how to maximize your tradeshow roi
TRANSCRIPT
Event MarketingCari Rosno, President/CEO
Skyline DYNOVIA2.05.2016
Budgeting for Success
Setting Goals to Measure Performance
Exhibits as Environments
Talking Points:
84% of visitors have some kind of buying power
38% of visitors are new to the show
49% of attendees plan to purchase in the next 12 months
22% of sales and marketing executives say trade shows are the #1 source for leads, more than any other source
*information from CEIR, TSEA, CEMA
Why Face-to-Face Marketing
Trade shows are the #1business-to-business marketing spend to support direct sales.
Budgeting for Success!
Your budget is the financial roadmap of your exhibit marketing plan.
How is your budget dollar spent?
Rough show budget with existing properties= Show Space x 3
Determine your estimated cost per square foot and use the annual average. $100,000 on everything – 20 x 20$100,000 / 400 = $250/per sq. ft. Six shows with an average: $250, $124, $116, $87, $174, $101
= $142 avg/per sq. ft.Rough show budget with new inventory
= show space x 4 Rough show budget with new technology and presentations
= show space x 5
Industry Averages and Calculations
Need to save money? Understand these areas first, make changes where you can & don’t cut!
Hard Costs: Show Services, labor, exhibit properties, rental properties & travel
Soft Costs: Booth space, sponsorships, hiring outside booth staff, cleaning, floral, meetings, hospitality, promotions
Free: “Not out of my budget”
Hard Costs, Soft Costs and FREE
• Establish timelines/deadlines and keep them• Share your budget $s• Pair your expense decisions with your objectives • Send a gang box, tool box• Purchase your own décor, accessories • Evaluate your time and delegate where necessary
Save Some Money
• Create your exhibit marketing plan, then develop the budget to reflect the plan’s objectives, strategies and tactics – keep it fresh
• Get early buy-in from your internal customers so the investment is well understood before the show opens
• Review your budget frequently and update it• Compare the actual to budget to determine what changes
are necessary for the next show
Budgeting Best Practices
Setting Measurable Objectives
Everything starts with objectives
1. Why are you exhibiting?
2. Who is your target audience?
3. What do you want to communicateto this audience?
4. What is your measure of success?
Generate 250 qualified leads that will convert to $150,000 in sales from current and new customers within 8 months of the close of the show.
Objectives Best Practices
• For every objective you have, create a measurement plan so that you know if you achieved your objective or not
• Hold a meeting every day to evaluate how well you are meeting your target objectives so you can make mid-course corrections
Achieving Goals
Everything must lead to a call to action – a call to achieve the objectives.
• The exhibit
• Literature & promotional items
• In booth activities and presentations
Measuring Your Performance
Improve the decision making process
Continuous Improvement
What worked | What didn’t
Measuring your performance
“If it can’t be expressed in figures, it is not science; it is opinion.” -Robert Heinlein
Some objectives are more easily measured than others.
It’s all ROI Cost per lead per contact
Cost per visitor reached – visual & physical
Cost per person demonstrated to or reached in live presentations
Brand Awareness
Product/Organizational perception
Calculating Your Measure of SuccessWhat to measure:
Cost per lead or per contact
Return on Investment orPotential Return on Investment
Cost per visitor reached –visual & physical
How to measure it:
Total investment------------------------------------Total # of qualified leads
Sales generated-------------------------------------
Total investment
Total investment---------------------------------------
Total number of visitors reached (visually or physically)
Calculating Your Measure of Success
What to measure:
Demonstration cost per person
Brand awareness
Message reception or retention
Public relations/press
How to measure it:Incremental investment---------------------------------
Number of visitors reached
Exit or post event surveys
Exit or post event surveys
Number of articles written or ad equivalency
Measurement Best Practices
• If time is an issue, hire a third party to make sure the metrics are undertaken
• For every objective, have a defined measurement
• Create benchmarks for each metric to compare show-to-show and year-to-year
• Measurement should be undertaken so the results are available within 2 weeks of the show (except for post show surveys)
Exhibits as Environments
