Trade Show Event Planning

A trade show's return on investment stems from how successfully a company can derive value from interactions at a crowded tradeshow. The amount of value depends mainly on a business-to-business event marketer's ability to reach the right people-both inside and outside the booth.

Preshow planning helps marketers not only attract a crowd to the booth but also target the best prospects in that crowd. Post show planning offers a strategic means to manage and nurture leads generated during the show. All together these strategies push marketers toward their real goal, a return on investment.

Marketers who consider the show to be the main event are making a big mistake. Preshow promo and post show follow-up are two of the areas that have the best leverage.

Trade Show Musts

• One must know your purpose. Businesses have different reasons for attending shows. Everything from launching new products to netting new leads. Tapping into the right people in attendance is essential.
• One must reflect and examine the business’ needs. What are the drivers moving the business forward? Content should be based on the motivations as well as needs of the attendees.
• A fishbowl that collects business cards must not be in a booth. The show is about conversation, not about contact information. The secret is qualifying. Sales should never be given an unqualified lead.

Once a marketer identifies specific objectives, a show should include everything from audience statistics to the attendance of competitors. Companies should be ready to look beyond traditional markets to discover new opportunities. Ideally, preshow marketing includes sales e-letters and attractive incentives that draw your target to the booth for a scheduled, one-on-one session of customized content.

With a finite number of representatives at a tradeshow, the success of a show depends on a company's ability to weed the best prospects out of the group. Your limited resource at the show is your time and the crucial strategy is to understand who's going to be on the show floor. You want to reap that audience in advance so you can impress it more intensely. 

Segmenting the list of attendees provided by the show organizer and then personalizing preshow emailing helps generate a better buzz than just blasting everyone with the same marketing style. Innovative giveaways can draw key prospects to the booth and segmented mailings can appear in the booth can help single out prospects.

Designing your Content

Training representatives to identify and pursue solid leads is vital. Consistency in the message and the approach is important to get everybody on board. However, preshow planning can help representatives do more than simply stay on message, marketers agreed. It can also serve as a vehicle for checking the pulse of the audience. Some representatives have called clients to find out their interests and then developed content to meet their needs.

Lead generation does not have to end with the show. Photo marketing and webcasts can be used to drive traffic to a website where visitors offer information about their interests before viewing content. Provide a valuable destination for them to go to when the event is over. Event marketers can continue to develop and nurture leads they've gotten, a resource that goes beyond the value of the in-person event.