Are Trade Shows Worth It For Small Business?

In today’s world of video conferencing, social media marketing, digital marketing and other forms of technologically-enhanced marketing, are old-fashioned trade shows still a good way to win business?

Over the past five to 10 years, trade shows have gone from a “must” to a “maybe” on many small businesses’ marketing plans. Scandals in the news surrounding extravagant trade show spending tax-payer funded entities and other businesses left a bad taste in the mouth of many business owners when they considered trade show marketing. However, exhibiting and attending trade shows remains a viable method for small business owners to make contacts, introduce products and services to new clients, and forge lasting business relationships.

 

According to the Center for Exhibition Industry Research, trade shows and exhibits, the number of attendees at trade shows rose 2% in 2013, the last year for which figures are available. Net square feet devoted to trade shows increased slightly, by 0.8%, and the number of exhibitors grew by 0.5%. Although these are slight gains, the chart below shows the trends continuing to tick upwards from a low in 2009 2010.

 

Source: Center for Exhibition Industry Research

Key

• NSF: Net Square Feet (of exhibit space)
• EXH: Number of Exhibitors
• ATT: Number of Attendees
• REV: Revenues

Among the industries that saw the most increases in trade show activity, industrial and heavy machinery showed the most growth, with 6.9% increase in trade show attendance, followed closely by food (5%), sporting goods and travel (2.8% each) and business services (2.6%). If your small business works in these industries, you may want to investigate attending or exhibiting at a trade show next year.

Key Take-Aways

• Trade shows and exhibits make sense for small business owners who rely upon networking, in-person product demonstrations, and experiential sales. If your product must be shown in person to be understood, believed or sold, consider exhibiting at an industry-specific trade show.
• To assess your company’s return on investment for trade shows and exhibits, set goals that align with your firm’s strategic initiatives. You can measure factors such as booth traffic, session attendance, and leads obtained.
• Work with a professional trade show marketing firm to create an exciting booth. Even a simple tabletop booth can be enhanced by professional graphics and backgrounds. Don’t wing it. You’re already investing in your trade show presence; make a great first impression with professional marketing materials.
• Give-away items can be a great way to promote your company. Just make sure the give-away items are relevant to what you do. While stuffed animals and funny gag gifts will be snapped up by attendees, do they enhance your firm’s brand reputation?
• Presentations at trade shows are an excellent way to showcase your knowledge, experience and industry thought-leadership. Just make sure that the presentation focuses on an issue, timely topic or sharing knowledge; nobody wants to sit through a sales pitch when they think they’re going to an educational seminar. Panel discussions that include a few clients willing to share their experience around a problem are a great way to highlight your company’s solutions. Other ideas may include sharing a before/after project, sharing research or data your company has collected, or presenting an educational seminar on your area of expertise. Visit the trade show website to fill out the appropriate session suggestion documents and plan at least one, if not two years, ahead of time when pitching sessions.
• Attending trade shows can be as valuable as exhibiting at them if you are comfortable networking. Make sure you spend time getting to know people at the show. Don’t just hand out business cards willy-nilly. (need business cards? Go here)
• Follow up within a few days after the trade show with potential contacts. If you let too much time elapse, they might not remember where they met you.

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Pre Trade Show Marketing Ideas

Start promoting the show as soon as a date is set.

 

Trade shows and business expos are venues for promoting your company’s products and services to a wide audience. To make the most of this promotional investment requires detailed pre-trade show marketing efforts designed to attract attention, raise awareness and encourage attendance.

 

Email

Email marketing campaigns are fast, cost-effective ways to get news about your trade show exhibit in front of the right people. Develop one email campaign for your current clients and customers that describes where you’re exhibiting and why they should attend. Create a separate email for colleagues and business-to-business customers, inviting them to be part of a extraordinary business networking event. Provide a link to your website for more details and include a link to the event registration page.

Social Media

Use social media business accounts to create buzz about your upcoming exhibit. Include photos of the venue and provide ongoing preshow updates on how your trade show theme and booth design is developing. Invite feedback and questions from your followers and keep people coming back by posting teasers about show raffles and prize giveaways.

 

Newsletter

Use your company newsletter to promote your participation in the trade show. Give readers a rundown of what the exhibit offers, the various exhibitors scheduled to participate, and highlight fun aspects of the event. Presentations, giveaways, food and entertainment are good draws.

Direct Mail

Send direct mail trade show invitations to your customers, vendors and prospect lists. Include an entry ticket or a raffle ticket to entice them to show up. If you’re offering trade show discounts, tease them in your direct mail piece or offer a “mystery discount” redeemable in person the day of the event.

Website

Use your website to post pictures and video clips from previous trade shows. Provide regular updates about what visitors can expect, and highlight networking and business-building opportunities that are available. Many trade shows feature a mixer or professional development component, which can be big draws for attendees.

Paid Advertising

Consider cost-effective advanced advertising in media that targets your market. Promote your exhibit and highlight specials, promos and discounts, especially show-only offers. If you’re debuting a new product or service at the event, use paid advertising to promote it. Paid advertising is especially useful if you are the host of the trade show.

Timing Your Marketing

Start promoting your trade show participation on your website and through social media as soon as you book the date. If you’re attending a national or international show, begin issuing invites and placing ads six months in advance, with more regular marketing communication efforts coming in the last several weeks leading up to the event. Local shows can be marketed two months in advance.

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Trade Show Game Ideas

 

Trade shows put all your potential partners, competitors and customers under one roof.

 

Trade shows should be viewed by small business owners as an opportunity to reach new customers with unique marketing methods that just would not play elsewhere. Games are a fun and efficient way to get consumers involved with your product or service and to show some of the benefits of becoming a customer.

 

Text Drawings

Games that involve text messages have the dual purpose of bringing attention to your product and providing you with valuable marketing contacts. Set up a contest that requires trade show visitors to text the answer to a question about your product to a number you have set up specifically for the event. Select several winners at random from those who respond with the correct answer and reward them with your own products or services. Use the telephone numbers you accumulate as marketing contacts because you already know there is an interest in your product and a willingness to be contacted. Send special offers and updates to your new potential customers by text.

Raffles

Raffles are always popular with trade show crowds. The chance to win a prize for filling out a card is just the extra incentive needed to draw a willing crowd. The benefits of a trade show raffle are many and include a positive image of the brand, the collection of personal contact information from the consumer base and a focus on the company and its products for the duration of the show until the eventual drawing sometime near the end of the day. The prize can be taken from your existing product line so that the expense is low but the impact is high. The response you get to the raffle can help you determine what level of interest the consumer has for the featured product.

 

Use Technology

Technology is often a big draw and using it to bring the crowds to your trade show booth is a smart and effective way to get the attention you want. Flat screen TVs or a row of tablet computers will get people looking and interacting with your product line. When you use these props to involve your audience, the impact can be significant. Create trivia questions about your product or company and allow trade show attendees to answer them on the tablets you have set out. Make email addresses and a couple of personal preference questions about the product line a part of the game. Select a few winners every hour from the participants and use the information you collect for future direct marketing initiatives.

Roaming Games

Roaming games deliver fun and your company name to the people instead of waiting for the people to arrive at your booth to play. Send some of your personnel out into the trade show crowd with a supply of low-cost but fun products that are branded with your company name like noisemakers or balloons. Have them ask a single simple question to everyone they meet. Base the question on your company marketing phrase or the products your sell. For example, "Who makes the best widgets in America?" Everyone who answers correctly gets a prize and the game moves on. A flier is attached to the prize informing each winner that if they liked the game they just played, visit your trade show booth for more chances to win.

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How to Qualify Prospects at Trade Shows

Trade shows offer an effective way to get sales leads for your company. The success of a trade show for each participant can be measured in the increased sales due to the leads gained during the course of the show. But when you are working a trade show booth, it is important to develop a process to find out those who are just browsing and those who may want to buy. You do not want to spend time with a browser and let a buyer get away.

 

 

Step 1:  Turn and squarely face a prospect when he begins to speak to you at your booth. If the prospect came to you, stop any non-business-related activities you are doing and give him your complete attention. If a prospect stops to look at your booth displays or information for more than a count of five, then approach her and ask if you can assist her. If you are currently speaking to a customer, have someone else assist the prospect or have a waiting area available that you can direct the prospect to while you finish with your current customer.

 

Step 2:  Ask the prospect what you can do for him. Ask very concise and direct questions that should elicit quick responses. You can direct your questions at the particular information or booth display the customer was looking at, or if the customer approached you from the floor, ask which products or services of yours he was interested in. You are trying to establish the prospect's initial level of interest here. If he has a specific interest, you should proceed with qualifying him. If she has a general interest, then politely answer her questions, give her some information about your company, get her contact information and then let her move on so you can find a more promising prospect.

 

 

Step 3:  Begin asking more probing and specific questions about the prospect's needs and how your product or service can help. At this point you should be able to begin recommending specific products that apply to the prospect's needs. This should help move the conversation in a more productive and sale-closing direction.

 

Step 4:  Listen to the responses you are getting from the prospect to hear if he is giving any indication of where he stands in the sales process. If you can start to get the prospect to talk as though your product is already installed and working in her facility, the prospect is almost ready to be turned into a customer.
 

Step 5:  Work through any stalls in the conversation to see if the customer has a specific objection to the sale, or if he is just not interested in your product. Questions that begin with the statement "So if I understand what you are saying ..."--which repeat what the customer has told you to get him to be a bit more committal--are effective at this point.

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Trade Show Sales Ideas

 

Good trade show sales ideas can put money in your pocket.

 

Trade shows offer an excellent opportunity to establish contacts and make sales, as they bring vendors and prospects together under one roof. The challenge for vendors is to find the best ways to maximize sales from the event. By implementing a few sales ideas, you can attract more people to your booth and put more money in your pocket.

 

Have a Giveaway

A giveaway will give attendees a reason to stop at your booth. Promote the giveaway by posting a big sign or display in your booth and at other locations on the floor if possible, and announce the giveaway over the public address system. Require attendees to enter by stopping your booth and placing their business card into a bowl for a drawing.

Use Handouts

At a large trade show, the attendees may not always have time to stop at each booth. Keep a large supply of brochures or other professionally-made materials to give to attendees who are just passing by. Be sure to attach your business card or contact information.

 

Use Demos

Demonstrate your product to increase interest. A demonstration will not only attract attention but will also let attendees see your product in action so they can get a better understanding of its benefits. For example, if you're selling the world's sharpest knife, show how it can cut through objects like aluminum cans. If you're selling a food product, have plenty of free samples on hand.

Contact Leads

Attendees may be interested in your product but may not be able or willing to purchase on the spot for a variety of reasons, such as it's not the right season or a temporary cash flow issue. Be sure to obtain business cards from these people and write on the back a date for contact. When the show is over, set up a follow-up system.

Use Displays or Visuals

Make your booth stand out by creating eye-catching displays or visuals. If your trade show has a theme, take full advantage of the theme's concept when designing your booth. For example, if the trade show's theme is the start of football season, you can set up a giant balloon football player, or make your booth into a mini football field, complete with green carpet and goalposts.

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"an Apple a day keeps my sales away Keychain

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