The HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) Conference is a major event for companies serving the Healthcare IT market. This is a rapidly growing market, but not one with complete immunity to economic ups and downs. It’s always interesting to compare two different perspectives on the same show. In the two examples below, two exhibitors offer valuable insight into what is and isn’t working for them at the show.

Chris Madjerich from Lexi Comp (Click to view) talks about how the company is using the show to break into a new market. HIMSS is one of three trade shows they attend to accommodate the other markets the company serves. He is approaching the show as an essential cog in the company’s marketing engine.

Ted Larkin from Dolbey (Click to view)saw HIMSS attendance being split between two halls. It’s a shear attendance evaluation which is subjective, but insightful.

These perspectives are valuable, and truthfully we all approach trade show using some of both. We want the show and the show organizers to work for us, bringing volumes of potential leads. We also recognize that showing up to a trade show is only the first step in making it successful.

More than anything else, this is a lesson to show organizers. Yes, exhibitors want traffic, but they won’t be fooled by shear numbers. They need to feel it in their booth. But don’t ignore the fact that exhibitors also have larger scale marketing initiatives that need to be addressed as well.  That may include other shows covering completely different markets.

There is a lot trade show advice that can be either really obvious or not very helpful.  Every once in a while you come across an idea that is both obvious and really helpful.  And that is what this trade show marketing tip from Tom Adams is.

We all know about the pens and the buttons, the key chains and the posters.  The theory is: let’s give away something with our logo on it and it will be good for brand equity.  And then there are the contests: enter to win a free iPod.  Yes, giveaways have certain brand value, but Tom’s advice is that if you want to snag contact information, give away something that you’d normally sell.  That ensures that only your targeted audience will show interest.  A month of free service or parts or even a full-fledged product as a give away means that it will be worthless to a casual passerby but hugely valuable to your target audience.  It’s a good theory, but anyone put it to practice?

You can read Tom’s blog here: http://tomadams.com/

Anyone have a good give away story?  Bad?  Ugly?  Leave a comment and let us know!

At DRUPA 2000, Razor Scooters were all the rage.  Companies gave them away and people zipped past you as your aching feet groaned between Hall 3 and 7.  The Segway has made a few appearances at trade shows as well.  It seems like every few years new technology comes out that bridges the gap between walking great distances and getting into a vehical.

The Honda prototype here seems to do that in the most viable way yet.  The unit is small enough to carry on a plane (although security might be an issue) and seems manueverable enough to blend in with pedestrians actually using their feet.

But is it a viable form of tranportation?  Probably not, at least not in this form.  Is it a great toy?  Heck yeah.  And that may be all that matters.

Don’t discount the carnival effect of trade shows.  Although serious business is conducted on show floors, they are also places to discover new things and interact with people.  A high end toy like this may just be a great way to break the ice with a prospect, but icebreakers are important.

Here’s one idea for using this type of device as a trade show marketing tool:  Loan a few out to attendees with branded versions.  Four or five of these gliding through trade show floors could be enough to attract attention to your brand and drive traffic to even a small booth.  One universal topic at trade shows is aching feet.  And sympathy can go a long way toward earning trust and business.

Got any other ideas?  Let’s hear them!

The Exhibit Industry Council (EIC) recently released its first  Best Practice:  Full Disclosure and Control of Exhibitor Costs.

From the EIC press release:

The purpose of this Best Practice, as stated in the recommendation, is to increase exhibitor value and improve the effectiveness of event marketing, to advocate for the full disclosure over trade show and event marketing costs, and to guide the industry in making adjustments that will support its financial future and continued presence in the corporate marketing mix.

At TSF, we believe that exhibitors should know more about what they are paying for.  This helps exhibitors determine ROI and the most efficient way to make their trade show experience successful.  In that spirit, we’re hosting a petition supporting the main principals of the EIC Full Disclosure and Control of Exhibitor Costs.

This is an important movement for the entire trade show industry and those that use trade shows to market products and do business.  We won’t publish or sell your name — the purpose of this document is solely to make important changes in the industry

The Petition

The Exhibit Industry Council (EIC), comprised of five major trade show industry associations, was formed to define and advocate for exhibitor-focused Best Practices for trade shows, conventions, congresses, and private events. The goal is to unite all industry stakeholders to support reputable, consistent standards.

Currently, there are conditions in the industry that impede the value exhibitors gain from face-to-face marketing events specifically conventions and trade shows. This Best Practice Guide outlines these conditions and suggests “best practices” to overcome the challenges created in this otherwise productive and effective sales and marketing environment.

Exhibiting companies need to understand the total cost of event participation to make decisions about which events will provide a sufficient ROI to their marketing plan. In order to understand and control costs, exhibitors need full disclosure of pricing by the organizers as well as general service contractors (GSCs) before exhibit space contracts are signed. This helps exhibitors make informed financial decisions before the event and also eliminates surprises down the road.

This petition calls for:

• Greater cost transparency for exhibitors
• An end to practices such as bundling and forced shipments.
• Discounts to be offered to both the exhibitor and the exhibitor’s third party contractor
• The elimination of hidden benefits such as undisclosed discounts between the general service contractor and the trade show, convention, and congress organizers.
• An end to exclusive facility contract, allowing all qualified suppliers who meet the technical requirement to compete for the right to provide goods and services in a given facility.

Trade Show ROI: Fact or Fiction? Objective or Subjective? Measurable or Intuitive?

Recently I was talking to a senior marketing executive for a major trade show organizer and I asked if they were getting besieged by exhibitors demanding a better return on their trade show investment. Were people asking them to help improve their trade show ROI? I expected him to say, “Oh yeah, this is the number one issue we’re facing – other than rising show costs.” Instead he said, “No not at all. You can’t measure trade show ROI. It’s impossible because every company is different.” Okay I agree with the latter part of his comment but it’s because every company is different that it is indeed possible. Many companies can calculate their ROI; they just don’t, for a variety of reasons.

Typically not measuring trade show ROI goes unnoticed when sales are robust and profits are good or if the overall economy is strong. But when the bottom drops out, as it always does, for some reason or another, we’re left with CEO’s, COO’s, CMO’s, and the scariest “C’” of them all – the CFO – asking why the heck you’re spending all this money on trade shows?! What’s the ROI?

Some great companies, regardless of size, have figured out a way to measure ROI. Whether they’re using some of the methods noted in our previous two articles, including full utilization of CRM programs or a home-grown program to measure their results, they’re quantifying and they’re spending accordingly. Others don’t have a clue. They just go to trade shows because, as we’ve heard them say, they’re worried that they’d be conspicuous by their absence.

So what’s the solution? Well, it’s as simple and timeless as a golden ring: close the loop. track costs, track sales. Simple? No. Possible? Yes. It is achievable for most companies if they learn how to communicate their needs to those who can give them the tools to measure the results.

As a means of face to face marketing, trade shows or trade fairs are the oldest form of marketing. No one needs a history lesson on this – it’s simply a fact. Companies who make widgets that attach to other widgets inside of a big widget don’t typically advertise on TV or in the Sunday circulars. Yet their customers know about their widgets and they buy their widgets in large part because of their exposure at trade shows. So historically we know that shows work – it’s just that now everything needs to be quantified.

In today’s world every company faces the same challenges and the same decisions, especially when it comes to marketing. Is print still viable? Does Twitter make sense? Am I better off with a website or a blog? How do I track leads? Where do I get leads? Are my salespeople selling or just taking orders? Am I getting anything out of my trade shows?

We, like you, don’t have definitive answers to any of these questions because every company is different with different channels of distribution, so the answers will be unique to your company, your budget, your systems and most importantly, the quality of your communication.

In this series on Trade Show ROI we’ve tried to present some solutions using both quantitative (CRM) and qualitative (Start with What You Know) methods, but in the end, in this world of constant electronic linkage, the only thing that’s indispensable is excellent communication because everything begins and ends with it.

Do your marketing department and your accounting department talk to each other? After all, marketing is the “hunter” and accounting is the “gatherer”. The two functions are closely tied to each other but how often is accounting involved in decisions relative to customer relationship management systems and trade show ROI?

Talk to management – tell them of your intentions to measure trade show and event ROI. Be proactive – make them your champions if you can. Then talk with accounting and IT. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar especially if the vinegar is mandated from above. So you be the honey. It’s your job to let the experts in their areas give you the tools to do your job

Buy lunch for the accounting department; bring the IT guys new Wii games. In other words, enlist their help. Trade show ROI is measurable but only if you close the loop. You get leads from the show. If you can’t take the time to qualify them and you know your salespeople won’t follow-up on them, there are companies who will provide this service for you. Some solutions can be very economical, so that at the end of the day instead of having a pile of 300 vague leads from a show you have 30 qualified leads that your sales force will be happy to go after. So you can outsource this function in need-be.

Put your leads from each trade show in queue. IT can help with this. Put them somewhere so they can be tagged by show and then tie that to order-entry so that it can be tracked for one year after the show. After one year, you now have your costs from the prior year’s show and you have your report showing how many of those leads converted to sales. Now you will have a ratio which is something that accounting and management will love. For example, if your trade show cost, $100,000, and first year sales from leads received at that show, were $500,000 this gives you a 5:1 ratio – not bad. Most folks in accounting and management would be quite happy with that. In fact they would probably be ecstatic.

If your CRM doesn’t work with your accounting system then sit down with your finance department and develop a strategy so the two can work together even if some type of “bridge” needs to be created in-order to link the two.

We are the most connected generation in history, yet there are times when we actually communicate very little. As Descartes once said, “I think therefore I am.” Well in today’s economy it would be just as fair to say, “I measure therefore I still have my job,” and good communication is the key.

Trade show ROI expert and friend of Trade Show Feed, Richard Erschik is gearing up a for a series of seminars and workshops at events around the country. It starts with the Exhibitor Show later in March and continues at Texas Library, IMTS, Fire Show, and ConExpo among others through June. Richard prepared this video as a preview.

Thanks Richard!

Link to Richard Erschik’s video here

Does anyone remember the infrared beaming on Palm Pilots?  Does anyone remember Palm Pilots?  It was actually pretty cool.  You could beam your info to a fellow Palm user avoiding  the exchange of business cards which you would then have to enter into your Palm Pilot.  It was fast an efficient and then totally disappeared when mobile devices became integrated to the internet.

The problem is that it’s still really hard to keep track of the people that you meet at trade shows.  Whether you’re an attendee or an exhibitor.  Yes, you can technically look up everyone you meet on LinkedIn and then connect with them, but that’s time consuming at big events and not practical approach to buying or selling.    The irony is that we’re all more linked together than ever with social media applications like LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube.  BusyEvent may have an answer: Read the full story

The following is first in a three-part series on Trade Show ROI.  The Rogers Company just launched an initiative on Trade Show ROI called Return on Exhibiting.

Determining trade show ROI is a long road paved with facts and stats, but like the old saying goes, every long journey starts with the first step, so when beginning the journey of determining trade show ROI, start with what you know.

Instead of beginning with so many unknowns, start with something you do know. Ostensibly you know your customers — they’re a wealth of knowledge about your trade shows and events and your overall marketing program. They can tell you what’s working and what’s not.

So it’s easy, right? If a customer says: “I met you at a trade show and liked what I saw. Three months later, I purchased your product.” then you can put them solidly in the trade show ROI column, right? Hold on! What about the brochure they received? What about the advertisement? What about the call from the salesman? Doesn’t all that count? Isn’t there a way to determine which of those things contributed most to the sale?

There’s no easy way to tell because at that point you’re trying to get inside your customer’s head. Asking them to determine which marketing tool had more influence would require some very sophisticated survey techniques that may not get you to the truth. So how do you get useful information from your customers?

1.) Start with a profile

Divide your customers into broad categories: Completely new customers who basically “walked in the front door”; returning regulars who seem very loyal to your brand and methodical clients who researched a long time before making a decision. These can be anything you want, but limit it to four or five categories. These profiles will help you organize information more easily as you identify what kinds of customers you have and why they bought from you.

2.) Look at Their Stories

Why did these customers buy from you? What influenced their decision? Where did they talk to you or first hear about you? This “customer narrative” gathers the facts about how and why you made a sale and continue to make sales.

Existing sales can also tell us what the gateways are to a sale and how they’re connected. So if a customer says that they were influenced by an advertisement, a trade show, and a sales call, try to put that together into a story. Which came first and what followed thereafter? What wouldn’t have happened without the other?

3.) Look at the Facts

It’s important to create some pertinent facts about your sales and marketing. How many companies that appear on your lead list, are actually already customers? How many customers came to your booth at a trade show? How many leads did you collect? How many of these leads were followed-up?

These hard facts help separate theory from reality. Many times people at all levels of business have pet theories about marketing activities. Make sure that, at the very least, you understand some of the things that are working. There will still be a lot of holes in your knowledge, but at least you’ll know what you know and what you need still need to learn.

4.) Determine What You’re Losing

There’s a story from WWII that is possibly fanciful, but could shed some light on this problem. Looking at returning bombers from missions over Europe, aircraft designers were trying to figure out which parts of the planes to add extra armor. They could see heavy damage in certain parts of the planes more than others, but finally decided to place armor exactly where the damage didn’t exist. Why?

The theory was that the planes damaged in those areas, simply didn’t return from their missions.

You have the same issue in determining ROI or the effectiveness of your trade show campaign. Your customers can tell you which tactic worked for them — but look for the piece that is consistently missing. Where are you not reaching customers? Why aren’t they finding you? If you’re getting customers A,B, and C, why not D,E, and F? Build on what’s working but also examine if some of things that aren’t effective for customers A, B, and C might work for the others. In the end focus on what works with each specific market or customer and leave everything else behind.

Finally, there’s no magic answer to ROI. But there is a process for determining what is working within your company and what is not. It may sound simple to do more of what’s working and less of what’s not — but that’s the essence of successful marketing. A trade show is no different. Your quest for ROI really is a quest for more leads and, ultimately, more sales. Instead of cutting based on lack of ROI or poorly defined ROI, use the tools above to determine where the shortfall is and concentrate on fixing it.

The Rogers Company has announced a new service that begins to answer many of the Trade Show ROI questions that companies have.  Are we seeing value from this show?  The answer, it seems, may be in what you’re doing with the leads you are getting from the show.  From the press release:

The Rogers Company, a designer and builder of trade show exhibits and other branded environments, announces Return On Exhibiting, a new approach to lead management to substantially increase sales resulting from trade shows. This new offering comes from a partnership between Rogers and Richard Erschik, founder and CEO of Leads to Sales, Inc. (www.leadstosales.com) and RICHARDERSCHIK.com (www.richarderschik.com). Erschik and the Rogers team are working closely together to unite booth exhibit design and fabrication with lead management and post-show follow-up. The result is a one-stop shop for better trade show ROI.

You can read the rest of the press release here: Link

Tension fabric systems are great. They’re lightweight, easy to ship and store, and changing logos, images, and colors is a snap. So why do some booths completely miss the point of this fantastic design tool and building material? Companies who use tension fabric systems tend to recreate the square boxes that they’ve always called home at tradeshows. When we’re presented with a versatile technology we tend to see it as a better version of something old but we don’t let our imaginations really sore with it. Here are some ways to go above and beyond with tension fabric: Read the full story