If you are new to the trade show scene you may be experiencing some sticker shock, but the good news is that you don’t really need to break the bank in order to grow your business through successful trade show presentations. Here are seven tips to help you get the most from a limited marketing budget.

1.  Why buy when you can rent?  For many companies, and for many different reasons, exhibit rental is an attractive choice. Click here to learn more about the benefits of trade show exhibit rental.

2.  Use Light Weight Exhibit Materials.  Freight & drayage charge by the pound and you can save a significant percentage in shipping if your booth setup is made from light weight materials.

3.  Free Gifts?  These items can be a budget buster.  Does every attendee really need to receive something? (Think adult ‘trick-or-treaters’)  Whatever it is, make certain the gift relates to your business in some way so the customers will think of your business whenever they use the item.  Better yet, create an ‘exchange’ where attendees provide information by answering qualifying questions in order to receive the handout.  Or, offer this item as a follow-up, sent by FedEx to only the most qualified attendees.

4.  Save on Transportation Costs.  Operational costs – shipping, drayage, install and dismantle (I&D) – are often over-looked or under-estimated by new exhibitors. It’s not unlike new homeowners forgetting about personal property taxes and mortgage and homeowners’ insurances.  Lightweight, easy-to-assemble exhibits can add up to big transportation savings… so can these transportation tips:

• Know the weight of the shipment so you can verify the bill.
• Instead of shipping several small boxes, consolidate in one large box or shrink-wrap on one pallet.
• Make one shipment to the convention center.  Inbound shipments are charged a minimum rate (usually 100 lbs) regardless of actual weight.
• Specify your carrier for outbound shipments from the hall. If you don’t the drayage contractor can divert your shipment to another carrier resulting in much higher transportation costs.
• When scheduling labor avoid paying weekend and overtime I&D costs.
• Don’t scrimp on shipping containers.  It’s expensive to redo graphics if they get damaged during shipping.

5.  Offer Relaxation to Attendees.  Walking on concrete for hours can wear out the hardiest attendee.  Create a ‘relaxation station’ in your trade show booth offering bottled water and padded furniture (but keep the booth staffers from lounging too long!).  The smell of warm cookies and hot coffee will certainly attract attention.  This is cheaper than free gifts and could be a lot more effective, if tied directly to your brand message.

6.  Less is Better.  Keep your graphics short and simple – the billboard concept. Detail the benefits to the customer in discussions with your booth staffers.  This allows you to re-use graphics from show to show, rather than printing specific messages, which will add up.

7.  Cooperate with a Complimentary Business.  Before signing up for booth space check with another local business your size which offers products complementary to yours and see if they would like to share a booth space.  This might allow you access to a better location in the show at a reduced cost; and you both may gain leads as add-ons to one another’s products.

There are even more ways to stretch your trade show budget shared in the What’s Working In Exhibiting white paper. To pick up your free copy full of great tips and tricks, click here. 

Skyline hosted webinars called “What’s Working In Exhibiting” on July 13th and 14th, 2011.   Thank you so much for your participation and your questions about how to get the most of of trade shows, be it promotions, show selection, booth staffing, lead management, and more.

As promised, here is the pdf of the actual presentation content.  (If the pdf viewer is not loading on your browser, you can go to the actual pdf file by copying and pasting this URL into your browser window: skyline.com/images/webinars/WhatsWorking_July-13-2011_Webinar.pdf

During the seminar we offered several items.  If you did not attend or did not ask during the webinar, just click to request your copies:

• Measurement Made Easy CD computer program
• What’s Working In Exhibiting White Paper
• Info on Skyline’s portable displays and modular inline exhibits
• Info on Skyline’s custom modular island exhibits

Thanks again for attending!

By now you’ve no doubt noticed the rising gas prices you’re paying at the pump.  Our industry is no different and has seen a dramatic rise in trade show transportation costs due to the high cost of crude oil and gas prices.

While we strive to use the most economical means of transportation, almost every carrier is adding a fuel surcharge to our shipments.  Sometimes this fuel surcharge can be as high as 15%!  Unfortunately there’s not a lot that can be done to lower the costs, but we have a few examples and suggestions that may help you save on your exhibit and trade show related shipping costs.

Ship early!

If you’re shipping tradeshow displays, large or small to a venue, always plan your shipments in advance so you can use the least expensive mode of transportation.  Ground or deferred shipping carries the best rates and will save you over the long haul.  Plan your shipments well in advance and give your exhibit house enough notice to enable ground transportation to be utilized.

Avoid last minute shipments

It’s inevitable that you’ll have last minute shipments of collateral materials or product that may not have been ready with your exhibit freight.  If possible try and avoid separate shipments into the show venue.  Many exhibitors Fed-ex or UPS shipments in small pieces to shows.  This costs you in two areas.  Obviously the higher cost of express or expedited shipping hits your budget, but the “hidden” or unseen charges that you get socked with onsite such as “small package handling” fees levied by show decorators can really run your freight and handling costs higher than necessary.

If possible consolidate your shipment with your trade show exhibit and ship it together to achieve better economy.  If a split shipment cannot be avoided it’s best to palletize it and ship it with a common carrier to avoid small package handling fees.  Be careful to hit your “target move-in date” to avoid additional fees for freight arriving on the wrong date.

Shipping Literature? No don’t do it!

Many exhibitors still adhere to the old rule of shipping thousands of pieces of literature to their shows.  We recommend a thorough review of your literature and collateral policy.  Studies show that over 80% of literature handed out at conventions never makes it out of the show city.  A smart way of getting information into your prospects hands is to consider a USB flash drive with pre-loaded information about your company or products.  This solves two problems!  First, it provides a “give-away” item that’s very useful to almost anyone.  Second it allows you to “package” the information onto the device thereby saving both printing costs as well as the higher cost of shipping literature to shows.

We hope these suggestions are helpful in helping you keep your transportation and show site costs under control.

Learn more exhibiting best practices by getting the What’s Working In Exhibiting white paper.  Request your free, 32-page copy by clicking here.

If you have been hesitating about buying your trade show exhibit, Uncle Sam is giving you a nudge to buy your display this year.

The U.S. Government recently passed new legislation that lets businesses fully expense in 2011 the cost of capital equipment – such as a trade show display.

So rather than depreciate the cost of the display over several years, you can expense it all in 2011.  That means no waiting for most of the tax benefits of investing in capital equipment.

Why is Uncle Sam being so generous?  To keep the economy energized. To incentivize businesses to invest in their own business.  To create demand for durable goods that require workers to build.  In a word: Jobs.

Some exhibitors rent their exhibits because it allows them to expense their costs in the same year as the trade show, and to avoid the need to amortize their display purchase over several years.  However, if you buy this year, you will get similar tax advantages as renting your exhibits.

Obviously, you don’t make a purchase based just on tax policy.  However, there are real marketing benefits to buying your exhibit now.  Purchase your exhibit now, and get:

• A stronger visual impact that attracts more leads that will grow your sales and profits
• An updated look that’s more aligned with your current branding
• Marketing messages more in tune with today’s buyers
• An exhibit shaped to better fit your functional trade show leads
• New, lighter weight exhibit structures that lowers your operating costs and increases flexibility
• A rejuvenated booth staff proud to stand in the new booth

These add up to powerful benefits for buying a new trade show booth this year.  It appears that Uncle Sam was on to something!

To learn more about the 2011 tax incentive program, click here or consult with your tax advisor.  Also, in case you or your colleagues need more help justifying a new display, here are 15 more reasons to buy a new trade show display.

You may be surprised to discover that the ease and cost of your exhibit installation and dismantle depend in part on how and when you ship your materials to the trade show.  In most cases, you can either ship direct to the trade show floor to arrive on the day of your arrival, or you can ship days or even weeks in advance to a designated advance warehouse.  Understanding how each of these shipping solutions works is vital to a smooth trade show event.

Advance Warehousing Is Offered For A Reason

Convention or trade show sponsors don’t have to offer advance warehousing, but most of them do.  Why?  Because they’ve learned over the years that designating a specific warehouse area for delivery and storage of all booth displays and exhibits minimizes confusion and ensures that everyone exhibiting can quickly and easily get their materials onto the floor and set up without incident.

Although some people prefer to ship direct to the floor, this isn’t usually the best solution.  For one thing, you could run into problems if your shipment is one of fifty others arriving the same day. Imagine having to wait around at your designated booth location for hours because there are a dozen other delivery trucks ahead of the one holding your supplies.  You could wait a long time and still discover that your shipment isn’t complete, putting you in a tight spot that’s not easy to get around.

Be Kind To Your I & D Team

The I & D (Installation & Dismantle) teams waiting to help you assemble your trade show booth are in high demand on that first set-up day.  You don’t want to be the troublesome customer who has them sitting around waiting for hours because you “know the delivery will be here any time!” If you use advance warehousing, all of the materials you shipped ahead of time will be waiting at your booth location, ready to be assembled as soon as you and the I&D team arrives.

You’ll also be able to quickly check to see if all your components are present and in good working order.  If by some chance part of your display is missing, you’ll have more time to get the situation resolved than if your items are arriving late in the day.  You’ll have more time to resolve any minor glitches when you have advance warehousing.

Save Some Money With Advance Warehouse Shipments

We all have to stick to a budget when we’re putting together trade show exhibits or convention displays.  If you ship your booth materials to an advance warehouse, you can save a significant amount of money.  Shipping direct to the exhibit floor can cost three times as much as ground shipping because you’ll need to ship at the last minute for proper arrival.  On the other hand, paying only ground shipping rates can add valuable cash in your pocket that can be used more constructively elsewhere.

With so many positives to shipping your trade show materials to the advance warehouse, it’s a wonder anyone still chooses to spend the extra money and take a chance with delivery directly to the exhibition floor.

Get more planning and logistic tips with The Trade Show Marketing Idea Kit, 75 pages of checklists, worksheets, timelines, and articles.  Request your free copy by clicking here.

Skyline hosted webinars called “What’s Working In Exhibiting” on January 12th and 13th, 2011.

A big thank you to all the attendees for their interaction during the events.  Both Bill Lauf, my co-presenter, and I were grateful for the number and quality of the attendee questions.  We may answer a few of those questions again as future posts in this blog.

As promised, here is the pdf of the actual presentation content.  Click on the blue “Fullscreen” link below to see it full size.

During the seminar we offered several items.  Click to request your copies:

• Measurement Made Easy CD, Trade Show and Event Calculator
• What’s Working In Exhibiting White Paper
• Info on Skyline’s portable displays and modular inline exhibits
• Info on Skyline’s custom modular island exhibits

Thanks again for attending!

Skyline hosted the webinar called “10 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Exhibiting.”  We most recently gave this webinar in April, 2011.

A big thank you to all the attendees for their interaction during the events.  Both Bill Lauf, my co-presenter, and I were grateful for the number and quality of the attendee questions.  We may answer a few of those questions again as posts in this blog.

As promised, here is a link to the seminar presentation.

During the seminar we offered several items.  Click to request your copies:

• Measurement Made Easy CD, Trade Show and Event Calculator
• What’s Working In Exhibiting White Paper
• Info on Skyline’s portable displays and modular inline exhibits
• Info on Skyline’s custom modular island exhibits
• Sample trade show lead card (just ask for the lead card)

Thanks again for attending!

Here are 16 tips based on what I’ve learned as a veteran trade show manager who knows (and loves) working on both the client and vendor sides of the fence.

Before the Trade Show: Plan, Plan, Plan

1. Budget methodically:  Create a budget allocation worksheet for every show. Use it as a task-management checklist. If you don’t have a template, get one from your exhibit house.
2. Set objectives: One sure-fire approach is to align trade show goals with existing corporate goals. Make sure your objectives are SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely).  Limit the number of goals to narrow your focus and improve chances for success.
3. Streamline logistics: Add hours to your day with logistics and inventory management software (check out www.ExhibitForce.com). Some exhibit companies provide this tool to customers for free.
4. Facilitate selling: Work closely with the sales team to find out what’s needed for in-booth appointments.  A private meeting area?  A photocopier?  A laptop with appointment-scheduling software?  Ship any necessary documents (e.g. contracts) and carry a thumb drive as backup.
5. Design simply: Your exhibit should boldly and clearly communicate who you are, what you sell and why prospects should buy from you.  The keys to attracting traffic and creating a lasting impression are to use eye-catching images and short, compelling messages.
6. Use lightweight materials: Everyone knows large, heavy items are costly to ship.  This is also true for your trade show exhibit.       If you’re still shipping a heavy dinosaur of an exhibit, calculate annual drayage, shipping and storage costs.  These costs are slashed by switching to lighter, modular materials and fabrics that pack into fewer, lighter crates.  Apply savings to additional shows or directly to the bottom line.
7. Go modular: Custom modular booths create a multifunctional pool of inventory that can be reconfigured into multiple shapes and sizes.  One booth can service many industries, divisions, product lines and footprints.
8. Leverage social media: Social media websites like Twitter, WordPress, Facebook and LinkedIn offer unbelievable potential to drive qualified booth attendance.  Start small – but start.
9. Design a standard lead form: A short, simple survey is all you need to prequalify leads.  The trick is to apply the same survey across the board.  Standard questions enable the ability to merge and sort data, analyze statistics and draw conclusions.
10. Manage lead distribution: Determine where the “leads list” will be stored, how and to whom leads will be distributed, and how they will be actioned.  With only 21 percent of trade show inquiries actually pursued (www.ceir.org), chances are your competitors are NOT following up – which is your golden opportunity.

At the Trade Show: Execute Well

11. Self-reflect: What are you doing right and wrong at trade shows?  Write down the top five things you do well and the five things you most need to improve.  Think back to the moments of frustration and insight you had during the course of the year and turn those insights into a plan.
12. Huddle every morning: An hour before the show, quarterback the pre-show staff meeting.  Be highly detailed; set realistic goals for the day.  Review key messages and talking points.  Institute a competition to reward staffers for the most leads collected (qualified leads, that is).  Collect cell phones and store them safely.
13. Huddle every afternoon: After the show, spend 10 minutes debriefing.  Distribute hot leads.  See what worked well (or poorly) during the day.  Announce the lead collection winner.  Identify necessary adjustments for the next day.
14. Ensure timely follow-up: If you collect e-mail addresses, use Web-based tools like Constant Contact or Exact Target to send thank you notes right from the show floor.  While personal contact by a salesperson is mandatory, be a brand ambassador and close the loop quickly.

After the Trade Show: Measure and React

15. Post-show report: Create a standard format.  Be diligent about completing a report for every show.  One client told us, “We write a show report after every event including photos, costs, attending staff, lead quantity, competitors, etc.  The report serves as next year’s plan and provides metrics for comparison.”
16. Measure performance: Many metrics can be measured: Media coverage, brand awareness, competitive activity.  What’s paramount, however, is filling the sales pipeline with qualified leads, of which a percentage will convert into revenue.  Obsess over results.  Adjust where you can.  If you don’t have a written trade show plan, develop one now (get help if necessary).  Lead management doesn’t have to be complicated or costly, and the rewards can be monumental.

While I certainly hope these tips enhance your company’s success, I also hope they improve your own quality of life at work, at home and on the road.

You can get almost 100 more exhibiting tips from fellow trade show marketers like you in the 32-page What’s Working In Exhibiting White Paper. Click here to get your copy and learn more ways to improve your results and stretch your budget.

It doesn’t happen every now and then.  It doesn’t even happen 50% of the time.  As anyone who has ever been in a position to compete for exhibit design and build projects can tell you, it happens almost every time.

Potential customers of ours (and others) continue to ask Exhibit Consultants to compete for their business — but without considering the one criteria their company should be most concerned with.  Unfortunately, not enough attention is paid to the true cost of exhibit ownership and management, even though this is the true barometer to your company’s long term ROI — especially in today’s economy, when budgets weigh heavy in the decision making process, as they should.

Why aren’t we getting the right information to make good trade show exhibit purchasing decisions?

If you have ever been a decision maker for your company’s exhibit purchase I am sure you evaluated many factors in the process.  Overall design, capabilities of the exhibit vendor, responsiveness of the vendor in the bidding process, experience of the vendor in your industry, among other things.

Then, of course, you have the budget.  Most new build design projects have a budget for the exhibit purchase.  In addition, a good percentage of those projects will also ask for some costs on other services such as install and dismantle for the show the booth is needed, and perhaps what it will cost to store it.

Yet, most objections to any of the submittals I have been involved with in my 10+ years in the industry are only related to the cost of purchasing the exhibit.  They love our design, they value our customer service, but then I hear things like, “You were on the high side” or “Everyone was in the same range.”  Buyers seem blind to the true long term impact these decisions can have on an organization’s marketing team.

Research shows that as you move into larger exhibits, companies have full intention of using their new exhibit purchase for events occurring for the 3-5 years following the purchase.  In most all cases, the costs of owning and managing that exhibit will surpass and in many cases far exceed the initial purchase price of that exhibit.  Many people are probably aware of this.  You are likely aware of this.  Yet, I have not seen an opportunity cross my desk once that asks for the potential vendors to estimate the cost of buying and using the exhibit over the course of the next three years, based on the client’s proposed exhibit schedule.

Comparing the true cost of owning a traditional custom exhibit to a custom modular exhibit

If I propose an exhibit that costs $80,000 and you are an exhibitor that goes to 10 shows each year (as the show schedule increases, so does the impact of the cost of ownership and management) and another vendor offers to beat my proposal by $10,000…what good does that do you if round-trip shipping, drayage and the install and dismantle of the exhibit they are proposing costs 30% more?  The promise of cost savings on just the purchase price is a mirage of sorts.  Let’s look a little more closely to clarify the point:

Exhibit A (Custom Modular Exhibit):

$80,000 for the initial purchase
$3,150 average cost per install and dismantle
$3,360 for roundtrip freight on average per show
$2,520 for drayage (based on weight) on average per show

In this example, for a 10-show schedule, the costs (purchase and use) are as follows:

$170,300 through end of the first year
$350,900 through the end of 3 years
$531,500 through the end of 5 years

Exhibit B (Traditional Custom Exhibit):

$70,000 for the initial purchase
$4,500 average cost per install and dismantle
$4,800 for roundtrip freight on average per show
$3,600 for drayage (based on weight) on average per show

In this example, for a 10-show schedule, the costs (purchase and use) are as follows:

$199,000 through end of the first year
$457,000 through the end of 3 years
$715,000 through the end of 5 years

Notice the “cheaper” exhibit’s true cost over a 5 year period!  In fact, it doesn’t even take 1 year for the “more expensive” custom modular exhibit to be less expensive.  Considering the total cost of ownership (purchase AND use costs), the custom modular exhibit saves $28,700 in the first year, $106,100 after 3 years, and $183,500 after 5 years.  And yet it is not uncommon for me to hear “their exhibit was a few thousand dollars cheaper than yours.”

Keep in mind, we have not factored in many other things such as storage, in/outs (process of preparing exhibits in storage for an upcoming event), ability to reconfigure and operate as a different-sized exhibit (say a 20’x20’ can reconfigure and be used in a 10’x20’ event).  These factors add even more savings and value from flexibility that heavier exhibits usually don’t have.

This has gotten much longer than I intended it to but I am very passionate about trying to do what is best for my clients’ long-term business strategy.  ROI is dominating money allocation in business today and the wrong exhibit purchase can handcuff your future face-to-face marketing efforts.  The best advice I can give isn’t necessarily to buy from me but to make sure when you do buy, work on preparing budget requirements and comparisons that will best prepare your business to make a sound and informed decision, not one based on an upfront cost that in many cases does not tell even the smallest bit of the story.

Want to know more about the advantages of custom modular exhibits? Click here to get your free copy of the white paper, The Trend To Custom Modular Exhibits, written by Tradeshow Week magazine.  Based on survey responses from over 170 exhibitors, the white paper reveals exhibitors’ preferences for custom modular exhibits’ lower operating costs and greater flexibility compared to traditional custom exhibits.