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Innovative ways to maximise Trade shows ROI

Awadhesh Kumar

— 2 min read

Few months back at the Worldfood Istanbul, I bumped into Mark, an old friend who runs a mid-sized beverage company. He looked exhausted, slumped in a chair at his booth on the last day of the exhibition. I started discussing his overall experience and how much he is going to make of this trade show jokingly and he said “Spent around $20,000 for this, but I don't know even if I am going to recover my investment from this trade show.” Honestly I wasn’t expecting this, so I thought to understand where things went wrong and invited him for a coffee the next day.

Over the coffee discussion, my take ways:

  1. He is still running the show in old fashioned way, focusing on just exhibiting at trade shows rather than strategies to meet trade shows objectives
  2. No clear objectives, success metrics and tools to measure
  3. He is just hoping customers will come to him, rather than planning & executing to make customers come to him
  4. No marketing activities before the trade shows to make the target audience aware of your participation
  5. Random visitors coming over the booth based on their judgment of booth’s design and display rather than the real information of his company and products

So here is my laid out plan for him:

Getting Clear on Goals

When I asked what your main objective was for this exhibition. His response was "Getting leads, obviously." But that's like saying you're going fishing without deciding what fish you're after or what bait you'll use. We broke it down into specific goals:

  • Meeting potential distributors for his new organic energy drink
  • Finding retail partners in Istanbul
  • Connecting with ingredient suppliers

The Pre-Show Magic

Activities that Mark needed to plan and do before the event:

  1. Create buzz about his participation on the exhibition on all his marketing and sales channels
  2. Start capturing interests, scheduling meetings and leads details before the event, this sets up the pace for the event
  3. Keep at least around 20% of his overall budget for the pre-show event marketing
  4. Create a really good content for the pre-show marketing

Showtime: Making Every Minute Count

Here's where it gets interesting. Instead of the traditional "stand and smile" approach, we developed what I call the "Experience Triangle":

  • Connect: Create an engaging digital experience with QR codes for:
    • Instant company and product information access
    • Real-time visitor feedback
    • Seamless contact information exchange
  • Capture: Implement simple but effective lead capture systems using mobile apps
  • Follow Through: This is where most of us drop the ball. Use AI technology to understand each lead and send personalized emails before your customer leaves your booth. 

The Post-Show Success Formula

Here’s the long battle. You need to understand, all of them are not going to be your customer. The strategy should be to understand each of your leads and put them into multiple brackets like potential buyers, potential distributors or suppliers and build your pipeline for each category of stakeholders in your industry. Prompt followups in a personalized and contextualized way using AI enabled solutions is the only way to maximize the conversion.

The Sweet Success

Fast forward three months. Mark implemented these changes at his next show in Boston and the results are:

  1. 45 solid leads (up from usually 10-15)
  2. 3 distribution deals
  3. 1 major retail partnership

The Secret Sauce

Let me be straight with you - success at trade shows isn't about having the biggest booth or the fanciest technology. It's about:

  1. Having clear, focused objectives
  2. Making genuine connections
  3. Build unique experience for your visitor
  4. Following through consistently

A Simple Action Plan

Here's what you can do right now:

  1. Look at your next show date
  2. Define your objectives
  3. Set up your tools to measure ROI
  4. Pre-event marketing
  5. Design an engaging booth experience
  6. Prepare your follow-up strategy

Remember, trade shows are no longer just about showing up - they're about showing up prepared. With the right strategy and tools, your next trade show could be your most successful one.

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