Trade Show Planner: Goals and Objectives
Your 12-month trade show checklist
Establishing your show goals and budget are two tasks in a much larger checklist you’ll need to complete as a trade show exhibitor. Review my entire pre-show, on-site, and post-show checklist of exhibitor planning activities.
Trade Show Planning:
Establishing Your Show Goal, Objectives, and a Budget
12 MONTHS TO GO. PRE-SHOW ACTIVITIES.
Determine your primary trade show goal.
Is it to generate more qualified leads?
Is it to launch a new product?
Is it to break into a new market and position your company against well-known competitors who will also be exhibiting?
Is it to sell to a new type of buyer?
Now, break down your goal into individual objectives. For example, your goal might be to get more qualified leads. Your objective may be to increase the number of qualified leads by 20% over last year's show. It is surprising how many companies spend loads of time and money exhibiting at a trade show without ever setting any measurable objectives, that can be analyzed when the show is over. How will you ever know if your participation was a success if you cannot effectively quantify your return?
Evaluate your possible participation based on the trade show exhibitor cost and the number and type of attendees.
What other companies are exhibiting?
Which are competitors, and which could be potential business partners?
Review last year’s attendee and exhibitor lists.
Do you have current customers within 75-100 miles of the show that you could invite to a customer-focused event?
What is the potential return on this trade show investment?
Do you have team members or industry colleagues who have attended or exhibited at this show in the past and could provide insight into the event's value?
You must know your budget before you can plan your strategy and implement tactical components.
What is your show budget?
A small or large budget will have an impact on every aspect of exhibitor management. That includes, non-booth staff registration, shipping, all exhibit-related costs including booth building, rental or refurbishment, electrical, drayage, staff transportation, hotel, airfare, food, printed collateral, giveaway materials, pre-and post-show marketing campaigns, etc.
A trade show is not simply those two or three days during which the show occurs. It includes activities that begin months before the show starts and continues after the show ends.
If you exhibited at the same show last year, go back to your files and reread the Exhibitor Management Report that you created for your senior management team to review. (Did you create a management report on the outcome of last year’s show? If you didn’t, you should have.)
While you probably could have done some things slightly differently last year to increase your ROI even further, you must have done many things right to decide to exhibit again this year. Rereading your analysis of how the show went last year will enable you to develop a new plan, building on past successes, and make changes based on things that didn't go quite as planned.
For example, if your show guide advertising only generated one sale directly attributable to the ad, your return was probably not worth the cost. You can use that money to sponsor the lanyards everyone wears instead. Alternatively, you may decide to build another product demo kiosk because the long line of booth visitors had to wait fifteen minutes to get an insider look at how your product works.
It is also helpful for you to create a list of expense categories, for example, exhibit purchase, exhibit design, show services, pre-show marketing, collateral creation, printing, shipping, and drayage. This cost breakdown will not only provide you with an overview of where your money was allocated but will also enable you to reevaluate this year's expenses when determining your budget for next year's show.
If you spent money on a new exhibit and graphics last year, you will not have the cost of a new booth for this show. You may need to create a couple of new signs or fix a small amount of damage, but overall, your booth expenses will be significantly less for the coming show.
Learn more.
Read Chapter 1 of Trade Show 411 for more specific information on establishing your trade show goals and objectives.
good to know
Key Performance Indicators
In addition to your primary event goals and objectives, you’ve probably created a longer list of activities, programs, and tasks to measure. Are you unsure what your measurement strategy should be or how you should execute your measurement plan? Here are a couple of tips:
Ask your CMO, VP of Sales, and CEO what is most important to them. Include these on your list of things to measure and establish key performance indicators to determine the success of your program, activity, or objective. You should also report on each of these items in your post-show analysis report that you will give to your CMO and the rest of your executive management team.
You don’t need to boil the ocean. If this is your first trade show, you probably already feel completely overwhelmed, so start small. Any data you collect and key performance indicators you put in place at this show will set a baseline for the next show. By the time this event is over, you will be able to measure what went well, what didn’t, what you should do differently in the future, how you can more effectively and efficiently allocate your budget, and what other activities and programs you should add to your measurement plan for the next show. Every new show you attend builds on your previous show’s results so don’t try to do it all at once. Implement a simplified measurement plan you can work with and expand and improve on it for each new show.
CONTINUE YOUR TRADE SHOW PLANNING WITH RELATED CHECKLIST ITEMS.
Are you new to trade show exhibiting and feel completely overwhelmed?
Trade Show 411: The Essential Guide to Exhibiting Like a Pro is a must-have for marketers and small business owners. It gives you both the strategy and action plan to set you off on the right foot. By linking your pre-show marketing strategy to onsite activities and post-show follow-up, you’ll get the most out of your sales and marketing efforts and maximize your trade show results.
