The Unmatched Power of Trade Shows

Posted on January 28, 2015 by Jennifer Randolph

You can achieve at one trade show what it would take you weeks or months to do if you stayed home. And it may even save you money — according to the Center for Exhibit Industry Research, 81% of trade show attendees have buying authority. Which means more than 4 out of 5 people walking the aisles are potential customers for exhibitors. It costs 62% less to close a lead generated from a trade show than one originated in the field. Moreover, a recent survey by ABM found that 89% of B2B marketers rate face-to-face event attendance as the most effective platform in creating awareness and generating targeted leads among prospective buyers.

But to accomplish all of the above you must plan carefully. That means choosing the correct show, setting clear objectives, creating an effective exhibition, and promoting your presence.

Though event planning can seem overwhelming, rest assured you don’t have to make all the decisions alone. The general services contractor is a key contributor as you begin the process. Since 1998, ExpoPlus has been one of the leading GSCs in North America for trade shows, expositions, conventions, and corporate events.

9 Tips to Maximize Booth Sales

Posted on October 29, 2014 by Jennifer Randolph

At Disneyland, they call all their employees “cast members,” because they’re all part of the “show” that’s taking place everywhere in the park, all the time. Trade show exhibitors and your booth staffers are putting on a show, too. How can you be more effective?

American Image Displays created a list of do’s and don’ts for booth staffers. Be sure to review them with your booth staff before your next event.

Pre-Show Planning: Leveraging the Theme

Posted on September 30, 2014 by Jennifer Randolph

In our previous post, we talked about the importance of understanding your audience. We recommended that before planning your trade show experience, exhibitors should speak with the Association and become familiar with their marketing message to the attendee pre-event as well as onsite.

An example of the effectiveness of this strategy can be seen in the annual National Education Association Annual Meeting and Expo. NEA Expo, which opens two days before the Annual Meeting, is the largest education trade show in the county. NEA announces the theme for the Annual Meeting months in advance of the event. This year’s meeting was designed to launch a member-led movement in which all delegates were called to step forth as “champions for public education.”

ExpoPlus and Bodden Partners worked with exhibitors to incorporate the champions theme into the exhibit floor experience. The NEA Member Benefits area of the floor was completely designed and engineered to leverage the Champions theme and extend it into each vendor’s both. Pre-expo communications, on-site floor signage and booth signage, booth activities and post-event follow-up communications all revolved around, emphasized and celebrated attendees as champions.

In addition to recognizing all attendees as champions, a special contest was held on the exhibit floor. Delegates were invited to become champions for the exclusive benefits, products and services they had learned about during the Expo. A state based competition was held to see which state could generate the most product champions. Representatives from winning state won a trophy as well as a cash prize. 43% of delegates took the pledge and became enrolled as Champions and product advocates.

If you would like more suggestions on structuring your trade show marketing plan, continue following this blog or contact Barbara Stroup for a customized consultation.

Pre-Show Planning: Understanding Your Audience

Posted on August 27, 2014 by Jennifer Randolph

In our last post, we discussed the importance of pre-show planning. One essential element of planning is understanding your audience. With the demographic shift going on in America, the audience for many trade shows is changing.

An estimated 10,000 Boomers a day turn 65 and approximately two-thirds of workers will retire at that age. As a result, exhibitors and show organizers need to revisit their trade show marketing plans to make sure they understand younger audience, what they are looking for and how they make decisions.

CEIR recently released The 2014 Young Professional Attendee Needs and Preferences Study. The results were encouraging and enlightening. Young people highly value trade shows. However, marketers shouldn’t rely on stereotypes when trying to reach them. Surprisingly the Internet Generation still relies on direct marketing when searching out information about shows. 58% rely on email. 41% rely on direct mail from show organizers or exhibitors. While social media is woven into the fabric of their lives, they seem to prefer direct mail, email and visits to the show’s site to gather in-depth show information.

Another surprising finding from the report is how dependent young professionals are on the printed show program. Despite how attached they are to their mobile devices, only 26% use a mobile app version of the program. The major barrier to using the app was their dislike of downloading an app that would only be used once. This finding is consistent with other mobile industry research. Phone and tablet space is limited. Most apps are downloaded in the first month of phone ownership and the most frequently used apps are those that came preloaded on the phone.

So what is a trade show marketer to do? Be sure to do your homework. Study the attendees’ demographic profile. Speak with the Association and become familiar with their pre-event and onsite marketing messages. Beef up your exhibitor profile with thoughtful and insightful content. Reach out to key customers, attendees and key influencers with personalized and relevant email and direct mail invitations to visit your booth and schedule an appointment.

If you would like more suggestions on structuring your trade show marketing plan, continue following this blog or contact Barbara Stroup for a customized consultation.

ExpoPlus Featured on Promotional Video

Posted on June 26, 2014 by Jennifer Randolph

Our own Barbara Stroup is featured in a new promotional video for the Atlanta Convention Center at AmericasMart, the city’s meetings and event facility. The venue offers a total of up to 800,000 square feet (100,000 sq ft contiguous) of space and a leadership team with more than 50 years’ experience in tradeshow management. The Convention Center offers trade show managers and general contractors the flexibility to bring in any of current vendor relationships or select the extensive list of the Convention Center’s recommended suppliers.

Trade Show Training – A Missed Opportunity by 90% of Exhibitors

Posted on May 20, 2014 by Jennifer Randolph

Trade shows represent a large investment with huge potential ROI. A recent survey from ABM found that 89% of B2B marketers rate face-to-face event attendance as the most effective platform in creating awareness and generating targeted leads among prospective buyers.

However, in order meet your trade shows goals, event staff must be properly prepared. According to industry statistics only 10% of exhibitors conduct training before all their events and only 26% hold training sessions before most events. This despite the fact that depending on the size of the show, anywhere from hundreds to potentially thousands of buyers will come streaming past your booth. It would be easy for unprepared booth staff to become overwhelmed by the crowds and by the presence of so many competitors vying for attendee attention.

As a value-added service to our clients, ExpoPlus offers training to exhibit staff, both through this blog and through in-person training sessions. In preparation for the 2014 Georgia Building Owners and Managers Association Trade Show, we designed a customized training session for first-time exhibit booth staff.

The training session was customized and aligned with the theme of the expo. The scope of the training spanned everything from pre-show logistics to developing a staffing plan to setting goals to capturing, qualifying and following up leads. In future editions of this blog, each of these topics will be discussed in greater detail. Please join in and follow the discussion.

Choosing the Right Show-Part III

Posted on March 31, 2014 by Jennifer Randolph

In our previous post we offered three tips to help your company identify which shows have the highest concentration of the target audience. Yet some companies still find they have more trade show options than they do budget. In this article, we will discuss three tips to further narrow down the options and finalize your trade show calendar.

Look for opportunities to extend visibility – Selecting events with pre-during-and-post show marketing opportunities will extend your visibility and presence beyond your both. Sponsorships provide branding and lead generation opportunities which can be tailored to fit almost any budget.
Select show and venues with lead retrieval services – If you do not have your own lead retrieval devices, make sure the event offers options for lead capture. Published reports show that up to 70% of sales leads captured at an event are not followed up on by a sales person. This is mainly due to an ineffective lead management process, before, during and after the event. An automated lead retrieval system will enable you calculate ROI for the event, update your CRM system, and most importantly, close more sales.

In order to maximize trade show success, every element of trade show marketing requires a strategic approach. If you would like to learn more about how we can help you design and execute a successful meeting, contact Barbara Stroup BStroup@cepiexpo.com

Choosing the Right Show – Part II

Posted on March 31, 2014 by Jennifer Randolph

Trade show success begins by picking the right show to attend. The right show will have you face to face with motivated and qualified buyers. Picking the wrong show will result in wasted time, money and effort with very little to show for it. How can you decide which show is right for you?

In a previous post, we identified three strategies exhibitors can use to determine which shows to include in their trade show calendar. Creating profiles of product buyers and decision makers, consulting trade show industry listings and studying your competition can help you narrow down your trade show options and prioritize your efforts.

The timing and location of the event can also help guide your show selection:

Use show timing to narrow down your options – If your product is affected by seasonality or other purchasing patterns, you can narrow show dates to those most closely aligned with your sales cycle. You can also align your trade show calendar to coincide with new product launches, product improvements or other newsworthy developments
Consider regional vs. national shows. If your product as a regional or location-specific target, keep in mind that as a general rule of thumb, an estimated 40-60% of attendees come from a 200-mile radius of the show location. Regional or local shows are considerably less expensive and visibility is much higher. Competition is often intense at large national shows. On the other hand, some of our clients have found that regional shows give them the opportunity to be the only exhibitor representing their field.

Trade Show Industry Continuing to Improve

Posted on February 28, 2014 by Jennifer Randolph

The trade show industry closed 2013 on an upswing after a year of sustained, but marginal, growth.

The business grew 3% in the fourth quarter and 1% for the year, according to the Center for Exhibition Industry Research. CEIR measures overall industry performance using an aggregate formula that accounts for net square footage, exhibitors, attendance and revenue.

Both revenue and exhibitors saw improvement during Q4. The gains marked the 14th-consecutive quarter of growth for trade shows.

The Impact of Millennials on the Events Industry

Posted on December 2, 2013 by Jennifer Randolph

As discussed previously on this blog, in seven years half the workforce in the US will have been born after 1980. Although most event attendees currently come from Generation X, conferences will become increasingly reliant upon the Millennial generation (also known as Gen Y) for attendance at expos and industry meetings. Fortunately, research shows that over 60% of young workers value the face-to-face interactions that exhibits and conventions offer.

To better understand the changing expectations of future generations of expo attendees, Amsterdam RAI recently published a study comparing Generations X and Y. It was found that Gen Y, like older generations, want education and engagement at events, but their needs and expectations are remarkably different. Gen X, balancing family and work, has more time pressure and are looking to justify the time and expense spent attending the conference. They are looking to gain very specific information as time efficiently as possible.

Millennials have been heavily influenced by having grown up with technology. Demographers suggest that they are so accustomed to multitasking and multi-screens that they literally think differently than previous generations. Exhibitors must create creative, visually compelling, engrossing experiences in order to retain their attention.

Gen Y has come to expect personalized interactions. They stream music and TV shows tailored to their likes, discover new products based on personalized recommendations and are served up Facebook ads based on their hobbies, interests and location. Everything is a reflection of their individuality. As a result they bring these expectations with them when they attend conferences. Amsterdam RAI’s research shows that too often the experience does not match their expectations. They perceive typical exhibitor behavior as a negative, too pushy, too in your face, too carnival like.

Yet with strategic adjustments, our event marketing team can help transform your next expo or Association meeting into an event that will appeal to a wide variety of attendees, including Millennials. For more information, contact Barbara Stroup bstroup@cepiexpo.com.