Maximizing Your Exhibition ROI

Written by Jim Woodcock

Even the best booth designs can get lost in a sea of hundreds. Make sure you remind people who you are!

What you do in the days and weeks following a trade show matters as much — if not more — than what happens on the booth.

You’ve invested time and money (and probably sweat and tears) trying to reach potential customers on the show floor. You likely have a good list of leads to work on.

What’s the first thing they get from you after the event? How quickly do you engage them? Are you carrying over value from the exhibition?

Here are some ways to ensure those hard-won leads convert:

• Follow leads up quickly
  Within a week of the event closing, ideally

• Remind them who you are
  Your lead is probably also a lead for a dozen of your competitors and co-exhibitors, so never assume they will remember you based on a visit to your booth. Re-iterate your event messaging quickly

• Show don't tell
  Live events are as much an opportunity to create engaging content as they are to have great conversations. Instead of telling them who you are in an email, remind your leads of your brand, your team, your booth and the message you brought to the show. Create content at the event to drive longer term engagement after it

• Remind people of your booth
  Your staff and solutions seldom look better than when they are all polished up for the show floor. Capture as much as you can of both and use that to remind leads of the booth they visited — professional video tours are a great way to do this

• Give leads something useful
  Don’t follow up with a sales call unless your team has fully qualified them. Instead offer them something useful, entertaining or ideally both and do it frequently

• Remember those who couldn’t make it
  You probably won’t see all of your customers and prospects at any given event, but by capturing your presence at the show you can still give something of the experience to those who missed it, and further stretch your on-site investment

Exhibitions are costly from a financial, time and opportunity perspective, but that physical presence is a powerful tool. Be strategic and think bigger picture with your investment. Create lasting content at the show, keeping the impact of the exhibition alive for the leads you met — and those you didn’t.