The Ultimate Concise Trade Show Checklist

What do you need to succeed at trade shows? If you can check these 16 points off your list, you’re well on your way:

1. Align your trade show goals with your overall marketing and company goals
2. Create goals that are specific, measurable, and timely
3. Pay early to avoid rush charges and (surprisingly high) late fees
4. Booth space rental is about one-third your budget, for the rest invest more in areas that give you the best R.O.I.
5. Pick shows with an audience that best matches your target market
6. Go back to the highest R.O.I. shows from previous years
7. Design your exhibit to boldly and clearly communicate who you are, what you sell, and why your prospects should buy from you
8. Design your exhibit to support your booth staffers as a workspace…and work to keep your ongoing expenses down
9. Reach out to attendees before the show, via phone, email, mail, ads, and the web
10. Offer attendees something of value (information, presentations, demonstration, show specials, giveaways) in exchange for a visit
11. Select motivated, friendly, knowledgeable booth staffers
12. Train your staffers to handle the steps to shorter trade show interactions: engage, present, qualify, and close
13. Capture at-show, on paper or electronically, the prospect info your sales team needs after the show — and then give it to them after the show
14. Before the show even starts, prepare a person, materials, and a database to fulfill your leads…and an all-out effort ready to follow up leads after the show
15. Plan ahead to give yourself more time to adapt to problems, especially for international shows
16. Take a binder with all your contracts and contacts with you to the show, including graphic art files on a thumb drive if your display gets lost

Like the list? Will use it? Think we missed something essential? Click now to share your comments.

Free Trade Show Seminars This Week

Want to sharpen your trade show skills?  Skyline is offering free trade show seminars this week in IA, MN, OH, PA and WA.  To learn more and register, go to www.skyline.com/seminars.  We’ve helped over 100,000 exhibitors since starting our seminars in 1988.

Turn Trade Show Attendees Into Booth Visitors With Better Promotions

Because some trade shows have reported double-digit attendee drops during this economic downturn, you need to work harder at getting the attendees that do come to the show into your trade show booth.

One of the most powerful tactics is Pre-Show Promotions – marketing your presence before the show.  So we’ve gathered together 29 intriguing Pre-Show Promotion ideas shared by your peers when surveyed for our new White Paper, What’s Working in Exhibiting.

 

Want more traffic to your trade show booth? Get creative with Pre-Show Promotions.

So many ways to reach them

 

There are many Pre-Show Promotion activities beyond the standard ad in the show directory.  Here are a wide variety of Pre-Show Promotion mediums available to you that exhibitors told us they use to reach their target audience before the show:

“Direct mail, emails, and phone calls.”   unknown

“Send out new catalogs prior to a show.”   Ana Tenreiro, LeStage

“Mailings, door drops, bag inserts.”   Henry Gardiner

“Mail outs, web tag line, e-mail tag line.”   Paul Shepherdson, Scale-Tron Inc.

“Email, traditional mail, printed advertisements in journals, online banners.”   Sean P. McCall, Integrated DNA Technologies

“Increased targeted emailings, and full page ad in trade publications.”   Maria Pensato, Viconics Inc

“Targeted e-newsletters.”   Cathy Campbell, WAGO Corporation

“We do small ads in secondary tabloids.”   Steven Helton, National Cremation Society

“Trade advertising.”   Andrew Lippman, EverNutrition, Inc.

“Trade show section on our website.”   Don Strahle,     Acoustical Solutions, Inc.

“Advertising on the web page.”   Pat Stewart, BD Power

Great Pre-Promotional Strategies and Tactics

Your peers are great experimenters and have come up with methods that get more people to their trade show booths.  Here’s a sampling of some of their best ideas.

These exhibitors remind us that trade shows are about the personal touch.  They reach out to clients and best prospects before the show, to invite them for a visit, or even set up meetings and demos:

“Book meeting with important clients and prospects before the show & education session at our stand.”  Valerie Danger, Nstein Technologies

“We send our existing customers tickets to the show to encourage their attendance.”  P. Gibson, Intle Design

“Informing – usually through e-mail – of our intent to exhibit and setting up appointments/dinners.”  Jeff Lawson, Spongex

“Email blasts reminding people of our booth location, including free access to the show, and trying to set up meetings.”  Ryan Marsh, Bright Systems

“Letting some of our good leads know we will be at the show.”  Joyce Collins, Chestnut Cove Log Homes

“Direct notification of potential attendees by mail or email of new developments, offers and/or technology improvements to our processes and products.”  David Stellwagen, The Buckhead Coffee Company

“Call large specific potential customers to invite to stop by.”  Ash Luthra, LSL Industries

“We try to personally contact leads that we feel are a good fit for each show.”  Mary Hamor 

“We send out mailers followed up with phone calls inviting them to a product demo and contest entry.”  Dan Laninga, Cygnus Incorporated

“Very targeted, personal contacts to specific individuals.”   Christine Stamm, Wisconsin Department of Commerce

These exhibitors use their Pre-Show Promotions to give prospects a compelling reason to visit their trade show booth, with a compelling or creative offer:

“We are sending early mailers. At the show they will get a card to attendees with a show special discount.”   Kathi Graham, JCI Industries, Inc.

“Invitation cards with a gift draw upon presentation of the card.”  Margo Renoir

“Pre mailers “Bring this card to booth for a free …”  Jessica Adkins, Sodexo

“Mailings and participating in “new product” announcements.”  Bill Wilson, Carriage House Products, Inc

 “We send show planners, thumb drives loaded with company information and a letter from the company owner.”  Scott Williams, SiteHawk

“We sometimes offer special events at our booth, such as bring an object for us to do a live demo on.”   Jamie Churchill, Cold Jet

“Scratch-off mailers in which attendees don’t scratch until they get to the booth. They win product discounts and various other prizes.”   Emily Riess, Assay Designs, Inc.

“Using a theme that stems off our advertising campaign and focuses on our show objectives.”  Mary Sheldon, Mate Precision Tooling

Use Pre-Show Promotions to get more people – and more of the right people – into your trade show booth.  You have many ways to reach out before the show, and lots of ways to creatively and personally appeal to your clients and prospects.

What’s Working in Exhibiting: New Skyline White Paper

To find out what’s really working in exhibiting now, we worked with Tradeshow Week to survey and analyze the best practices of today’s trade show exhibitors.  The response was amazing.  You and your peers shared over 1,000 new tips, filled with methods to make the most of a trade show program.  94 of these tips are included in the new 32-page What’s Working in Exhibiting White Paper.

Skyline has just published the new 32-page What’s Working in Exhibiting White Paper.  Click here to get your copy.

The Two Big Questions:  How to Increase Results and Stretch Exhibiting Budgets Most of all, exhibitors shared their best advice for 7 key parts of a trade show program.  Here’s the gist of what your peers said is making their trade shows more effective in each exhibiting topic: Exhibitors said they had most success boosting their results with pre-show marketing and show selection.  Show selection also was a key method to stretching exhibiting budgets, as was reducing booth staffing expenses, and saving on display shipping.  Further successful methods are related in the White Paper.      Show Selection  This was the only facet of exhibiting that was frequently mentioned as a key driver in both improving results and reducing costs.  Survey respondents on average are going to 2.2 less shows in 2009, about 15.2% less.  As one exhibitor commented, fewer shows can be a good thing: “We did fewer shows, but with a greater presence.”  Budgeting   Exhibitors reported they are trimming their 2009 budgets by 9.2% on average.  Those who are decreasing their budgets outnumber those increasing by 4 to 1.  However, about half are keeping their budgets the same.  Other than reducing their number of shows, the two most popular methods of stretching their budgets are to reduce booth staff expenses and to save on shipping with lighter weight displays. Measuring Results   90% of exhibitors said they are doing some sort of measurement.  The key: Create a process and formula to actually measure and report sales generated from trade show leads.  Exhibitors who could show sales to justify their trade show program actually were twice as likely to get their budgets increased instead of decreased.  As one exhibitor said, “The only successful justification is sales revenue.  One good sale will pay for a full show’s marketing.” Lead Management   Best practice:  Put more effort into following up your leads.  When exhibitors focused on lead follow-up, more of them actually increased than decreased their budgets.  Lead management elements included persistent, planned follow up, a good CRM / database program, and a person responsible for it.  Note:  these are the same elements needed for measuring results! Exhibit Design   Less really is more.  Exhibitors reported their primary ways to change exhibit design that improved trade show results was to go more simple, including a more open and less cluttered layout, and exhibit graphics that are bright, clear and straight to the point.  Most exhibitors are also going for more flexibility to easily change graphics and booth configurations. Booth Staffing  By far and away, exhibitors say sales people make their best booth staffers, followed by their top management.  Exhibitors are getting better results by improving how they select staffers, communicating their goals before the show, and booth staff training.  Said one survey respondent, “We pick the ones that have proven track records and set high expectations for any newcomers.”  Promotions  Exhibitors rely most on direct mail and email for their pre-show promotions.  When asked which at-show promotions are working best, exhibitors liked free giveaways / drawings, discounts, and demonstrations.  One exhibitor described their proactive pre-show marketing thus: “We identified targets and reached out to key attendees before the show.  We invited key prospects to lunch/dinner meetings to have more in-depth conversations off the show floor.” Much of marketing is taking risks and experimenting.  Your peers have been doing just that, and this new report lets you tap into their recent successes and failures.  Take advantage of the wisdom of crowds, and get yourself a copy of the What’s Working in Exhibiting White Paper.