Since exhibiting comprises so many different components and functions, it’s no wonder that we make blunders trying to remember everything that needs doing. However, some are more lethal than others and as such should be avoided at all costs. The following seven points fall into that category.

Learn to avoid them and you will increase your chances for a more successful and profitable tradeshow.

Sin #1: Failing to have a proper exhibit marketing plan.

In order to make tradeshows a powerful dimension your company’s overall marketing operation, there must be total alignment between the strategic marketing and your exhibit marketing plan. Tradeshows should not be a stand-alone venture. Know and understand exactly what you wish to achieve – increasing market share with existing users; introducing new products/services into existing markets or into new markets; or introducing new products/services into new markets. This is the nucleus on which to build your program, which should include pre-show, at-show and post-show promotional activities. Know whom you want to target and then consider having different promotional programs aimed at the different groups you are interested in attracting.

Sin #2: Failing to set quantifiable exhibiting goals.

Goals, or the purpose for exhibiting, are the essence of the whole tradeshow experience. Knowing what you want to accomplish at a show will help plan every other aspect – your theme, the booth layout and display, graphics, product displays, premiums, literature, etc. Exhibiting goals should complement your corporate marketing objectives and help in accomplishing them. Make sure they can be measured after the show to establish how well you did.

Sin #3: Failing to build brand awareness with your booth.

On the show floor your exhibit makes a strong statement about who your company is, what you do and how you do it. Everything your company stands for, no matter how large or small, is being exhibited on the show floor. This means that there needs to be total consistency, congruity, clarity and focus in every aspect of your exhibiting program, before, during and after the show. The purpose of you exhibit is to attract visitors so that you can achieve your marketing objectives. In addition to being an open, welcoming and friendly space, there needs to be a focal point and a strong key message that communicates a significant benefit to your prospect. Opt for large graphics rather than reams of copy. Pictures paint a thousand words while very few attendees will take time to read. Your presentations/demonstrations are a critical part of your exhibit marketing. Create an experience that allows visitors to use as many of their sense as possible. This will help to enhance memorability.

Sin #4: Failing to give visitors an incentive to visit your booth.

Whatever promotional vehicles you use – direct mail, broadcast faxes, advertising, PR, sponsorship, and the Internet, make sure that you give visitors a reason to come and visit you. With a hall overflowing with fascinating products/services, combined with time constraints, people need an incentive to stop at your booth. First and foremost their primary interest is in “what’s new!” They are eager to learn about the latest technologies, new applications, or anything that will help save them time and/or money. Even if you don’t have a new product/service to introduce, think about a new angle to promote your offerings.

Sin #5: Failing to have giveaways that work.

Tied into giving visitors an incentive to visit your booth is the opportunity to offer a premium item that will entice them to stop. Your giveaway items should be designed to increase your memorability, communicate, motivate, promote or increase recognition of your company. Developing a dynamite giveaway takes thought and creativity. Consider what your target audience wants, what will help them do their job better, what they can’t get elsewhere, what is product/service related and educational. Think about having different gifts for different types of visitors. Use your website to make an offer for visitors to collect important information, such as an executive report, when they visit your booth. Giveaways should be used as a reward or token of for visitors participating in a demonstration, presentation or contest, or as a thank-you for qualifying information about specific needs etc.

Sin #6: Failing to realize that your people are your marketing team.

Enormous time, energy and money are put into organizing show participation – display, graphics, literature, premiums, etc. However, the people chosen to represent the entire image of the organization are often left to fend for themselves. They are just told to show up. Your people are your ambassadors. They represent everything your company stands for, so choose them well. Brief them beforehand and make sure they know: why you are exhibiting; what you are exhibiting and what you expect from them. Exhibit staff training is essential for a unified and professional image. This means making sure that they sell instead of tell; they don’t try to do too much; they understand visitor needs; they don’t spend too much time with visitors; and finally, they know how to close the interaction with a commitment to follow-up.

Sin #7: Failing to have a proper follow-up plan.

The key to your tradeshow success is wrapped up in the lead-management process. The best time to plan for follow-up is before the show. Show leads often take second place to other management activities that occur after being out of the office for several days. The longer leads are left unattended, the colder and more mediocre they become. It is to your advantage to develop an organized, systematic approach to follow-up. Establish a lead handling system, set time lines for follow-up, use a computerized database for tracking, make sales representatives accountable for leads given to them, and then measure your results.

Written by Susan A. Friedmann,CSP, The Tradeshow Coach, Lake Placid, NY, working with companies to improve their meeting and event success through coaching, consulting and training.

Author: “Meeting & Event Planning for Dummies,” and “Riches in Niches: How to Make it BIG in a small Market” (May 2007).

Website: www.thetradeshowcoach.com

What most of them unfortunately learned later-on, was that this partnership was really a one-way street. Yes they got the business and yes they got their plaques and certificates, but in the end what they really got was dictated to. Many of them told me that they would be given a three year contract and that each year after the initial year they were REQUIRED to lower their price, regardless of material increases, regardless of labor increases, regardless of energy cost increases. They were basically told that in order to remain a “partner” they had to improve efficiencies each year and pass those savings (real or not) on to the customer. So the partnership was really not a partnership at all but rather a typical old-fashioned vendor-customer relationship where no matter how much circumstances had changed for the vendor the customer was really calling all the shots.

Eventually the pricing pressure and the lack of a real partnership drove a lot of these injection molders literally out of business. Others simply decided to stop selling to the car-makers because they were basically shipping dollars out the door with every truckload of parts. This isn’t a partnership. This is a dictatorship. True partnerships are win-win, and this was “win” (for the customer) and “lose” (for the vendor).

A true partnership starts with the understanding that both sides have needs. A true partnership allows one party to share those needs with the other and to have those needs understood and incorporated into an agreement that very simply allows both parties to make money. There is this misguided sentiment that even if a company loses money on every order, they can “make it up in volume”. All this philosophy does is allow a company to go out of business faster – but with a nice résumé – to serve as its epitaph.

I still believe in partnerships, but in this world I wonder how many other people actually embrace this concept? True partnerships require a level of transparency and an even deeper level of trust.

A great vendor partner looks for ways to save their clients money. They provide free stuff – advice, ideas, samples, and prototypes. They don’t take advantage of last minute orders by tacking on rush charges when they themselves aren’t incurring any extra cost.

Meanwhile, a great client partner recognizes the value a great vendor adds to their business. They have a sense of loyalty, share sensitive information and demonstrate their trust by living up to their end of the bargain. I wish we lived in a world where the term “fair profit” was more clearly defined and agreed upon. But since we don’t, we have to rely on partnerships that live up to the real meaning of the word. In the end, in a true partnership, both parties share the risk and both parties share the reward.

And as Henry Ford once said, “The reward for a job well done is the opportunity… for more work.”

That’s JB’s space for now. Thanks for visiting.

Journalist Jeff Jarvis talks about how car companies can become more ‘Googley’, which is short hand for listening to your customers’ needs leads to success in the 21st century. The important question that he brings up is: “What business are we really in?” For car companies, for years, it was making cars that Americans wanted to buy at a cheap price. Car companies may actually be a bad example of this because a bad economy means that people are simply buying fewer cars. The question may actually be better for those of us in the tradeshow business. What business are we really in?

If we’re in the business of setting up booths in a physical space at a set time, then our days are numbered. There are simply more ways of connecting in business than there used to be and business-as-usual means that those other ways will slowly but surely eat away at tradeshows and their share of marketing dollars.

So what can tradeshows learn from Google? Building on Jarvis’s points here are a few:

1.) More Beta
Google tries new things all the time and lets their users try things as well. What works is kept and what doesn’t is thrown away. Tradeshow organizers need to try news things pure and simple. Attendees and exhibitors are eager to see new things that will help them grow their business and or provide feedback to help make a good idea great.

2.) More Transparency
Its pretty much what-you-see-is-what-you-get at Google. They turned advertising on its head by linking it to searches. They moved the cost model to paying for clicks and placing a higher value on search terms that are more desirable. There are more ways to spend money with Google today than ever. But here’s the thing: it’s all transparent. Advertisers know exactly what they are paying for and exactly what they are getting for their money. Google even helps open up more transparency with handy tools that let you see keyword search trends and traffic on your site.

3.) More Tools to Succeed
Google recognized that people search in order to find things. While the competition thought they were in the search engine business, Google realized that they were in the “finding things” business. Now you have Google Maps, Google Books, even Google Health. Putting tools in people’s hands to succeed helps Google succeed. Tradeshows could do the same by offering free services that leverage (exploit) the need for information flow. For example, in addition to tradeshow guides or show dailies, why not have search kiosks with sponsored searches and pay-per visit options? Why not an iPhone app that would do the same thing? Heck, while we’re at it, why not a pay-per-lead model? It may sound dangerous but so is not considering these ideas.

4.) Flexibility
Tradeshows offer the ability to essentially rent a set space for a set period of time. The bigger the space, the more flexibility you have. Some companies have the budget to build an entire environment in a huge space while some are stuck with 10x10s. Why not break up that model? Could companies be more creative with their space choices? Could they team up with other companies to create environments that ‘cross the aisle’? What about multiple spaces each devoted to different challenges in the marketplace? Granted, these are all ideas that may need to come from exhibitors themselves, but tradeshows should push innovation along and not hinder it.

5.) Get In the Information Business
For decades, tradeshows provided the space, exhibitors brought the products, and journalists covered the show. If tradeshows are in the information business, they need to team with journalists and companies to communicate with attendees. This may be in the form of podcasts, blogs, or social media — but the point is that information needs to flow more freely and on a more timely basis so exhibitors are able to make better, more informed choices while attendees receive relevant information that will enhance their experience at the show. And, by the way, attendees need to have a voice as well. Information is no longer a one way street. And, guess what? That’s a good thing.

Let’s face it, Google isn’t perfect. And it’s not the perfect model for the Tradeshow Industry. But it does reveal some of the changing trends in information exchange that have already impacted our business. People gathering in one place to do business has strong roots dating back to ancient marketplaces. There has always been value in being able to freely roam through a maze of merchants combining savvy information gathering with random encounters. But Google has taught us that calculated searching combined with chance encounters now has expanded possibilities. Not taking advantage of those possibilities is, at best, a missed opportunity, and, at worst, a death knell to the industry.

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