Special events have a lot of moving parts to manage and tradeshows are no exception. With detailed and thoughtful preparation, a tradeshow can pay off incredibly well and put your company in position to reach sales goals for the next four quarters if the show is well attended.
Three key ways you can prepare in advance for your tradeshow opportunity are:
- Identify the specific outcomes you want to achieve and strategize to make them happen
- Do a table walkthrough of your booth and order brand and print materials well in advance
- Start pre-event marketing 60 days out and set up post-event marketing to start the last day
Identify the specific outcomes you want to achieve and strategize to make them happen
Tradeshows are generally presented by industry, so it is easy to register for one with the general goal of “getting more business.” However, it is important to identify specific outcomes you want to achieve and marshal your resources to make them a reality. So instead of blanket statements like, “we want more retail buyer representatives to know about us” or “we want to get direct customers’ e-mail addresses,” set two to five very specific outcomes and the way that each will impact your business well after the tradeshow is done. For example:
(1) We want to meet, get detailed contact information for, and begin forging a relationship with at least 40 retail buyer representatives so that with our average close rate of 30% we will have 12 new customers within the next 12 months.
Setting three to five specific outcomes like this gives you a lot more insight into ways that you need to prepare. For instance, you will need to have enough team members at your booth to both greet casual potential customers and entertain more in-depth conversations with serious retail buyer representatives who drop by.
In this example, this detailed thought process would also let you know you may need a special seating area with refreshments in your booth to make sure the retail buyer representatives feel comfortable spending a bit more time.
Do a table walkthrough of your booth and order brand and print materials well in advance
Shortly after you sign up for the tradeshow, or at least four to six months ahead of it, gather your team for a table walk through of your booth. Designate someone to write a checklist of all the signage and print materials as you talk through the way the booth will be set up.
Keep in mind every angle of your booth on the tradeshow floor. The flimsy little standard white sign with black lettering that tradeshow producers provide to vendors simply will not cut it. You want to stand out to get customers’ attention even if they are way down the aisle and have not arrived at your booth yet.
What kind of signage can you get to draw attention from across the room? Then, once customers get to your table, what kind of environment and materials do you need to provide to make it easier for your sales and marketing team to give a high level energized pitch instead of having to drain themselves and the customers with too much detail? Use branded colorful signage in your booth to make a statement and create a feeling for your customers with backdrop signage, vertical signage and table signage. As for the details, include those in your print materials to make it easy for people to remember everything they learned and follow up with your company.
Start pre-event marketing 60 days out and set up post-event marketing to start the last day
Many companies participating in tradeshows rely on the show itself to market their company. Of course, that is the point of the show but you can improve your results by letting your customers as well as potential new customers know in advance where to find you. Start your pre-show marketing 60 days in advance so that it is not so early that people forget but not so late that people do not have an opportunity to plan to attend.
Also, plan your post-event follow ups and marketing in advance. This is often where the magic happens and many companies miss it because it is so easy to get caught up in everyday work after a big tradeshow. Have a follow-up marketing plan, and the responsible team members in place to begin making calls, presentations and visits as soon as the tradeshow is over.
Leave a Reply