Measuring the Return on Your Trade Show Investment

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Measuring the Return on Your Trade Show Investment"

Andrew Carson
5 years ago
Views:

1 Measuring the Return on Your Trade Show Investment Regardless of the size of your business, or how often your company exhibits at trade shows, proving their value is a common task for most marketing professionals.

2 To help you demonstrate their worth, you must have: Clearly defined goals A way to measure those goals A formula to calculate total event value Goals should be determined long before the trade show s doors open. Having well-defined, measurable goals helps you determine if your participation was a success. Some of the most common goals for exhibiting at a trade show are: Increase brand awareness Generate leads and sales Launch a new product or service Let s take a closer look at these and how to measure the success of each. Doing so will help give you a clear view of which shows are meeting your goals and how much value you re realizing from participating. Let s get started!

3 Increase Brand Awareness Exhibiting raises your brand awareness and is an opportunity to share what you offer, and it gives prospects the chance to see what makes your products unique relative to your competitors. If your company is new, or looking to break into a new geographic or vertical market, this can be especially important. If you re a well-established company, exhibiting helps you connect and reconnect with existing buyers to stay top of mind and drive organic growth. Exhibiting also demonstrates you re part of the industry community and helps establish your position relative to your competitors. Oftentimes, if your competitors are at the show and you re not, you risk not being seen as an industry leader. Plus, you re giving competitors important inperson time with the prospects and current customers you want in your pipeline. What to Measure: If you re able to conduct a pre- and post-show brand study, you have a great way of measuring brand awareness and/or brand lift. Simpler ways to measure brand awareness resulting from your trade show presence include: Post-show attendee survey Quantity and quality of booth visitors Increase in traffic to your website or campaign landing page Total impressions across social media Increase in followers to your existing social media presences Amount of press coverage (including blogs, online news outlets, print, electronic media, etc.) and the reach of each media outlet

4 Generate Leads & Sales Exhibiting is a proven method for capturing new leads and reconnecting with past customers, both of which can lead to an increase in sales. Using a lead capture device or software at your booth to gather information on all visitors can make this easier. Once the show is over, you can analyze and classify the leads from hot to not in your sales database. Remember, as wonderful as it would be if every lead turned into a sale right after the show, that s typically not the case. Keep these tips in mind: Manage expectations: It s not always realistic to think that a sale is going to happen on the show floor; depending on the industry, RFPs come in over a six-month to one-year period. Follow up regularly: Post-show follow-up and continued nurturing is key to turning leads into sales. Consider a CRM system: Customer relationship management software enables you to note the location of first contact with a lead, manage the relationship, record history and activity that can help you migrate contacts into hot leads sooner, and track total revenue from each trade show. What to Measure: Post show, you can track: Quantity of leads and their conversion rate over time The job titles, companies, and areas of interest of your leads to see that you are attracting the right customers and that they align with those the event organizers promised to attract If sales are your goal, prior to the show, define how many leads are needed to make exhibiting a success. For example, for company A, one $100,000 sale of a machine could more than make up for exhibiting expenses. For company B, who has a low profit margin on each product, it may take 100 sales to break even.

5 Launch a New Product or Service Exhibiting is a valuable opportunity to launch a product or service because it gives buyers and the media a chance to see and touch the product, creating momentum right out of the gate, while generating interest in your company. It s also an effective way to build word of mouth, anticipation, and attract the attention of investors. The show organizer often offers promotional opportunities to exhibitors. Ask about press release distribution, accessing the registered press list, promotions, guest blog posts, social media posts, and other vehicles for communicating new product news to registered attendees. To get the word out about your news and increase your chances of a successful launch, you can: Send out a press release or announcement blog post Feature the news prominently on your website Boost distribution of the news by posting on social media, and using the event hashtag Book your executives as speakers at the event Sponsor a show activity, conference program, or host a happy hour to introduce your product What to Measure: You can track similar metrics to those for increasing brand awareness, as well as these unique ones: Number of demos or client meetings held at the show about the new product/service Number of onsite RFPs or orders Number of post-show sales inquiries or follow-up meetings Total sales of the new product/service resulting from leads gained at the show (keeping in mind your sales cycle)

6 Measuring Total Value Now that you ve set your goals and know what to measure, how do you determine the total value of your participation? Here is a simple formula to use post event to help you demonstrate the value you generated for the company by exhibiting. $ Estimated Revenue: Leads and Sales + $ Total Promotional Value (Brand Awareness and Impressions) = $ Total Value of Show Participation $ Total Cost of Participating at Show: Travel (staff airfare, hotel, per diem) + Exhibiting Costs (exhibit space and display, drayage, freight shipping, onsite promotional activations) = $ Grand Total Value Derived From the Event

7 Measure, Measure, and Measure Again The more you can track, the better. Having measurable results, regardless of your goal, will help you justify and improve your program over time. Remember to input results into the total value formula monthly throughout the year. Leads take time to turn into sales, so you could realize revenue far after the event is over. The more results you have for each show, the better you ll be able to judge ROI and develop a more strategic and profitable event program. We hope you found this information helpful. A UBM event expert can help you assess the value of exhibiting and how to connect with more of the right leads. Let s make the most out of your exhibiting experience! Jane Sullivan Account Executive ubm4biz@ubm.com exhibit.ubmamevents.com/info

Your Trade Show ROI. How to Calculate

Your Trade Show ROI. How to Calculate How to Calculate Your Trade Show ROI Regardless of the size of your business or how often your company exhibits at trade shows, proving their value is a common task for most marketing professionals. To