When I’m planning my marketing campaigns for the year, trade shows are an integral part of my operation. Exhibiting can be expensive, as we all know, but here’s a few reasons why I place a high value on a booth space.
The ROI and engagement at a booth is obvious and easy to track . The rep at the show can keep a tally of exactly how many people come to the booth to talk about our products. He/she knows if they are a quality lead, a current customer, or just looking for samples. We can then compare that to our orders taken at the show and the weeks following to get a clear picture of our performance at the conference.
Even the times when orders are low, a good sales rep will still have collected names and phone numbers or email addresses for all the qualified leads. You absolutely cannot beat this value.
I like to think that the the cost of a booth is relevant to the cost of a print ad. They often cost about the same, but the booth provides tangible leads and detailed information on our customers or prospects. With a print ad, you never really know who is actually reading it or even seeing it.
It’s worth saying, though, that all forms of advertising serve a purpose and they all have their place.
Booths at conferences are a higher priority for me when budgeting because we get more out of them. Certain conferences perform better for us and that is something we’ve learned over time.
Resources like the ratings PodiatryMeetings.com publishes also assist us in making decisions and finding new seminars to exhibit at that we didn’t know about.