A New Perspective on Tradeshows

I apologize for the lack of posting recently. June is one of the busiest times of the year for me--working in the IT B2B marketing industry. Also, in the past few months, I have been spending a considerable amount of time on re-assessing, researching, and developing a new approach to tradeshows and events. 

With the help of a book, I did a lot of things differently this year for our biggest industry tradeshow. The book is called Trade Show and Event Marketing: Plan, Promote, and Profit by Ruth Stevens.  I can't begin to tell you how this book inspired, taught, and guided me to do exactly what the title says - plan, promote, and profit.  It will be awhile before I can determine ROI (return on investment). However, right after the show, I was able to measure some of my ROO (return on objectives). By choosing measurable objectives from very early on in my plan, I was able focus on results. Here are some of the key things I learned from my research and the book:

• Understanding the value, strengths, weaknesses of a tradeshow
• How to approach tradeshows strategically
• How to choose objectives & measures
• The importance of  pre-event campaigns and post-event activities
• How to sell at the tradeshow (engage, qualify, present, capture information, disengage)
• How to prepare effective sales and/or booth staff training

I hope to dive into these areas later, but for now I'd like to recommend this book and a few other resources to anyone that does or is considering tradeshow marketing:

• PODCAST: B2B Lead Generation Blog - Tradeshow and Event Marketing with Ruth Stevens podcast - this is what interested me to dig deeper into the value of Tradeshows
• BOOK: Trade Show and Event Marketing: Plan, Promote, and Profit by Ruth Stevens
• TRADESHOW TIPS from Skyline Displays
  
• Exhibiting Success Newsletter - from the Tradeshow Coach

Comments

[Ruth Stevens]

I am so glad my book was helpful to you. As I researched this subject, I found that marketers are spending around $21 billion on exhibiting (in aggregate) and few have figured out how to set it up to demonstrate what value they are getting from their investment. So I wanted to help make it easier to put trade shows to their best advantage (they can be a real money-waster if used the wrong way), and to help marketers figure out the ROI.

I was also pleased to have my ROI formula applied by CEIR, IAEE and Exhibit Surveys in their new ROI calculator, which you can use for free (with registration) here: http://roitoolkit.exhibitsurveys.net/Home/Login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fToolKit%2fToolkitDetails.aspx.

[Display Booths]

Thanks for the post. I work for a trade show display company and will be sure to pass on these tools especailly the ROI calculator.