As seen in the August 1991 issue
of Telemarketing (now Customer Inter@ction Solutions).

Successful Marketing At A Trade Show Is A Two-Way Street: Part II

(Part I of this editorial appeared in the June 1991 issue.)

BY NADJI TEHRANI

Be sure that your booth graphics tell all attendees (in less than two seconds) what you do or offer. Why? Given that attendees are senior executives from major, growing corporations, they'll only have two seconds to decide whether or not to come into your booth. They don't have time to stand there trying to figure out what your company offers.

For example, some suggested sign copy might read as follows: "We Are A Top 50 Service Agency. May We Help You?" or "Telemarketing Software Is Our Business" or "The Leading Predictive Dialer Vendor." If the name of your company does not explain what your company does, it is vitally important that your booth sign provides this message. In all cases, large block letters supported with relevant, well-lit graphics with pleasing colors (i.e., yellows, warm reds, warm reddish-orange accented with a touch of magenta, aqua green and royal or navy blues) will encourage attendees to enter your booth. Otherwise, if they have to spend a lot of time to figure out what you do, while staring at an unattractive booth, you can bet they will walk by.

Remember, you and 100 other exhibitors are competing for the attendees' attention. The better job of marketing you do in advance, the more traffic at your booth. This is simply the logic behind trade show marketing.

That's why the companies that are aggressive marketers will always have a huge number of attendees at their booth throughout the entire duration of the show, regardless of attendance. On the contrary, those companies that do nothing to promote their participation in advance, and do not comply with any of the above, will not have much traffic.

It stands to reason that if attendees don't know who you are or what your company is all about, they have no reason to stop at your booth. Consequently, what you do in terms of aggressive marketing and advertising prior to the show is the key to success in exhibiting at TBT or any trades show.

In short, like anything else in life, from a trade show you get exactly what you put into it.

The Plain Facts About Trade Show Marketing
The Trade Show Bureau, a leading trade show educational organization, has conducted research on trade show exhibiting. Following are some of the Bureau's findings.

1. Trade shows draw quality audiences. According to the Bureau's research, 86 percent of trade show visitors have buying influence, and 59 percent plan to purchase within a year. Only 17 percent have previously been called on by an exhibitor's salesperson.
2. Trade show visitors spend quality time on the exhibit floor. The Bureau's findings show that over a two-day period, more than one-third of trade show visitors spend more than eight hours at exhibits, with the average visitor spending 21 quality minutes at each of 17 exhibits.
3. Trade shows influence sales. According to the Bureau, at one trade show, 90 percent of the resellers bought one or more of the product types on display within nine months after the show, and 91 percent planned additional purchases in the following 12 months.
4. New products and developments attract people to trade shows. The Bureau's research shows that 50 percent of trade show visitors attend trade shows to see new products and developments.
5. Trade show visitors hold top positions. Almost one-third (29 percent) of trade show visitors hold top management positions - owners, partners and presidents.
6. Trade show visitors have buying power. The majority (86 percent) of trade show attendees have buying power. Eighty three percent know exactly what they want to purchase.
7. Trade shows reach prospects for less than the cost of sales calls. According to the Bureau's research, in 1987, the exhibit cost per visitor at trade shows was slightly more than half the cost of a sales call.
8. Trade shows reach unknown prospects. Eighty-three percent of trade show attendees have not been visited by exhibitors' salespeople.
9. Exhibitors who place six full-page ads pull 56 percent more exhibitors than non-advertising exhibitors.
10. Booth personnel should be knowledgeable, friendly and approachable - not aggressive. Insufficient product knowledge is the major complaint among attendees asked to rate booth personnel. Another common complaint is overly aggressive salespeople.
11. Trade show leads reduce sales calls and closing costs. The research shows that the average number of follow-up sales calls needed to close a qualified trade show lead is only 0.8 and closing costs are reduced by almost 75 percent over closing costs without leads.
12. Larger exhibit sizes generate more traffic. The Bureau's research shows that the greater an exhibit's size in number of booths, the higher the percentage of show traffic that stops to visit.
13. Up to 33 percent of visitors to a booth were there as a result of pre-show promotion.
14. Over 50 percent of trade show leads don't require a sales call to close. For 54 percent of the orders placed after a trade show, a personal visit by a salesperson was not required.

In short, positively nothing produces a return on investment from your marketing dollars like trade show marketing!

(Please also read the "Publisher's Outlook" column from the January 1989 issue of Telemarketing magazine to learn more about bringing the right kind of people to your booth.)

Sincerely,
Nadji Tehrani
Publisher and Editor-in-Chief

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