Tradeshow Insider's Blog

Trade Show Success: Integrate Live Online Video

Trade shows have always been great PR opportunities because they get press coverage. For decades, companies have used trade shows to make major announcements or introduce new products. Usually these announcements get more press coverage than they would ordinarily get because reporters covering the shows are looking for news.

For the past few years, companies have been extending their news reach by using free online platforms such as LiveStream.com or Ustream.tv to provide live online video of company announcements, news conferences, trade show product demonstrations and other events directly from the trade show floor. Both of these platforms incorporate live chat that can be used for “Q and A” sessions between company representatives and reporters, bloggers or the general public.

Now, some companies are cleverly reversing their trade show live streams to bring their entire company to the trade show. Some connect trade show attendees to company executives or technical representatives for live chat events. Other exhibitors are incorporating live feeds of their manufacturing facilities or service centers into their exhibits. The variety is almost endless.

Be Creative

Don’t limit your imagination about how to use live online video. Live video streams can be a great way to promote your exhibit before the show. It can be a great way to present highlights of a show when it is all wrapped up. Live video of product demonstrations and testimonials from the trade show floor can be powerful at generating online sales while the show is going on. If a company representative is making an important presentation at a show, consider how you can use online video of this presentation to promote your company and products.

Consider providing a show cam to your entire team “back at the office” or in the field

Live video can keep your entire company involved with the show. Think about running a daily live stream program from the show just for your company’s staff. It can be as simple as a daily wrap up of the big events from the show and observations of what the competition is up to.

Don’t push the boundaries of the technology too far

Technology can be great but it is no substitute for the live one-to-one contact that trade shows make possible. Make sure that you company is well represented by the people staffing your exhibit.

Plan for everything to go wrong

Live online video can be great but it is not always reliable. Make sure that you coordinate any live stream plan with the show staff and your tech support team. Test everything in advance, and then test it again. Make sure you have a contingency plan and that the live video broadcast is just a plus to your overall promotion and PR plan. The best way to have things go smoothly, is to plan for problems.

Have you ever incorporated a live streaming video into your trade show sales effort?

How to Choose the Right Trade Show

Some trade shows are great investments and deliver lots of high quality leads; others are just a waste of your marketing budget. The trick is to find the productive shows without making a lot of mistakes.

I always start by defining my marketing goals and target customer. This immediately points me in the right direction. Armed with that information, I put together a list of all the shows that reach my target customers and then evaluate them.

What kind of show should you attend? Often it is a mix of consumer shows, industry shows, buyers' expositions and educational conferences. Each kind of show has its place.

Then look at these key factors to decide which trade show is best suited for your business:

1. Does the show help meet your marketing goals?

If you are interested in a regional market or are new to trade shows, consider participating in a smaller, local trade show. If your goal is the acquire the largest number of qualifies leads, to support a major new product launch and/or to significantly build awareness, participate in the major industry tradeshows that capture the largest number of target customers. If your objective is build your network and to position your company as a thought leader, then investigate show where your company can be a show’s sponsors and a company representative can be a featured speaker.

2. Is it the right market space?

A show that matches your exact market space is often the best show to attend. You can learn a lot by looking at who exhibits at the possible shows. A list of past exhibitors is usually available from the trade show management or on their website. Call a few of the past exhibitors and ask about the quality and number of attendees at previous years' shows. Identify the shows that have an exhibitor mix that will attract your target customers and that are complementary to your business.

3. Determine which shows your top prospects attend.

See if the attendee list from past shows is available. Review the list to determine which shows have a large number of your target customers on the attendee list.

4. Identify which shows your best customers attend.

Call your customers and ask which shows they plan to attend and which shows they would like to attend. If there is a show that some of your customer would like to attend but are not planning to attend, ask if they would attend if they received a free pass to the exhibits. Most major trade shows offer exhibitors a limited number of free passes, so if your customers would attend the show with free passes, this could be a good reason to attend this show.

5. Figure out where your competition will be.

How many of your competitors will be exhibiting at the show? If you are not there, will you be at a competitive disadvantage? Trade shows usually bring together many competitors under one roof. Look for shows where your company will stand out as a leader in your market.

6. Consider timing Does the show's timing make sense?

Will your company have news? Do you have a new product to announce or roll out? Does it conflict with another more important show?

7. Are there any special PR opportunities?

Exhibitors have a distinct advantage capturing Trade Show PR because they have higher-profiles than attendees. They can also more easily and effectively demonstrate their products. This is particularly important for new product introductions. Ask the Trade Show management for last year's press list and if they have any information on who is planning to cover this year's event. Are there any media outlets attending that provide opportunities for you to reach your target audience in an impactful way?

Finally, take a look at the cost to attend each show. Will it have a positive return on your marketing investment? Which shows have the best returns?

Put it all together and you should be able to pick the best Trade Shows for your company.

Replacing Trade Show Giveaways with Promotions – Selecting a great premium

You have designed the perfect promotion and it requires a giveaway. How do you select a premium that builds on the promotional message, has high-perceived value among your target prospects and is consistent with your brand position?

Set your budget

The first questions you need to ask are, “How much can you spend to reach a new prospect or make a sale?” and “How many premiums do I need?” The price range for trade show giveaway items is enormous. Timing, quality, order quantity and special orders, all affect the price. Since you will save a lot of money per unit with a larger order, try to find an item you can use for a number of shows.

Do a Brainstorming Search

Once you have a budget, limit your search to items that fit within your budget. Look for items that extend the promotional message and support your brand. Look for items that are relevant to your target and related conceptually to your business.

Look beyond premium websites – pick up the phone and call a couple advertising specialty firms. Describe your promotion and give them your budget requirements to a sales rep. Let them get back to you with some promotional item recommendations.

Use your favorite online search engine and search for items that are related to your promotional theme. Almost any item can be labeled, imprinted or packaged with your logo. Don’t restrict where you look for ideas.

Ask coworkers for ideas.

Here are a few idea starters:

• Your goal is to select an item that is useful and has real value to your prospect.
• The highest impact, low cost premiums are informational items related to your product – article reprints, special reports, free audio or video download codes that can be redeemed on your website, or computer software. Other more expensive informational premiums include industry-specific DVDs and books.
• If an informational premium isn’t suited to your business and target customers, consider a specialized tool, something that will make your prospect’s job or life easier.
• Seasonal items have high impact at the beginning of the season – summer items are great ideas in May and June, but far less effective in August.
• Tote bags – everyone at the show will be on the lookout for a really great tote bag. Avoid the economy or value tote bags – they will be passed by or discarded when attendees are offered quality bags. This is a nice addition to an informational premium.
• Inexpensive items can be appealing if they are high quality and useful. For example, a tin of quality, mini breath mints is a popular item at B2B shows.
• Items that incorporate new technology are popular everywhere. For example, LED flashlights are a highly valued item.

Put together a list of candidates

First put together a list of all the possibilities then cross off the following items:

• Eliminate low quality items. It is better to skip the free gift than to give a valuable prospect a pen with your logo on it that doesn’t work or leaks all over her hand.
• Avoid generic premiums that have nothing to do with your business except your logo: sports water bottles, pocket office kits, picture frames, etc.
• Give away items that people can not easily transport home. If most attendees fly into the show, avoid large items like golf umbrellas or breakable items.
• Forget about heavy and bulky items unless you plan to deliver them to your prospects’ offices later. Just think about carrying this item around the showroom floor for hours then bringing it home on the plane.

Selecting the item

Now comes the fun part – picking the item. Look over your list and see if a few items really support the promotional theme and desired brand position. Pick the top 3 to 5 items.

Review the finalists with your sales team and a few of your customers to see if there is a consensus pick. If you have a tie, select the least expense item.

The finishing touch

Make sure to incorporate your message on the item. Have it imprinted, labeled or packaged with your company logo, name and contact information. Don’t let there be any doubt where it came from.

Everything in your exhibit has to work to build your brand and acquire new business. A trade show premium is no exception. If it isn’t winning you new customers, take the money and put it to good use closing sales.

Replacing Trade Show Giveaways with Promotions that work

For decades companies were satisfied to give away trade show premiums that built brand awareness and didn’t do much more. Company logos appeared on everything from camouflaged jackets to rubber ducks. Most ended up discarded or given away to friends and family. Now marketers are reexamining their strategies and replacing free gifts with promotions.

A promotion is an incentive to act – it is something that will directly generate qualified leads and drive sales.

Building a successful promotion

The first step is to define your target customer and decide what you are trying to accomplish. Every business wants to increase brand awareness but now marketers want promotions that also motivate an action. Do you want to get leads, get people to try your product, make sales at a show, drive people to your website, or generate retail traffic?

Once you have defined your goal, design a promotion to target your prospects. Don’t just give something to everyone who passes by your booth unless everyone is a great prospect. General giveaways generate unqualified leads and your real prospects will be hard to find in the mass of names gathered at the booth. Most sales reps won't even bother to follow up on any of the show leads because it is too hard to find the qualified prospects.

Structure the promotion in a way that starts a dialog with target customers and encourages follow-up conversations or contacts.

Does your promotion require a free gift, a sales incentive or both?

Some promotions work best with a sales incentive – discount coupons, gift certificates for future purchases, gift with purchase or other sales promotion offer. Some companies have found that combining a sales incentive with a premium giveaway is their unbeatable combination. Make sure to get your prospects’ names, email addresses and phone numbers, and some additional information that identifies the best prospects. If you choose to use a giveaway, capture the prospects’ names and contact information in exchange for these gifts. Also take the opportunity to ask one or two questions that will make the qualified prospects stand out.

Games, Drawings and Prizes

Games and drawings are very popular and will engage people. The trick is to design a contest that will appeal mostly to qualified prospects. The easiest way to create a focused game or drawing is to select a prize that will mostly interest a qualified prospect. So never give away money or TV sets. Instead think about giving away your product or a related item as a prize. Then increase participation in the contest by giving away lots of prizes throughout the show.

Track your results

Establish a way to measure the success of your trade show promotions. If you used a sales incentive, code it so that you know what the show offer actually generated. If you gave away a premium item, after the trade show, survey your customers and your exhibit team about how well it worked.

Work to answer these questions:

• Did the offer attract qualified prospects to the booth?
• Did the promotion achieve your sales and/or lead goal?
• Was it profitable?
• Did your prospect and customers find the premium and/or sales incentive useful? Or did they discard or forget it?
• Did the promotion, sales incentive and/or the premium project the right corporate image?

Selecting a great premium

There are plenty of exciting trade show giveaways that will make your promotion a success. Learn more about creating promotions that work in “Part 2 – Selecting a great premium”.

The Other Reasons to Exhibit at Trade Shows

Almost everything that is written regarding the justification for exhibiting at tradeshows, talks about marketing, lead generation and sales. These are important benefits, to be sure, but here are several other very good reasons for companies to participate in shows and to make sure that they compare favorably to their competitors. For example:

The Investment Community – Companies of all sizes, public or private, need to consider that many investment analysts attend trade shows. Where better to gauge a company’s market position relative to their industry, than at a show? Financial statements are not the only consideration when deciding on investments. Savvy institutional investors often walk the aisles of shows to better understand current positions and future potential.

The Press – We have all seen shows like 60 minutes touring the Consumer Electronics Show or the Housewares Show, but these are not the only times that the press is present at shows. In every industry, people want to see what’s new. In addition, the information that is published will be posted on the internet, allowing global exposure. Favorable press coverage can really help your marketing efforts.

Recruiting – When a company comes to a show with a new or larger exhibit, prospective salespeople or managers see a financially strong, growing company, and are much more likely to consider becoming part of the team.

Market Research – When a prospect comes to your booth, why not do some market research? The key here is to formalize the information gathered by using a lead card. Asking a question like, “What would you think if we added an automatic feeder to our production system?” could provide valuable information for future product development.

While none of these reasons are going to justify the investment of exhibiting at a trade show on their own, they all add to the overall ROI. As such, be sure to consider ALL of the potential benefits when discussing the merits of exhibiting at a show. 

Trade Show Exhibitor's Bill of Rights - How Can You Help?

The Exhibitors' Perspective is an Important Part of Tradeshow Success

You are a trade show exhibitor. You’ve toured many cities, been to every convention center in the U.S. and talked to more strangers in one day than most people do in a month. This is why your perspective is an important part to tradeshow success.

Without you, the trade show exhibitor, what would the show organizers, general contractors, housing companies and convention center staff do?

The power of your knowledge and perspective is vast. This is why, as an exhibitor or event professional you can help define the future of face-to-face marketing. The Trade Show Exhibitors Association (TSEA) has an arena where you can interact and be heard by other professionals in your area of expertise.

TSEA has published the Trade Show Exhibitors Bill of Rights which outlines the basic ideals that show organizers, managers and hosts should provide to all exhibitors.

Here is an excerpt from the TSEA Bill of Rights.
As an Exhibitor, you are entitled to:

• THE RIGHT to be educated in convention housing practices
• THE RIGHT to independent third-party audits of trade show attendance
• THE RIGHT to qualified labor practices
• THE RIGHT to proper inspection of previous show results before committing to a future show

Download The Trade Show Exhibitors’ Association Bill of Rights to see your rights, right now. Let us know what you think by leaving a comment below!

You can voice your needs and help shape the future of face-to-face marketing at the TSEA Red Diamond Congress. Click here to learn more on how you can help.

How Tradeshows and Social Media Co-exist

There is Still a Place for Trade Shows in Your Marketing Mix

Talk to anyone who sends more than 2 texts a day and they will tell you that the only way to market products and services is to use Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin or search engine optimization. They consider face-to-face marketing to be an antiquated form of communication and that the days of tradeshows are numbered.

Those of us who make our living producing trade shows get the opportunity to see things in a different light. Walk the aisles at the consumer electronics show and watch buyers from all over the world making deals with major manufacturers. Go to the HIMSS show and see hospital administrators finalizing plans for purchase of their new IT infrastructure. Attend the American College of Cardiology meeting and listen to heart specialists discussing the advantages of various new instruments with the inventor. This type of important business communication can only be done face-to-face and the most cost- and time-effective way to do this is at a tradeshow.

Social Media Should be an Important Part of Your Tradeshow Promotion

The fact is, social media can and should be an important part of tradeshow promotion and communication. The ability to reach out to potential customers before, during, and after a show using this technology can greatly increase tradeshow ROI. Just like any other marketing project, exhibitors should enlist the assistance of a person or group that has experience with the most popular networks, explain their goals and put together a plan for your tradeshow.

Keep an open mind. Don’t expect overnight success. Continue to review and improve your approach to both media and the results will come.Let's get started!

What To Do With An Old Trade Show Exhibit

Value Of A Used Trade Show Display

There are a large number of corporations who purchased new tradeshow exhibits of all types a few years ago before the economy took a dive.

Now that tradeshow marketing budgets have been slashed, resulting in participation in fewer shows and smaller booth spaces, these too large, too heavy and too expensive to set up trade show displays are sitting in warehouses collecting dust and costing their owners money in storage fees.

Before considering your disposal options, you must first consider the fact that the tradeshow display probably appears as an asset on the company’s books. So, if disposed of, it will result in a loss on financial statements. Add to this the fact that the display consists of some hazardous materials, so disposal costs will be significant and you can see why disposal is not likely to be a popular move in the eyes of the bean counters.

Also, be realistic about the value of a used tradeshow display. Companies generally want to design a new booth to their own specifications. Even if your display closely matches their needs, the cost of refurbishment, changing finishes and colors and producing new graphics can quickly add dramatically to the cost. It is not unusual for tradeshow booths that originally cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to be nearly worthless in the used market.

Options For Your Old Trade Show Booth

So… what are your options?

1. Bite the bullet. Get a quote from your display company, pay the handling and disposal fees, write off the loss, and move on. (This is a major reason many companies choose to only rent their displays).
2. Try to sell your old tradeshow booth. Gather as much information about the display as possible. Photos, drawings and inventory lists are critical to success. Post the display on a used exhibit web site (www.exhibitrader.com for example). Ebay and Craigslist might work to sell portable exhibits but larger displays probably won’t get much attention. Be realistic about an asking price.
3. Make a deal with your exhibit company. Roll the old booth into the purchase or rental of a new display. Showing a “trade in allowance” on the contract will be much easier on the financial statements and also eliminate your disposal liability.
4. Donate your booth. Try to find a charity that might have some use for all or part of the display. Admittedly, this is a long shot, but is worth checking into.

No matter which direction you take, it is always a shame that something so exciting and valuable when it was originally built ends up such a pain to get rid of.

Get An Apples-to-Apples Cost Comparison on Your Tradeshow Exhibit

Thinking About Changing Exhibit Companies?

Feel like your current tradeshow exhibit service company is holding you hostage? Are you getting the level of service you deserve at a reasonable cost? Is it time to look into a new provider? The most common way to start this process is to do some research, contact a few companies, and request some proposals. The problem, however, is that when the proposals come in, none of them end up looking alike. How are you to compare?

When looking for a new tradeshow booth or services provider it is important to seek out "apples-to-apples" pricing: competitive quotations that are all including the same types of services.

Request an Apples-to-Apples Quotation

There are many different ways a tradeshow exhibit services company can write a quote, which can make comparing them difficult. Also, depending on the company you are dealing with, there can also be many different ways to hide costs that come after everything is said and done. It is important to make sure that all of the quotes you are comparing include everything you need. Otherwise, you may choose what looked to be the most inexpensive quote, but when your tradeshow ends, you can find yourself looking at an invoice with thousands of dollars you were not expecting to have to pay.

The best way to make sure that you are getting an apples-to-apples quotation is by sending companies a format for their proposals. All you have to do is take a current tradeshow exhibit services invoice and copy the descriptions of each line item, and ask prospective vendors to fill in their prices for the same items. This way they know exactly what services to price and the final product will be quotations that you can easily compare. You can also learn a great deal about each bidder by seeing how willing they are to participate and how well they follow your directions.

Once you have the numbers, make sure to review each proposal for disclaimers and fine print. Once you've narrowed the field, interview each company that is being seriously considered and check their references.

These kinds of apples-to-apples quotations will save you time, and quite possibly a great deal of money. Are you thinking about changing exhibit companies? Click here to find out the top 10 reasons why you should switch to Alexis Exhibits!

Increase Trade Show Booth Traffic with Basic Promotion Tips

Tradeshows represent a big investment. The cost of the exhibit and related services and utilities are just the beginning. Travel and lodging costs for staff will often double the total cost.

Optimize your return on investment with some supporting promotion.

At a major show, the average trade show attendee will spend more than 2 minutes in just 26 booths. There are in excess of 1000 booths in most major shows!

You should do everything possible to increase the chances that your booth will be one of these 26 for your most important prospects. Some promotion is easy, and also either cheap or free! You should touch every base for every conference where you exhibit.

1. Modify your email signature
2. Contact all of your prime prospects to set appointments
3. Put a notice in every shipment
4. Mention your booth number in your ads
5. Put a banner ad on your own website
6. When you invite people to your booth, tell them what’s in it for them
7. Take the time to fill out the show’s exhibitor profile
8. Take advantage of any publisher-offered opportunities for pre-show publicity
9. Wear your logo shirt or badge at all times
10. Use Social Media to create excitement about your booth

Following these basic promotion tips will attract the most important prospects! Lets Get Started.