When you are exhibiting at trade shows and events, a lot of focus tends to be on logistics and how you present yourself. The key objectives of Trade Show exhibitors usually are:
- Branding for the Industry
- Strengthening the relationships with Customers, Prospects and Partners
- Showcasing social proof via joint events
- Building a strong pipeline for future business
- Learning about new trends and industry direction
Branding for the industry
Branding does not just mean putting expensive banners, standees and the booth. Instead it means smartly using the resources at play to attract the right kind of audience relevant to your business, and engaging them in knowledgeable conversations. In the following video, hear how Gopal Krishna from Zetwerk plans their trade show engagement and activities.
Strengthening the relationship with Customers, Prospects and Partners
In person conversations help you connect with others at a human level and are incredibly powerful. Trade Shows present a great opportunity to invite your Customers and Partners, as well as meet Prospects in person. In this clipping, listen to how Chris Torrence finds value and engagement in such trade shows and conferences.
Showcasing Social Proof via joint events
Trade Shows and Conferences typically take place in very large arenas in order to accommodate the flood of people on those days, such as McCormick Place, Chicago IL, Las Vegas Convention Center, Winchester NV, and Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim CA. Sometimes it is hard to engage in deep and meaningful conversations amidst the crowd and action.
Many growing startups team up with either a larger complementary brand, or another similar sized complementary brand, and host invite-only events. These help establish your reputation amongst the ecosystem as a credible player that others would be comfortable doing business with.
In recent years, such co-created co-sponsored events have become very popular due to a spurt in attractive venues that can hold smaller crowds of 30-100 people – think upscale restaurants, pubs and bars, distinctive hotel venues, yachts and mansions.
Building a strong pipeline for future business
B2B is after all, business to business. Where there is $$ invested, there is $$$$ expected in return. So, pipeline generation goals cannot be far behind in any marketing investment. Take a look at these stats.
According to the Tradeshow Labs, 40% of B2B marketing budget is spent on trade shows and events. And, on an average, a company spends about $40,000 per trade show. Prevailing pipeline conversion rates are not encouraging – where companies today are targeting $7 in pipeline to generate $1 in revenue. This would mean, if you want to generate $100K in revenue ultimately from a trade show, you need to generate $700K in pipeline from spending $40,000 on that show.
To do this effectively, companies do a lot of prep such as:
- Set up conversations with prospects and customers ahead of the event
- Prepare and have insights on target accounts ready, so when they walk in to your booth, or you catch them at theirs, you have ready conversation starters – here’s what I did at Automate Show this year and it created quite some recall with the companies I met.
- Prioritise the accounts you want to meet, ahead of time, map them out on the trade show app (mapyourshow.com and every other trade show organiser provides apps for you to manage the meetings with floor plan etc).
Learn about new trends and industry direction
Where there are groups of people, some are always hungry to learn more, get better and progress. Trade Shows, Events and Conferences go a few extra miles to bring in amazing speakers – executives, thought leaders and experts in different areas, to share their knowledge. Often these tend to be speaking sessions, but just as often, there are workshops, seminars and discussions on specific topics relevant to the industry. These are great opportunities to learn, get a sense of where the industry is headed and what new trends are driving them.
Challenges to executing an effective trade show
Ask any tradeshow and event exhibitor and they will have multiple inputs on challenges in executing an effective trade show. But the overarching issue tends to be “poor pipeline conversion despite $$$ spent“. This is an area we have been passionate about solving for customers.
If this resonates with you, let us talk
Over all, trade shows, events and conferences bring people from multiple companies, departments and context together, and this creates new energy and a vibrant ecosystem. Which trade shows are you planning to attend, and what are your goals this year?
