Exhibitions Work! They are a powerful, cost-effective marketing medium. Top marketers in virtually every industry have known it for years. The right exhibition is the only marketing medium that: brings your most active prospects and customers to you; allows you to demonstrate products, answer questions, overcome objections & meet your market face-to-face.
These are just a few of the things that exhibitions and only exhibitions bring to your marketing efforts in a measurably cost-effective way. Of course exhibitions are only part of the entire marketing mix. But, they’re the most effective part: the better your customer knows you – the more likely you are to make that first sale and the increasingly profitable sales that follow.
CONCENTRATED MARKETING: Think about your hottest prospects. What is their most valuable commodity? Their time! In consumer markets, the visitors are spending their leisure time – their most precious commodity. Given the value of their time, what does it say about a prospect who invests a day to visit and exhibition? It says they’re motivated. It says they have a reason to be there. It says they’re serious buyers in active buying mode. This is the power of exhibitions: no other medium concentrates your efforts on the most active buyers in your market at any given time.
INTELLIGENT MARKETING : Exhibitions make business sense. You’ve never had so many marketing media to choose from. Some may boast ‘interactivity’ – but what is more interactive than a conversation between people? Others may claim to be ‘direct’ – but can you get any more direct that fact-to-face? No-one would say that exhibitions should be the only medium in your marketing plan. But many would agree that exhibitions are the pinnacle of the marketing pyramid – that they deliver completely what other media can only get you a step closer to: personal interaction with real buyers. Are you using your most powerful marketing medium as much as you ought to be?
DIRECT MARKETING: After all Marketing really doesn’t get any more direct than this…
COST EFFECTIVE MARKETING. Exhibitions deliver measurable value. The day's of using exhibitions as "flag waving exercises" are long gone. Today's best marketers expect exhibitions to deliver a significant return on investment - in measurable terms, including cost per lead and cost per sale. Many even track the value of each exhibition over three, six and twelve months (after all, a single new customer can represent a huge lifetime value to your company).
A key fact generated by a recent AEO research study is that 80% of all trade show visitors are personally involved in buying the products or services on show. And 29% never see sales reps other than at exhibitions! So how can you convert your commitment to exhibit to real sales and real clients?
The three most important elements of any exhibition measurement system are goals, goals, goals! You need to have a clear statement of what your company wants to accomplish before you can find out whether you've succeeded. Counting sales leads is the easy part - but leads are not the only thing that you could be measuring. The following are some specific goal areas that exhibitions can help you to achieve.
SALES
- generate sales leads
- make direct sales
- build a contact database
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS
- build relationships with current customers
- educate customers
- up-sell and cross-sell customers
- collect customer testimonials
- re-sell lapsed customers
MARKET RESEARCH
- market test a new product
- research you marketing campaign
- test market awareness and perceptions
BRAND BUILDING
- create or raise market awareness
- position or re-position your brand
- educate by demonstrating
- boost financial analyst/investor perceptions
- develop new markets
CHANNEL SUPPORT
- identify and recruit new distributors or partners
- support your current sales channel
- build your reputation as a partner
MEDIA RELATIONS
- get on the 'media radar'
- generate coverage
- build relationships with key editors and journalists
Once you have established your key goals then it is vital to measure them. Not only does measuring the results help you to improve your exhibition activities, to justify your investment and help you to choose the right exhibition for you, it also helps to encourage goal-driven activities. Very simply - what's gets measured gets done! If you want to see your team focused on results, tell them what results you mean, and show them that you're measuring.
The more defined your goal, the easier it can be to measure. For example if you decide that a key goal is to "earn media coverage", you could define this even further - deciding that to satisfy this goal you would like to "earn five articles or product reviews in the top three trade titles over the next two months". It becomes much easier to measure your performance against this goal when it is stated in a clearly defined, measurable way.
If you have recorded your results from past shows, setting goals for an upcoming event will be much easier. If you don't have this historical data to work from don't worry - talk to us. We can help by providing past visitor data to help you on your way. And don't forget - every time you evaluate an exhibition you're actually measuring many things at the same time, including the show itself, the market climate, your own activities and your competitor's activities.
