Trade Shows

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Trade Show Leads Cost Less According to Sales Management Magazine

  • The average industrial sales call costs $300 and takes 6 calls to close an order, bringing the cost to $1800
  • Compare this to the average cost per contact of $106.70 at a trade show with .9 follow up calls, bringing the average cost per sale to $376.70

Exhibitions Are More Effective

Maximizing Your Trade Show Investment

With marketing budgets constantly under scrutiny, the importance of maximizing the return on your trade show investment is more important than ever. Here are tips for getting the most bang for your exhibiting buck.

As with any other marketing program, the basis for exhibiting success rests on how well you plan. A major reason exhibitors fail is that they are inadequately prepared, says Steven Hacker, president of the International Association of Exhibitions and Events (IAEE) based in Dallas. There is an absolute need to do pre-show, on-site, and follow-up promotion. Those who do it right get good results, and those who don’t, get bad results. That’s not to say you cant get lucky, but why rely on luck when you can do it right?

Get the promotional support you need. We can help you get it right with:

  • Creative pre-show promotion mailings
  • Prizes and giveaways that reinforce your brand and/or competitive edge
  • Booth supplies from banners and accessories to total display packages
  • Customized apparel for your booth workers to wear
  • Tactics to create a buzz at your booth and draw people in
  • Tactics for qualifying top-quality leads
  • Post-show follow-up program to motivate your salespeople to convert leads to sales

Did You Know?

  • 80% of trade show attendees pre-plan their top ten list of exhibitors to visit.
  • Exhibitions are buyers#1 source for making purchase decisions.
  • Exhibitions are more effective in generating leads and orders, introducing new products, promoting brands, promoting company awareness, and entering new markets than Advertising, Direct Mail or Public Relations.
    [Source: Center for Exhibition Industry Research]

Thinking About Doing A Pre Show Mailing?

  • Including a promotional product offering can help build booth traffic.
  • Including a promotional product with a pre-show mailing or an offer of a promotional product increases the likelihood that an attendee will stop by your booth.
  • As a general rule, promotional products of greater value generate more sales leads than products of lower value.

Measuring ROI

The true measure of a trade show is what you get out of it, but, there are many ways to measure ROI, and it varies for each company. What needs to be analyzed is whether the achieved results of the show match your objectives. It takes a lot of work to exhibit at a trade show, but if you do it right, it can be very successful medium.

CASE STUDY

Traffic-Building Promotion Draws 30% Response Rate:
This pre-show mailer went out to a pre-qualified list of 1,000 registered trade show attendees. Over 30% of those who received the mailing visited the booth. Format was a simple 8.5" x 11" self-mailer that invited attendees to come into the booth and match their playing card to a display to see what prize they won. Everyone was a winner, and the client won BIG with the sales that were generated after the show. Let us help you achieve results like these with your next trade show!

Does the use of giveaways increase booth traffic?

  • 52% are more likely to stop by the exhibit if theres a giveaway
  • 20% are more likely to remember the booth
  • 25% feel giveaways are not necessary
  • 3% feel giveaways should not be used
    [Source: Promotional Products Association International (PPAI) Survey]

Impact of booth giveaways

  • 71.6% of trade show attendees who received a promotional product remembered the name of the company that gave it to them
  • 76.3% of attendees had a favorable attitude toward the company that gave them the product

    • [Source: 2005 Study by Georgia Southern University]

PRSM Theme 2009 Case Study

The Goal: To develop a promotion that is interactive and will keep the attendees engaged and even coming back throughout the show. Also to show a positive attitude and have some fun with customers and prospects during the current economic hardships many of them are dealing with.

The Idea: An interactive video game contest at the booth where visitors can compete for prizes while interacting with you. Clients will come to the booth to play a game on a Nintendo Wii.

We chose to utilize a carnival theme and have the contestants play the ski ball game, which had a greater variety of potential scores.

The Prizes

  • Grand Prize: The Wii entertainment system
  • 2nd Price: Cornell Stadium Seat
  • 3rd Prize: Cornell Stadium Blanket with embroidered logo
  • 4th Prize: Cornell Storefront Systems tie string gym bags. (Everyone who played received one)

Results:

The contestants were asked to play the game twice they had the chance to throw 6 balls down the alley and take their highest score out of both turns. The catch was that we decided to put on a branded scoreboard the company’s name at which the players were from as well as their first and last name. This way as the attendees were walking past the booth they would see the big scoreboard on the booth wall, and notice several colleagues or acquaintances. I think this made them want to be more competitive throughout the show. We had several people repeatedly return to the booth in order to see where scores were ranked, since the last time they looked over them. As I had previously mentioned it caused a sense of competitiveness between the attendees, and made it more fun, and made them return to the booth so that they could continually check the rankings. Overall the Wii idea was a big success.
Jaclyn Wojciechowicz Cornell Storefront Systems