How To Maximize ROI From Your Event and Trade Show
November 27, 2022
The majority of marketers are happy to see the revival of live, in-person trade exhibitions. Few marketing strategies build relationships and produce more qualified leads/sales than trade shows. Now that we’re talking about these events again, you might be wondering how to get the most out of them and make sure your money is well spent.
Pre-Event: Marketing Strategy
Make appointments in advance: If you have access to a list of attendees, get in touch with anyone who appears to be a good fit for your product. Ask them to book 5 to 10 minutes of booth time after giving them a brief description of your business or product. If you have a standing calendar invitation for people to meet with you, they will be less likely to go right past your booth.
Giving participants the option to self-schedule appointments in advance of the event via a shareable link for promotions is another approach to drive more visitors to your booth.
Promote your booth: Let potential customers know where to locate you. Give them your booth number and a map or other means of locating you so they can find you. The display halls at trade shows are congested. Make finding you simple for potential customers. The prizes, product demonstrations, competitions, or other benefits that your prospects will enjoy if they stop by your booth should also be promoted in your pre-event material.
Put a focus on your products: There are too many businesses that choose flash over substance when it comes to trade show exhibits. Yes, be innovative with your design, but make sure your products are the main focus. Visitors ought to have a clear understanding of what you have to provide, why they need it, and what to do next.
Instantly capture leads: Scheduling appointments is only half the game. For maximizing event ROI, tracking and collecting leads on the spot is essential. The main criteria here is speed and efficiency. Giving your sales professionals and SMEs at the trade show the ability to use lead capture devices on the show floor to immediately gather and manage leads is one approach to accomplish this. They will be able to qualify leads, check-in attendance, view meetings, take notes, and share e-literature right away.
This can be done easily using ipads and laptops that you can rent directly from eTech. Instead of buying more technology specifically for one event, it’s a better, more affordable option to rent the technology. Additionally, the event management software of your choice can be used on the ipads, tablets, and laptops to help you empower your staff to instantly capture leads.
Increase conversions by using gift giveaways: Almost every trade show booth provides a variety of “swag”—small branded items—for attendees to take home. However, make sure you get something in return before only handing out freebies to persuade people to visit your booth. Restrict your larger giveaways or prizes to participants who sign up for a demo, free trial, or subsequent meeting in exchange for their contact information.
After the Show: the follow up
While you might think the job is over once the show is over, that’s not the case if you really want to maximize your show ROI. It’s important to not only run through the demos and calls your team scheduled while at the show, but also to continue following up and reaching out to those who might not have been ready to schedule anything.
Organize your contacts: It’s important that the contacts your team organize the contacts they got at the show into levels of priority. Hopefully your team was taking notes on the conversations they were having with attendees which will help them classify leads into buckets of hot, warm, or cold, based on how interested they were in your products, or how good of a fit they were.
Follow up quickly: It’s essential to get in touch straight away to set yourself apart from the influx of emails merchants will send to guests a few days following the event. Your email campaigns should be prepared and scheduled in advance so they can launch as soon as you get fresh leads. Test your send times without hesitation. If you send it too soon, guests will still have to travel to and from the event. Send too late, and the recipients won’t remember you at all.
Gather feedback and organize insights: Once the dust settles from a crazy show, it’s important that you actually take the time to receive feedback from your staff and those who attended your event, in addition to calculating a quantitative ROI. Asking what went right, how high quality were the leads, what went wrong, and what can be improved in the future will help you decide overall whether or not the event and its spend was worth it in the end. It will also help you improve your other events and streamline processes to focus on what matters.
About eTech?
e-Tech Rentals is dedicated to helping our customers put together flawless trade shows and events. In addition to rental technology, our experienced staff is always available to do anything within our power to help ensure your technology is set up properly, and ready to perform without error.
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