The pressure to reduce your company’s marketing spending – while also improving results — is greater than ever.  At the same time, deadlines loom and tend to force quick decisions.  Making an informed, educated buying choice is the difference between either empowering you to execute your trade shows with agility and efficiency for years to come — OR — doom you to trade show Hades.

What you should know as a first time trade show exhibit buyer:

• Be sure your goals dictate your purchase
• Never buy on price alone
• Remember to consider long run costs
• Don’t wait until the last minute

1. Be Sure Your Goals Dictate Your Purchase (not the other way around)

To maximize your investment in a trade show booth it’s important that your entire team, from marketing to product to the CEO, agree on the goals long before committing to a purchase, or even to a particular event.

Some examples of well articulated goals include:

• To obtain leads or clients (define these specifically!)
• To develop deeper relationships with existing clients
• To build brand equity and increase awareness
• To educate (x number) of people about our company and products
• To support your industry or the people throwing the event
• To recruit new employees from our industry
• To court investors

Your goals will determine your strategies, and your strategies will drive decisions for your exhibit booth purchase, including layout, design, graphics, traffic flow, product demonstration plans, promotions…well, everything!

If you’re having trouble getting a consensus, consider this exercise:  Force your team to select their top three goals and assign a percentage of importance to each.  Then ask your team to select, hands down, the most important single goal.  This approach should yield the quantifiable data and buy-in you need to establish your goals…and move forward with your trade show display purchase.

A professional exhibit consultant will ask you to share your goals, budgets, marketing plans and current communications material.  After digesting all the information, you’ll be provided with a recommendation consisting of a price quote and design rendering.  It may take a few design modifications and quotes until the exhibit suits you perfectly.  When you’re ready to buy, insist that everything is in writing.

2. Never Buy On Price Alone (or, consult with a professional)

It is easy to fool yourself into thinking the lowest price is the best value.  But buying an inexpensive trade show booth can cost you more in the end – significantly more! You must be sure to consider these factors as you evaluate your options:

• Quality
• Reputation
• References
• Years in Business
• Success stories or case studies
• Ability to consult and partner strategically
• Availability of a local I&D crew in all the major convention center cities

We are big proponents of purchasing an exhibit from a local company.  Chances are the company has been around for decades and has a deep understanding of client needs and the industry at large.  In the old days, exhibits were custom-crafted, making them extremely expensive to build and maintain.  More recently,  exhibit “systems” evolved as an alternative to the high cost of custom craftsmanship and heavy wooden materials.

Today, there are multiple categories including portable, modular, pop-ups and lightweight metals & stretch fabrics.  All have their distinct advantages, and this is where an exhibit consultant can be very useful.  In the end, your exhibit consultant should help you maximize your exhibit marketing potential and help you avoid the costly mistakes you’re likely to make on your own.

If you plan to exhibit more than once or twice, chances are you’ll work closely with an experienced exhibit consultant for several years.  Shop around and base your decision on more than just price. Exhibit consultants have years of experience about design, marketing, graphics, and trade show tactics.  Their knowledge will help you avoid the pitfalls that most inexperienced trade show marketers make. And, there are lots and lots of expensive pitfalls.  Working with a knowledgeable trade show consultant will save you money over time.

3. Remember to Consider Long-Run Costs

• Can the design you’re considering be re-configured to a smaller or larger booth size?  There are lots of options these days enabling “modularity,” so that a single pool of booth property can be rearranged into new designs and configurations – and also re-skinned to communicate different messages to different audiences (or to update your brand message over time).

• Is the booth you’re considering made from lightweight materials?  Or, is it made from heavy wood or metals?  Considering that a large portion of your budget will be spent on drayage, shipping and storage, be sure to select the most lightweight design possible to ship

• Is the construction complicated, requiring extra labor to set-up and dismantle the exhibit?  If so, reconsider.

4. Do Not Wait Until the Last Minute

For certain, rush costs will be incurred as the delivery deadline approaches.  These costs are easy to avoid by simply planning ahead.  Enough said!

While there are always going to be risks associated with making a new investment, by following the suggestions above, your investment is much more likely to be one that pays huge dividends – and not remain an unfortunate liability.

For more ideas on exhibit design, as well as booth staffing, budgets and more, pick up the What’s Working In Exhibiting guidebook.  Request your free copy of the 32-page book by clicking here.

How important is it to measure and communicate the results of your trade show program?  Here’s how essential measurement is to your success:

• “If it can’t be expressed in figures, it is not science; it is opinion.”  - Robert Heinlein
• “What gets measured gets done, what gets measured and fed back gets done well, what gets rewarded gets repeated.”  - John E. Jones
• “In God we trust, all others bring data.”  - W. Edwards Deming

So yes, measurment is imporant.  That is why Skyline is honored to offer you an updated tool to help you measure your trade show program.

The 3rd version of the “Measurement Made Easy” Trade Show and Event Calculator CD program now gives you a place to record and calculate 20 different trade show metrics.  There are 5 measurements for before the show, to help you prepare, and 15 measurements for after the show, to help you measure how you did.

But like a bike with 20 gears, you may not need to use all of them.  So for this 3^rd edition, we highlighted the 7 metrics we feel are the most important:

Before The Show

1. Pre-Show Promotion

In today’s competitive trade show arena, you need to invest in promotions to get more attendees to cross from the aisle into your trade show booths.  This calculator helps you calculate your cost per contact from pre-show promotion, so you can see how much extra value promotions bring your program.

2. Attendance

Surprise: Your best shows may not be the biggest shows, but the shows that have the most people that fit your target market.  This calculator helps you delve deeper into each show’s audience to discover the shows that are the best value for you.

3. Estimated Budget

With this calculator you can quickly estimate for a show how much you might spend on key areas such as booth space, trade show displays, travel, show services, and more.  The estimates are based on industry average budget expenditures.

After The Show

4. Budget Versus Actual

So, how close to your estimated budget did you actually spend?  This calculator lets you compare what your actual costs to what your original estimates – and see where you had the biggest percent differences.

5. Cost Per Contact

This simple calculation lets you calculate how much each individual contact cost you after your entire show budget is added up.  Then you have a cost that you can compare against other ways to get face-to-face contacts.

6. Cost Per Lead

One of the most popular metrics, this calculator not only helps you calculate cost per lead, which is your total trade show exhibit program investment divided by your number of leads, but also track (and define) leads by quality, such as “A” leads, “B” leads, and “C” leads.

7.  Potential Return On Investment

While ROI is the ultimate measurement for most companies, it can take many months, if not years to close B2B leads with their longer selling cycle.  This gets you a viable number quicker, by considering lead counts, percent of sales-likely leads, average sales dollars, and exhibiting investment to get to a potential ROI.

There are also 13 more metrics you can measure, calculate, record, and report with this updated Measurement Made Easy CD.  And as with previous versions, the program allows you to record your show data, then print reports for management.

We are grateful for Marketech for creating this program and allowing us to share it with you.

Measure and justify your trade show program with the newly updated Measurement Made Easy CD.  Click here to ask for your free copy of this program.

Has anyone ever told you “It’s about quality not quantity”?   Although this saying doesn’t apply to all aspects of life, making quality purchases helps to ease your anxiety and prolong the life of your purchase, especially with your trade show exhibit.  When something is priced at a higher margin than other competitors, it is usually for a reason: quality materials, excellent craftsmanship, better warranties, and more.

Accessorize Your Brand With Quality

For all you fashion-forward exhibitors, this situation can be likened to that of purchasing a knock-off designer handbag.  Just because the consumer MAY be the only one who knows it’s not a true brand-name bag, does not mean that she is carrying a bag of corresponding quality. Compared to a real Dolce & Gabbana, the fabric of a knock-off  bag may have only a faint smell of leather, poor craftsmanship, lackluster lining, not to mention the buyer’s big, fat conscious yelling “FAKE!” It may look good from a distance, but up close the shoddy craftsmanship shows through.  Similar to enhancing your image through fashionable accessories, you want to accessorize your brand with a well-designed, quality graphic and trade show display.  The quality that makes your brand shine is in the details of superior craftsmanship and know-how. When you value saving a few dollars over quality in trade show exhibiting, you may not be the only one who notices.

You Get What You Pay For

We recently had a client looking to save a few bucks, only to find that her bargain hunting ways back lashed.  In search of a better deal, she decided to outsource her posters to a print shop; assuming the production would be just as reliable.  She unknowingly sent over designs with little resolution.  This resulted in poor quality images that couldn’t be optimized.  Rather than informing her that the images would be blurred, the company just went ahead and printed it!  This would have never happened under our supervision.  We always proof our designs, and would deny approval to create graphics out of images that fall below quality standards.  Since she assumed this was a simple project that could be completed with the same care for a cheaper price, she left zero time for error, and therefore had no posters to use in her booth space.

Learn Your Lesson

Before you base a decision on the quantity of money you may save, you must first guarantee the quality of your investment.  Don’t end up with the fake handbag that may look good from afar, but up close is a cheap, low-quality version of what it could be.  You put a lot of time and effort into your trade show marketing plan, and completing the process with a high-quality design and exhibit is the sure fire way to reap the rewards.

Quality trade show booths are just the beginning when you start exhibiting.  For more ways you can increase your marketing effectiveness, read the What’s Working In Exhibiting guidebook.  This 32-page white paper has almost 100 tips for exhibitors to boost their results and stretch their budgets.  Click here to request your free copy. 

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!