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    Strategic Trade Show Success
    Strategic Trade Show Success
    Strategic Trade Show Success
    Ebook289 pages2 hours

    Strategic Trade Show Success

    By Marc L. Goldberg

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    About this ebook

    Strategic Trade Show Success outlines everything the exhibitor needs to know to get the most from their trade show investment.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMarc L. Goldberg
    Release dateFeb 15, 2016
    ISBN9780692608944
    Strategic Trade Show Success
    Author

    Marc L. Goldberg

    Marc GoldbergA retired seasoned executive, Marc brings over 40 years of experience to his SCORE volunteer work, his marketing and small business seminars. During the past three decades, he has worked in all facets of domestic and international marketing and has devoted himself to maximizing the results attainable through performance measurement. For almost 30 years his company, Marketech specialized in exhibitor staff training and measuring results at trade shows and events.As a SCORE Mentor, Marc serves start-ups, small businesses wanting to grow and strategic planning for nonprofits.He is the author of Small Doesn’t Mean Second Rate – a reference workbook for the under 400 square foot exhibitor, Exhibiting in Mexico and has developed the first software for measuring exhibit performance – Measurement Made Easy. His White Paper – The Future of Healthcare Exhibit is in Learning was a landmark study defining best practices in this vertical industry segment.

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      Practical, useful, targeted - great presentation with summary charts and checklists.

    Book preview

    Strategic Trade Show Success - Marc L. Goldberg

    For most of the past 47 years, I have been a hands-on manager and business owner. Like most operating line management, I ran full time from pillar to post trying to get the day-to-day job done. Planning and creating were I know I have to get to it activities. In the early years, when the time came to pack ourselves off to a trade show, the inevitable happened. We became slap-dash in the development of our plan; our execution looked as if we just showed up and follow-up was done in a haphazard when I have time manner, if at all. After all, we had a business to manage.

    In 1979, it became apparent to me that, if we, like many other organizations, were to commit an overwhelming majority of our marketing communication budget to exhibiting, then we should do it more thoughtfully, with more deliberation, and in a more focused, strategic manner. The concepts and ideas that are expressed in this text have been developed over the past four decades of hands-on management experience, and hundreds of trade shows through our Marketech 360 work.

    In our original reference workbook, Small Doesn’t Mean Second Rate; we focused on issues that small exhibitors have to address when using trade shows. The interest in small exhibitors does not stem from my 5’4 stature (and getting shorter by the year) but as a result of the years of competing against the mega-exhibits" and never going home disappointed. In this text, we have taken small exhibiting to the next level of performance to include larger space exhibiting, as well.

    Strategic Success focuses on the how to’s of being strategic, not just logistics

    During my career marketing industrial products, I have found that applying large amounts of creativity, having a genuine commitment to planning the event thoroughly, managing the booth staff to execute on the floor aggressively, and following up thoroughly, we could be just as successful as our mega-exhibitor competitors. This is what strategic trade show marketing is all about.

    Bob Francisco, the late President of Admore, Inc., probably said it better than anyone… Trade show marketing accelerates the selling process. Combine that with this text’s theme. It takes three actions to be successful in exhibiting: Plan completely, Execute aggressively and Follow up thoroughly", and you will be miles ahead of those that just show up.

    Acknowledgments

    Many thanks go to several key people. My wife, business partner and best friend Mim, who has read this text so many times, she quotes it to me. She has always given me great advice and counsel and supported me throughout this writing journey. To Jane Lorimer, who encouraged me to complete Small Doesn’t Mean Second Rate, in the first place, and has motivated me to address the market as a whole through this rewrite. To Larry Crumlish, Dallas, TX, who has supported me from the beginning (1985) to reach a little bit farther in the development of quality exhibitor education materials. To Mike Thimmesch, Director, Lead Generation and Industry Relations, Skyline Exhibits (now retired, too) who has encouraged and supported our instructional writing for over a decade. To Dee Silfies, Chief Learning Strategist, The Exhibitor Magazine Group, who has always encouraged my creative thoughts and pressed me beyond what is offered today. Many thanks to our talented and creative daughter Lauren Zeligson, Sprout Design and Mark Leavitt, Creative Matters, our graphics partner for over 30 years.

    Moreover, most of all to the clients, exhibitors, seminar participants and Marketech360 associates with whom I have worked over the past 28 years who have given me insight into creative ways to address the trade show marketing and event medium.

    Marc L. Goldberg, CME

    2016

    How to use Strategic Success

    Strategic Success was not designed to be read cover-to-cover like a Jack Reacher novel. It was created to be used strategically. Once you have identified a need, find it in the table of contents to access a possible solution. Each of the section headers has a mini-table of contents, as well. It is a resource to address different issues and solve specific problems in planning, executing and following up leads to close sales, increasing name awareness and positioning yourself in your market.

    The manuscript is divided into the three strategic elements of exhibiting: Planning Completely, Executing Aggressively and Following up Thoroughly.

    All the forms, tips, and checklists are reproducible for your convenience.

    Should you not find the answer, give me a call at 508/398-5547 or e-mail me at mgoldbg@gmail.com, or contact Holly Stevens, President, Marketech360 (holly@marketech360.com / 205/807-5952) and we will find the answer together.

    Special Note:

    This reference workbook was developed as a result of personal experience in the field of trade show marketing and through the generosity of writers, publishers, and associates who gave permission for their works to be paraphrased, referenced or used in full. The purchaser of this reference text is free to reproduce the forms, worksheets or guidelines for their own use, but is prohibited from photocopying or otherwise reproducing any portion of this text for use by others without specific permission from the author or the original publisher.

    Becoming Strategic

    Strategic Trade Show Success

    The ribbon is cut, the show opens, you walk through the entrance doors and become mesmerized by the dazzling 40’ x 40’ island booths with towering back-lighted displays. The 30’ x 100’ Multi-kiosk presentation of a Fortune 500 company with video walls and multi-tiered demonstrations and the 40’ x 40’ two-story theater offering of a European mega-giant are equally impressive. As you meander through the hall and view the various size exhibits, all are there for one reason, to sell something at some time. Some may close deals on the floor. Most will have to wait to follow up after the show and close sales at a later date. However, how many actually sat down before arriving at the show and asked, why are we exhibiting?, who are we targeting?, what’s our message? and what do we want as results after the show closes? Not nearly enough.

    Strategic Success requires you to look beyond today’s norm. It means combining the traditional physical exhibit with new technology and approaches that create an even more memorable experience than was generated in the past. Getting past the clutter of the masses of information that is offered to trade show and event visitors is the key. Capturing their attention, keeping their attention, creating memorability and having them take your call for action when they have a need are the challenges.

    Today, the industry is facing some issues. In 2013 & 2014, the International Association of Exhibits and Events issued a white paper, Future Trends Impacting the Exhibitions and Events Industry detailing these issues:

    Generational Trends

    - How to relate across all generations of employees, customers, and clients.

    - How to reach, engage and teach the younger online generation about attending or exhibiting at trade shows and the value of face-to-face marketing.

    - How to hire, train and motivate college graduates as employees and to also keep them in the industry.

    - How to continue to keep current customers from aging out of the industry or leaving the industry because they do not see the value of modern, digitally- enhanced trade shows. This is due to long exposure to the historical trade show models (note: this includes exhibitors, attendees, and trade show veterans). The industry needs to educate customers on how to view a modern trade show or event as integral to advancing their marketing and advocacy agendas.

    Technology Trends

    - How to recognize that communication tools to reach and influence population segments will continue to include all traditional media, plus current and emerging digital and social media formats.

    - How to anticipate the direction and magnitude in the larger marketing community and our own industry as the technology wave sweeps throughout society.

    Experience Trends

    - How to customize the trade show marketing experience for each generation to maximize participation and engagement.

    - How to train younger generation to effectively interface with the older generation.

    - How to communicate to all generations the use and benefits of face-to-face marketing.

    What is the strategy? How is what you are doing differently from what 90% of all the other exhibitors are doing?

    - Very simply, strategic trade show marketing is an approach that moves away from the philosophy of if we build it, they will come.

    - It is delving deeper into the dynamics of the interaction between the buyer and seller and not taking anything for granted.

    - It is exhibiting to create awareness for your company, its products or services, and gaining consideration in markets that most buyers see as homogenous. It is driving preference for your products and services against your competitors and converting buyers who are being satisfied by some other provider.

    - It is asking and answering four basic strategic questions before you have one more meeting or execute one more element in your plan.

    The four strategic questions that every exhibitor needs to consider in the planning process are:

    1. Why are you exhibiting? What are your objectives in exhibiting?

    2. Who is your target audience? Whom do you want to reach and will they be in attendance?

    3. What do you want to communicate to your target audience? What is the message you want to resonate with your target audience and will it stick?

    4. What is your measure of success? How will you know if the show was a success?

    In Strategic Success, you have to look at all eight trends that are shaping the industry and address them in your planning and execution:

    - You are simultaneously facing five generations of visitors who view, learn and internalize information differently. Your program has to be strategically designed to reach all of these represented audiences.

    - You are in an era of Big Data requiring the collection of every available piece of information about your show visitors to plan for effective and efficient Follow-up and maximize your show investment’s return. Knowing what you need and how to collect it, analyze it and then use it to get to the next step in the selling continuum is the key.

    - New technologies are available through hand-held devices, RFID, smartphone, and tablet technology that allow you to capture relevant visitor data efficiently. With the advent of more vendors offering more technology, you will be faced with both technological and financial decisions that will impact your show’s return or ROI.

    - Social media is a fact. It is a business driver and has become a major factor in attracting qualified visitors to your exhibit’s portals. You will have to define the resources, both human and financial, that you will devote to attracting targeted audiences through social media vehicles such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter.

    - Virtual events allow you to reach out to non-attendees and attendees alike to extend the strategic reach of your physical event. Those that could not attend your event or visit your exhibit can experience the educational and expo offerings remotely. Attendees have the opportunity to participate in events that time and schedule did not allow when on site. Non-attendees can also be reached via social media that can be used as a stand-alone communication or used to bridge to a virtual event or even link the two events.

    - The increased acceptance of virtual events, hybrid events (live events + virtual events = hybrid events) and social media will create year-round communities for your brand, your products, and services. You will be able to communicate throughout the year with targeted buyers and prospects via these 24/7 vehicles.

    - Although the younger generation is the connected generation, they still want and need face-to-face communication. Exhibitor education and booth staff training in successfully interacting with this generation will be mandatory.

    - Private events continue to be a part of most marketers’ strategic line-up due to the benefits of these hosted events. They continue to extend the strategic objectives that are started in the live exhibition by providing a proprietary environment with controlled agenda and attendance.

    This book is organized by the mantra that has guided exhibitors worldwide: Plan Completely, Execute Aggressively, and Follow-up Thoroughly.

    Why Exhibit?

    - 99% of marketers say they find unique value from trade shows they cannot get from other marketing mediums. (Source: CEIR The Changing Environment of Exhibitions)

    - 81% of

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