

Metrics: number of competitor analyses completed, results of price vs options trade-off matrix, against gathering this information through different means. Can also be allocated to the NPD budget.

For many companies, the reasons to attend a trade show are a mix of these 5 points. The challenge for a market leader is to capture the value and ROI of all these areas effectively. Often seen is the cost and time of all the personnel travelling to the trade show - what's forgotten is the cost these personnel would have travelling to the different places without the trade show – customers, suppliers – and how will you travel to competitors?

Conclusion

Trade shows can provide enormous value for companies – providing great value and a measurable ROI if done correctly. Whether that’s networking with key stakeholders, enhancing brand visibility, introducing new products, generating leads, meeting with suppliers, conducting thorough market research, one or more of the above, companies must maximize the return on their trade show investments. Each of these reasons should be backed by specific metrics to evaluate success and ensure that the investment not only justifies the expense but also contributes significantly to the company’s broader strategic goals.

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