Using Creativity and Process to Improve Tradeshow ROI

By Kim Frazier, principal of Frazier & Co. LLC

Tradeshows are a BIG $40-billion business that corporate America readily embraces. But how many companies are actually making money from their tradeshow activities? Not many, I suspect. If your organization is knocking down more dollars than you can count from your tradeshows, stop reading and get a latte. But if you’re part of the group seeking a bigger bang for the buck, this article is for you.

Tradeshow success means making connections

A tradeshow offers the best and most affordable chance to meet potential clients, extend your brand and write business. Sounds like what the sales department does day in and day out? Exactly, but their task is accomplished one prospect at a time. To successfully reach exhibit attendees, you have to take that process and convert it to a mass scale. Easy, no. Worth it? You bet!

Every small, medium and large company faces similar challenges with tradeshow marketing. Selecting the “right” show and coordinating personnel, travel and booth logistics are headaches that keep many marketing managers awake at night. For our purposes, let’s assume you’re a whiz at the aforementioned. However, you’re not alone if you haven’t done quite as thorough a job at the often-overlooked areas of pre-show marketing, branding premiums and post-show follow-up. While tradeshows can be a great, cost-effective way to meet prospects, you may be throwing money away if you’re not covering all the bases.

Pre-show marketing is key to bringing prospects to your booth

Every marketing pro has heard this sometime in their career – Why didn’t more prospects come to our tradeshow booth? There is no easy answer. But in our experience the answer usually comes down to another question – How many people actually knew the company was attending the tradeshow? That’s where pre-show marketing plays a pivotal role.

Don’t count on the average attendee to beat a path to your booth. Get the early sign-up attendee list from the tradeshow organizer and then market your involvement to target prospects coming to the show. Additionally, tell every current client, prospect, employee and vendor about your participation.

The process isn’t expensive, especially when using email, direct mail, website notifications and internal channels. Yet the impact of pre-show marketing can be powerful. In one familiar case, a vendor mentioned to a business associate (in another industry) about his client exhibiting at a particular event. That business associate visited the client booth and subsequently connected his company with the exhibiting company to the tune of a six-figure deal.

Consider these key elements when planning your pre-show marketing activities:

• Use creative design and delivery systems that will grab attention and excite attendees about visiting your booth. A dimensional pre-show mailer is a proven way to get audience attention.
• Understand audience and target market demographics. If 30-something engineers are your target, market to them in language they understand. Push their communication buttons to drive interest about your company and product.
• Know your value proposition and communicate it clearly. Why should prospects do business with you? It’s not about features, it’s customer benefits that count.
• Incorporate an incentive or branding premium for prospects who visit your booth. More on this later.
• Make sure your brand is visually reflected in all communications - logo, colors, etc.

Use premiums that actually promote business relationships

All of us have seen our fair share of rubber ducks, light-up pens, yo-yos and bowls of candy stuck in tradeshow booths. Those well-intended but uninspired handouts don’t promote business relationships because they have no real brand value to recipients. Tchotchkes, swag, freebies or useless stuff, in fact, create the exact opposite of intentions by cheapening a brand. Consider this – if all you think of your brand is the cheaper-by-the-dozen items, why should your target audience think any different about your brand?

Our firm developed the phrase “branding premiums” to identify merchandise that extends brand and ultimately improves ROI. But to arrive at suitable tradeshow branding premiums, it’s paramount to identify what your brand means to the audience. Is your brand high-end or middle-of-the-road? New, middle-aged or old? Hip, square, round? You need a brand baseline to effectively promote what you stand for.

Appreciation for the audience-to-brand position makes it easier to creatively link brand and premium. Let’s assume your brand represents innovative design and your logo is bold with vibrant colors. Supporting that mark dictates items of high perceived value that are well-designed and highlight your corporate colors. The goal is to provide the target audience a piece that will be kept, remind them of your company and ultimately increase ROI, while not ending up in a kid’s toy box or the trashcan.

For instance, one of our client’s products is a top-tier offering with a water/wave/power/motion connection. They requested branding premiums that could creatively link the product and brand. They selected a fairly inexpensive yet quality plastic cube filled with a multi-colored liquid and a subtle company logo. When tipped, the cube creates waves, allowing exhibit booth staff to connect the brand/product with the wave motion as they interact with prospects. It turned out to be a great piece for their IT-professional target audience.   

When considering tradeshow branding premiums:

• More is not better. There’s no rule that says everyone has to get something. Provide branding premiums to those who truly have interest in your product.
• Involve prospects in the process. Before handing them a piece of your company, get something in return – business card, name, email, etc.
• You’re only bound by your creativity. If you’re not that creative, find a firm that can assist you.
• Think strategically about branding premiums to enhance ROI.

Post-show follow-up is how prospects turn into sales

Returning from a tradeshow with a box full of leads without a follow-up plan is:

A.)    A great way to take a well-deserved break.

B.)    Someone else’s problem.

C.)    What leads? We have leads?

D.)    A perfect way to lose money.

If you selected ‘D’, in our opinion, you’re way ahead of most businesses. But if you selected ‘A’, ‘B’, or ‘C’, there’s work to do...

Developing a post-show follow-up plan is a key component to successful tradeshows. Sadly, it’s one area most often overlooked by organizations. What we’ve determined is that this tradeshow process is the most difficult because it’s after the event. Follow-up takes work right when everyone wants a breather. The excitement of traveling, entertaining, sightseeing and parties is behind you and now all that is left is a box of leads. It’s not the most exciting thing in the world, yet those leads are the payoff. If this sounds familiar, you aren’t alone, and there is a cure for the follow-up blues.

Post-show follow-up is actually a pre-show activity

Most good remedies are determined before they are needed. Remember your mom telling you to take care of yourself and you’d be less likely to get sick? Well, tradeshow follow-up starts before leaving for the event. Initially, establish a strategy with your sales and marketing team about who, what, where, when and how leads will be processed. Importantly, you’ll gain support for the process by making sure the squad understands why the follow-up is necessary and the subsequent steps in the sales cycle.

There are probably very few things that turn off prospects more than receiving duplicate brochures or information from companies they visited at a tradeshow. Usually, the second round of communication reaches them long after the show and when they have forgotten why they wanted the information to begin with. Make sure you don’t fall into that trap by preparing follow-up communications ahead of time so they can be sent out immediately after the show. The booth staff of the most efficient companies email their prospect contact information to their workplace each day. That way, packages can be prepared and delivered even before prospects return to their offices.

No matter when you send information, take the time to infuse creativity into the communication. You might consider using a particular theme like “Tracking.” Playing off that theme, the marketing package might included a tee shirt emblazoned with “They Tracked Me Down” and an intro letter with the words “tracked,” “located,” and “found” creatively sprinkled in the copy. The letterhead might also be bordered with small footprints. In this scenario, the elements work together so when the follow-up call comes in, the receiver knows who is tracking them down.

Remember when setting your follow-up plan:

• The follow-up plan is as important and equal to tradeshow strategy. This is where you make sure the money you spent on the show isn’t wasted.
• Make sure everyone involved with follow-up activities is committed to success.
• Creativity counts. Set yourself apart from the crowd to be noticed.

Commit to improve your tradeshow processes

Making your tradeshow marketing techniques more creative and effective is not an overwhelming task. Companies large and small can easily apply these ideas, and many more. Change takes a commitment to the improvement process combined with strategic application. An improved ROI picture is waiting for those organizations willing to take on the challenge.

About the author

Kim Frazier is principal of Frazier & Co. LLC, a Corporate Marketing Products and Services business. He can be reached through the Frazier & Co. LLC website www.frazier-co.com, at kf@frazier-co.com or 503.697.8798