Tradeshow Marketing Expert & Dynamic Public Speaker/Trainer

December 27, 2016

How to Benefit from Tradeshows Without Exhibiting

You can benefit from tradeshows without exhibiting – it just takes a little planning.

For example, the simple fact of tradeshows means that there is an assemblage of buyers, managers, clients and prospects all at the same time. Consider scheduling an informal meeting with several of them. Perhaps it can be a dinner or an after-hours party or gathering. One show I attend regularly throws a party for all regional folks to see the best of the region. Several exhibitors are organized to gather their products for a state-specific gathering to show off the best-in-state (make sure that your activities are approved and sanctioned by the show and don’t break show rules).

Work with another company. Is there a larger exhibitor that you have worked with in the past? Perhaps it’s a good fit to co-exhibit with them and show off your goods at their booth. It might be marketing partners, customers, vendors or others that are complementary. For instance, if your co-exhibitor makes bread, that might be a good opportunity to show off your toast toppings.

Speak at a show. Larger shows in particular have ongoing training and seminar programs. Show off your expertise by offering to give a presentation or join a panel. It’s not really an opportunity to promote products (it’s frowned on, obviously), but if you can show your expertise and knowledge it’ll improve your standing in the industry, which can attract prospects. Work with noncompeting speakers: meet and greet and see how you might assist them in future projects.

Research products and competitors. Some shows are worth attending just to see if it’s a good fit for you in the future. While there, you can find what companies have the biggest footprint, find out what your competitors are up to (and maybe uncover some new ones), and get up close and personal with new products and services that will either compete with your offerings or complement them.

Other ideas that might let you benefit from tradeshows without exhibiting include purchasing a mailing list of exhibitors and/or attendees from show organizers. Consider purchasing ad space in the event newsletter, website or app.

December 22, 2016

6 Unforgettable Tradeshow Tips

Here are six random but unforgettable tradeshow tips to take you to a successful tradeshow experience.

Standing out. Your tradeshow exhibit should stand out from others in any way it can. Of course, with hundreds or even thousands of booths trying to attract eyeballs, that may be difficult. But if you realize that every other booth is trying to do the same, you can stand out by being different. That may mean a dynamic color, a hanging sign, bright colors, bold statements and compelling questions in your marketing message.
Freebies. There are right and wrong ways to approach giving away trinkets and tchotchkes. Don’t give something away just for the sake of giving something away. Having a pen with your logo on it may mean something to you, but to a visitor, it’s like every other pen they got that day. If the giveaway is usable and memorable, it may get noticed longer. For instance, a premium giveaway for a special visitor that you’re really trying to sell may mean a metal coffee cup with your logo or something similar. Work with your promotional products company to find the appropriate freebie.
Business cards. When was the last time you went to a networking event or tradeshow and realized you didn’t have enou

gh business cards? It happens. In fact, it happened to me last week! Plan ahead and don’t forget to take more than you think you’ll need.
30-second pitch. Most standard sales pitches will be packed with features and benefits, but that is a good way to become very forgettable. Instead, come up with an engaging question, or an introductory question that gets a visitor to stop. Then you can go into a pitch that focuses on how you work with clients: “we help frustrated marketers that can’t find a good graphic designer, or they’re embarrassed by poor printing, or they don’t have an overall program to get their brand image out online – I don’t suppose any of these concerns or challenges affect you?”
Traffic Flow. If your booth is blocked off from the aisle by tables and chairs, people won’t come inside your booth. If they don’t come inside your booth, you can’t have a comfortable conversation with them about what their challenges are and how your product or service may help them. No matter what size your booth, the traffic flow should be a prime consideration of your booth design.
Have fun! Tradeshows are a short-term, high energy commitment. The more fun it looks like you and your staff are having, the more people you’ll attract. And tradeshow are all about attracting people and knowing what to do with them!

Take these 6 unforgettable tradeshow tips and use them to make your next tradeshow appearance a successful one!

December 20, 2016

How to Measure Tradeshow ROI and ROO

There are many ways to measure tradeshow ROI (Return on Investment) and ROO (Return on Objectives). Let’s count a few of the important ones.

Web traffic. You might not think web traffic relates to tradeshow success, but trust me, it does. Knowing how your traffic ebbs and flows before and after tradeshows is one indicator that is worth noting in your overall information gathering.
Social Media Reach. Compare before and after numbers of social media likes and followers. Your level of engagement, or reach, during a show, can show a spike in engagement on your most-used social media platforms.
Booth Visitors. Count the attendees in your booth. Yeah, it’s a pain to do, but if you can manage to at least get a rough count of visitors to your booth each show, you can compare from year to year and show to show.
Show Buzz. Do you have visitors that showed up at your booth because there was some show talk that drew them there? If you have an indication of that, try to find out if they were interested in your booth or products or both.
Networking. How many industry colleagues did you and your team connect with during the show? How were those conversations? Could you consider many of them fruitful, leading to future steps?
New product launch or demo. Count the number of people that attendee presentations or demos, or the number of product samples that were given away. Count the number of leads at those demos, which leads to…
Lead Generation – new leads in particular. Lead generation is THE key metric you need to track from show to show and year to year. That and…
Sales. How many dollars were generated as a direct result of leads generated at the show.

To determine your ROI, take the total revenue generated, subtract the investment in the show and you have your raw number. To get the percentage, divide your original investment into the net income.

To figure out your Return on Objective, identify your objectives prior to the show. You may have non-financial event goals such as customer meetings, samples given away, press coverage, branding, name recognition improvement, collecting emails, enhancing client relations and so on. Then make notes by observing and documenting as much related information as you can. ROO looks at items that do not directly translate to immediate sales or sales opportunities.

You can evaluate such things as:

What was the best part of the show?
What was the least valuable?
Did the booth size work, or was it too small or too large for your purposes?
Did your signage convey the right messages?
Was your pre-show promotion effective?
Were there enough visitors throughout the show to keep your staff busy? Were they overwhelmed?

No matter your overall approach to tradeshow marketing, the more information you are able to gather relating to your ROI and your ROO will make you a better marketer.

December 16, 2016

Tradeshows Bring Buyers

It may be obvious, but tradeshows bring buyers to your booth. Often, as exhibitors, we’re so focused on presenting a cohesive message, making sure our staffers are on top of things, keeping the booth clean, greeting visitors and answering questions that when someone is ready to buy we miss a beat!

In some tradeshows you’re looking for distributors, in some you’re looking for customers, in some you’re looking to solidify and strengthen relationships with existing customers, distributors and clients. But at the bottom line, you’re at a tradeshow to connect with more buyers. More people who will say YES and open their wallet to your products and services.

By keeping this YES top of mind during the show, your staffers will be more prepared when the question does arise. Certainly not everyone in your booth is a buyer, but buying decisions and referrals are made at tradeshows. THAT’S WHY THE ATTENDEES ARE THERE: TRADESHOWS BRING BUYERS. They’re there to check out new products, new services, new releases, new iterations of current products and so on. If they’re at the show, there’s a real chance they may either eventually BUY from you or know someone who will.

Exhibit Surveys Inc’s Trade Show Trends Report from a couple of years ago shows that 49% of tradeshow attendees come to a show with the intent to purchase. Yes, that’s why they’re there – to BUY, and hopefully from you.

Are you doing all you can to facilitate the buying activity?

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December 14, 2016

How Fabric Graphics Changed the Tradeshow World [Webinar Replay]

In our webinar How Fabric Graphics Changed the Tradeshow World, Dave Brown of Optima Graphics and I discussed myriad topics regarding tradeshow graphics. We looked at new trends in materials, print capabilities and color. We went over advancements in UV printing, Latex printing and fabric printing. We talked about Tac Tac graphics, a unique one-time use graphic that can really dress up a wall, booth, elevator door or whatever. We ended with a number of questions that tradeshow marketing managers can equip themselves with when discussing new graphic options with their exhibit house.

It’s less than 30 minutes! Take a look:

December 13, 2016

Weekly Tradeshow Marketing Vlog Coming in 2017

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know I produced a podcast for years back in the Golden Days of Podcasting. Actually, it happened starting before podcasts were a thing, mainly because I’m an old radio hack who tried to learn about the tradeshow industry by calling experts, consultants and others and recording an interview with them. Those interviews got posted on the website of my former employer (now retired and the business is gone), and when podcasting rolled around as a thing in 2005 or so, I morphed the interviews into an intermittent podcast.

Then a year ago I started doing a webinar a month and eventually set up TradeshowGuyWebinars.com as a landing page for signing up. My goal was to do one per month and managed to pull it off for the most part. Some had guests, others did not.

In the past few months I’ve stumbled on a handful of business people who are doing weekly video blogs, or vlogs. They’re turning on the camera and going either live or recording themselves for 5 – 10 minutes and then posting on their blog. They discuss business and personal stuff. To me it’s a great way to get to know someone beyond just their business self.

After mulling it over for a couple of months, I’ve decided I’m going to give a try. Starting in January (exact date TBD), I’m going to log on at nine o’clock Monday mornings onto the webinar platform and do a live vlog. Should be fun! We’ll see what happens. I’ll give it 3-4 months and if it’s still going well, I’ll keep going. If I run out of things or just can’t seem to get in a groove, I’ll pull the plug. Fair enough?

Okay. Sign up for login links at TradeshowGuyWebinars.com or watch for the replay here on the blog.

December 9, 2016

Who Wants to Take Better Tradeshow Exhibit Photos?

Do you want to take better tradeshow exhibit photos? Or are you satisfied with quick smartphone photos of your booth?

Learn to take better tradehow exhibit photos!

It all depends on what you want them for.

If your goal is to simply document how a booth looks at any given show, your smartphone should suffice. Point and shoot. Wait as best as you can until people are out of the way and snap your photos.

If you want something more professional, simply hire a pro. I’ve done it more than once, even though I’ve had decades of experience behind a camera. Sometimes you just need a photo at a show you’re not able to attend, or you want a very high quality photo that you can submit to a magazine. That’s probably reason enough to hire a photographer. If you do hire a local photographer, you can always ask for recommendations from colleagues. If that doesn’t work, do a search for local photographers, reach out to a few and ask questions such as how much they charge, what’s their experience shooting tradeshow exhibits, and can you schedule the session at a time of day when the show floor is not crawling with people? Preferably that would be prior to a show opening in the morning, during the time when only exhibitors are allowed. A short session should only cost two or three hundred dollars, and if you hire a local you won’t have travel costs to worry about.

If you rely on your smartphone, you’re still able to grab some good shots. Keep these tips in mind:

Know your goals: are you gathering exhibit photos for possible online sharing? To document the state of the booth? To show visitors and/or staffers in the booth so you can share online? All of the above?

If you’re taking photos during a busy show, wait until people walk past your viewfinder. Try to get as much of the booth in your screen as possible. This may take a little moving around to look for the best angle.

If you’re able, go early and take photos of the exhibit prior to the show opening. Take them from all sides, and take close-ups as well.

Hold the camera steady! Even though it looks great on your phone screen, if you’re moving even a little bit, the photo may end up somewhat blurry (one of my hard-earned lessons!).

Finally, if you have editing tools on your smartphone, you can crop, filter, brighten and so on to make the photo mo’ better to share!

December 5, 2016

3 Tradeshow Webinars That Are Worth Your Time

I love webinars.

No wait, I hate webinars.

I’ve attended so many webinars over the years that it’s easy to come away with both feelings: love and hate. Hate when you spend an hour only to have the presenter take the first 20 minutes giving you his poor sob story, 14 minutes of actual information that you can use, and 26 minutes trying to sell you on his $2,000 product.

But then there are those that cut to the chase, make it worth your while by delivering the goods. So I thought it might be fun to cruise YouTube and try to track down a handful of tradeshow webinars that are actually worth your time.

To begin, Ruth Stevens teams up with Lands’ End in 2013 for a tradeshow webinar called “Get More Out of Your Tradeshow Marketing,” which last about a half hour and is packed full of great information presented professionally.

Udi Ledorgor, author of the Amazon #1 Bestseller “The 50 Secrets of Tradeshow Success,” joined Pepperi for a fun-and-info-filled webinar. It clocks in at just under 40 minutes, so if you’re keeping score and home you now have almost 70 minutes of education to soak up by staying on this page. And if you do, of course, Google will love you, I’ll love you, and more people will find me. So you’re watching these now for TWO reasons: you’re going to learn something that will make you better at tradeshow execution and for the good of all mankind.

But wait, there’s more!

I ran across a rather long, but worthwhile webinar called “5 Tips to Maximize Your Tradeshow Experience” put on in advance of a show in 2016 called QuickBooks Connect by Kelly Bistriceanu of TSheets and Yoseph West of Hubdoc. While there are a number of QBConnect-only mentions for meetups and so forth, these two speak very knowledgeably and discuss some good ideas on planning and execution of tradeshows during this hour-plus webinar:

Okay, if you managed to make it through these webinars, I’ve taken up a couple of hours of your time by now. But y’know what? You’re smarter! And you’ve earned a break and probably a cup of coffee.

December 1, 2016

10 Things to Look for in Your Competitors’ Tradeshow Booths

Of course you’re busy at the tradeshow, but make time to check out your competitors’ tradeshow booths. You’ll learn useful stuff! Here are ten things to look for:

New products or services. What are they launching, what is there that wasn’t last year? What is not in the booth that was there last year?
Size of booth. Did they increase or decrease the size of the booth? What else changed?
Lead generation. Can you get a good sense of what their lead generation and capture methods are?
People. Who’s there? Do they have management along with booth staffers? How many?
Preparation and engagement. Does the booth staff act prepared and trained? Do they greet visitors properly, or do they sit in the back behind a table and wait for eye contact?
Exhibit function. Is there easy access to their booth or do they have tables or other items blocking the path? Does it look cluttered or clean? Is there significant meeting space?
Messaging. is their brand message consistent throughout or does it leave you wondering?
Visitors. are they getting a lot of visitors? Do you recognize any visitors as targets you’d like to connect with?
Giveaways. Do they have giveaways? If so, what are they handing out, and is there any conversation that goes on prior to the visitor getting the freebie?
Presentations. are they giving presentations in the booth? If so, is it a hired pro presenter or is it some member of management? If you can’t tell, go ahead and ask.

Once the show’s over, debrief with your comrades and learn what you can about your competitors’ appearances at the show. I’ll bet that information will come in handy some day.

November 29, 2016

Millennials and Tradeshows

My oldest son is a millennial. Born in 1992, he’s toward the end of the age range, which to marketers are those born between 1980 and 1996. So as we slip into 2017, the oldest of the millennials are hitting 37 years of age, the youngest are just reaching the legal drinking age in most states. I’d like to think that I am at least familiar with how millennials act and what drives them. But I still find myself surprised at some research findings.

So do millennials like tradeshows? If so, what does it take to attract them?

As an aging boomer, I’m a generation ahead of millennials, but I talk to them a lot. In fact, I would say many millennials are in positions at companies that coordinate or help assist the coordination of tradeshow marketing. So yes, a lot of them go to live events such as tradeshows. In fact, according to a recent EventBrite , about a third (30%) of millennials say they met someone at an live event that became a good friend. Even more, 79% of millennials say that going to live events with family and friends deepens their relationship. With the advent of social media and online connections over the past decade or two, it doesn’t surprise me that millennials in particular are looking for more ways to bond other than a digital connection, and live events are a significant way for them to do so.

From the executive summary of the EventBrite research report, which was conducted by Harris, “they are increasingly spending time and money on them: from concerts and social events to athletic pursuits, to cultural experiences and events of all kinds. For this group, happiness isn’t as focused on possessions or career status. Living a meaningful, happy life is about creating, sharing and capturing memories earned through experiences that span the spectrum of life’s opportunities. With millennials now accounting for over one fourth of the total U.S. population, their high focus on experiencing life supports the growth of an economy driven by the consumption of experiences. The combination of this generation’s interest in events, and their increasing ability to spend, is driving the growth of the experience economy.”

Other key findings: millennials prefer experiences to things. Yes, it appears they always want to have a new phone or electronic toy (as advertisers would have to believe), but more than ¾ would choose to spend money on a desirable experience over buying something they want.

So how do you attract and impress millennials?

According to GES’s Chief Creative Officer Eddie Newquist, you should craft a holistic experience for millennials. Also: don’t overdo the technology, give them something to DO in your booth ferhevvinsake, be creative and bold, and give them an opportunity to buy in at the last minute. They also respond more to digital marketing efforts, so that last minute to attend might have an impact.

Bottom line: millennials like live events, they attend tradeshows, but they’re looking for more than just the average exhibit or experience. Learn to step it up when targeting them.

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All posts by: Tim Patterson