Trade Show Research Basics

By: Rena Patton

No matter whether you are an experienced trade show veteran or a first year rookie, one basic feature of a successful trade show is the research and planning which happens well before the event. A basic maxim of business life is poor planning and poor preparation lead to poor performance – nothing is more apt than this when it comes to pulling off a successful trade show.

Establish Clear and Measurable Goals for the Trade Show

You must establish measurable goals before you attend the event. Ultimately you measure success by sales revenues and profitability, perhaps using a return on investment measure (ROI). Before you get to sales revenues and profitability however, you should gather the data and metrics which will show you how you came to achieve the results in the first instance.

Metrics you may wish to measure and assess include attendee contacts; numbers of sales appointments made at the show; sales actually made at the show; sales resulting from trade show contacts within 3 months of the end of the event, and many others.

You may be using the trade show to promote general awareness or for a specific product launch, but no matter what you overall trade show objective you should be adapting your metrics to reflect the impact and results you are looking for.

Do Your Research

You must maximize your ROI, but you can only do this if you exercise care in selecting which trade shows you are going to attend. When you are researching which shows to attend you need to consider the demographics of the show, and you can get a lot of this information from the managers of the event.

If you are selling a product which has half a dozen other competitors exhibiting at the same trade show, then maybe you should consider passing on that event and trying a trade show where there is less competition. You also should pay attention to attendee levels, what days are the best for your particular prospective customer base; age/income brackets of attendees; sales information i.e. how much sales were generated at the event by exhibitors.

Whatever you decide, you will be looking for events which will provide you with the greatest exposure, highest sales opportunities for the lowest cost possible.

Promote Yourself Before the Event

Do not rely solely on event management to do all the promotion work. How the event management promote their events is certainly a factor to consider when making your trade show selection, however you should be looking at what you can (and must) be doing to ensure you get maximum exposure within the trade show arena itself.

See how cooperative event management are in working with you to promote the event within your customer and prospect base will be. Establishing good working partnerships with event management will help you open doors to promotional opportunities, such as guest appearances at event seminars which are given or liaising with press and media coverage. You are looking for event management who are prepared to help you get the most out of the show by working with you to promote your attendance and their event – it should be a win-win deal but scrub any event which is not receptive to the idea.

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Rena Patton is the president of ExhibitWholesale, a leading provider of trade show displays, pop-up displays, banner stands, and many other trade show accessories. ExhibitWholesale can be found online at: www.exhibitwholesale.com .