I know trade shows are expensive, and that they are harder than they were back in the glory days of the 80s and 90s.  I know it takes a consistent, coordinated effort to get good results, and requires time away from home.  But guess what – all marketing is hard, and has gotten harder, too:

Search Engine Marketing
Aiming to beat Google at its own game and get your company listed higher in search engine results?  While it’s not brain surgery, it’s close.  Doing it yourself is more than a full time job.  Or you could hire an SEO expert to improve your search results, but they may be basing their methods on what was successful last year or even years ago.  That’s because Google and their ilk hide how they rank websites, and to keep it really interesting, change their formula at will.

Print Advertising
You want to build your brand and generate leads with ads in trade magazines and business publications?  At least you will have fewer competitors, as many business marketers have fled print ads because of their lack of interactivity, engagement, and provable results.   Print readership has diminished in favor of websites, and print media’s online versions have further competition from bloggers.

Telemarketing
Trying to telemarket your way into lead generation heaven?  It’s tough to reach those pearly gates when Whitefang the gatekeeper screens your calls, if the target isn’t screening them herself with caller ID and voicemail.  Once you do get the elusive prospect on the phone, they are offended you are taking them away from their overloaded work day to try to sell them something.  And hang up on you.

Direct Mail Marketing
With higher postage and printing costs, you can no longer afford to profitably mail large quantities to drive large numbers of leads.  You can still mail profitably – but only by narrowing your list down to the best prospects.  Try for greater reach and watch your response rates plunge, because recipients now focus their attention on their ever-overflowing email inbox.

Email Marketing.
Email marketing offers great reach at a low, low price.  However, that low cost to entry fuels a barrage of email, email, email into recipients’ inbox.  Prospects tune out even the most enticing messages, if their I.S. departments haven’t already set up filters to screen them for them.  Response rates have plunged to a fraction of a percent.

Social Media Marketing
Learning the ropes on social media?  It’s easy to set up a blog, and accounts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.  It’s much harder to gather a following, and then get them to take meaningful action that creates business opportunities.  You’ve got to completely retool your marketing methods, because old school push marketing backfires here.  And once you think you’ve got a handle on social media, just like Internet marketing, it changes.

So the next time you find yourself a bit down because of the effort to market your company at trade shows, remember that at trade shows your buyer actually pays to travel to meet you in your trade show display, to see how you can solve their problems, and to lay their hands on your product.  There’s no ranking formula to unravel, no voicemail to curse, no wastebasket to catch your mailer, no spam filter to avoid triggering.  It’s just people meeting face to face.  That’s not so hard after all.

Want to make your trade show marketing easier? Click here to get your free 32-page What’s Working In Trade Show Marketing White Paper, filled with insights into proven methods for boosting your results and stretching your budget.

If you are reading this article, chances are you actually don’t think trade shows don’t work. 

Why?  Because, as two show producers recently told me, it’s exhibitors who most need trade show training that avoid it, while good exhibitors seek training to keep sharpening their skills. 

Don’t get me wrong – I know trade shows take a lot of work, and the costs are high.  But trade shows get you face-to-face with qualified buyers for much less than the cost of direct selling — value you can’t get anywhere else. 

Those same two trade show producers also know trade shows work, because they witness the difference between unmotivated and successful exhibitors at their shows.  Traci Browne even took pictures.

But if you really do think trade shows don’t work, let me ask you six brutally tough questions.  And please listen to the questions, with the thought, “Those who truly listen are open to change.”  

1. How do you select the trade shows you exhibit at?

• A)  Even though you grumble that they aren’t as good as they used to be, you still have the same trade shows on your schedule, because that’s where your competitors are, and your absence would make you look bad.
• B)  You choose shows based on where your target market will be, and willingly readjust your show schedule and booth size based on the ROI from each show’s leads.

2. How do you choose your trade show booth staffers?

• A)  You bring your drinking buddies with you, so after standing around all day waiting for the show to end, you at least can go bar-hopping together.
• B)  You pick staffers that actually want to staff the booth, who are approachable, client-focused, with good product knowledge and a great attitude.

3.  How proactive are you at getting traffic into your booth?

• A)  You shouldn’t have to do anything special to get attendees to cross over from the aisle into your booth, because you already paid the show to deliver those interested buyers to you.
• B)  To transform trade show attendees into booth visitors, you sent intriguing pre-show promotions with valuable offers, designed your trade show display with bold, compelling graphics, and trained your booth staffers to engage visitors in the aisle.

4. How do you spend your time in the booth?

• A)  Because you already are so sure that trade shows are a waste of time, you spend your booth staffing shift on your laptop, smart phone, talking with your fellow booth staffers, or wandering away from your booth space.
• B)  You know trade shows deliver a quality audience, so to welcome them you stand smiling attentively on the edge of the aisle, ready to engage attendees who show some interest.

5. When you return from the show, where do your trade show leads go?

• A)  On a corner of your desk, because you’ve got to catch up on all that real work that was left waiting while you were at the show. 
• B)  Into the hands of an eager, pre-assigned team member, who already has the follow-up letter and fulfillment packets ready, and who will quickly enter the leads into your database and forward them to the appropriate sales people, who know they are accountable for following up and reporting the results.

6. What are the most valuable things you get out of trade shows?

• A)  The few leads that were in your territory, the time spent with your best customer, and dinners on the expense account.
• B)  Besides the big pile of sales leads for the team, you get to take the pulse of the industry, learn about new competitive products, and gain a better understanding of your customers.

If you selected mostly the B answers that describe proactive trade show marketing practices, and still think trade shows don’t work, then trade shows may actually be a poor marketing medium for your company. 

But if you answered mostly A’s, then perhaps you’ve realized that trade shows aren’t the problem. Maybe you will begin to consider that there are proven trade show methods that you’ve overlooked, and that it’s finally time to re-tool your trade show program.  And make trade shows work for you.

If you’d like to make trade shows work better for your company, then ask for your free copy of our 32-page white paper report, What’s Working In Trade Show Exhibiting.  It is filled with insights and proven methods of over 170 exhibitors.  Click here to get your copy. 

The Value Of Trade Shows Increases With A Plan
Business-to-business marketers actually invest more money on trade shows than any other marketing medium.  That’s because trade shows give greater access and influence on buyers that cannot be replicated in anywhere else.

The Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR) revealed the following about trade shows:

• 88% of attendees have not been seen by a member of your company’s sales staff in the preceding 12 months
• Seven out of ten attendees plan to buy one or more products
• 76% asked for quotes and 26% signed purchase orders (average all shows)
• 72% of show visitors say the show influenced their buying decision
• 87% of attendees will share some of the information obtained at an exhibition
• 64% of attendees tell at least 6 other people about the event
• 58% attend only the show in which you are exhibiting
• 40% are first-time attendees
• It costs 22% less to contact a potential buyer at a show than it does through traditional field sales calls

However, while trade shows are worthwhile, they are not easy.  To get the most out of trade shows, exhibit marketers set measurable objectives, pick good shows, design effective exhibits, and more.  Read on to discover the main elements of a successful trade show marketing program.

1.  Setting Objectives and Measurable Results
The first step in planning your trade show success is to set effective and realistic trade show objectives and measurements for them.  Effectively planning your show’s objectives allows the rest of your show to fall into place.  Choosing the right measurement tools enables you to draw the correct conclusions following your trade show performance. 

The first question to ask is the most basic:  Why are you exhibiting?  While most go to generate leads and build awareness of their brand or products, many also exhibit to build relationships or introduce new products.

Once you know the reason you are exhibiting, set objectives based on them that you can measure – and then measure and report them.  Measurable objectives range from simple lead counts (200 leads at the XYZ Show) to Return On Investment goals (Generate $10 in sales for every $1 spent exhibiting at the XYZ Show). 

2.  Budgeting: Planning saves you time and money
Exhibiting can be complex.  A large part of that challenge is identifying how much to budget for related services.  The easiest way to estimate your overall budget for exhibiting at a show is to take the cost to rent the exhibit space, and multiply it by three.  So if renting a 10 foot by 10 foot exhibit at a show costs $2,000, then the overall show costs are usually about $6,000.

The biggest expenditures after booth space is staffer’s travel, hotel, and meal costs, show services such as installation and dismantle, the cost to build or rent your exhibit, and shipping. 

A large portion of show services costs is called drayage, which is the cost to bring your exhibit and crates from outside the show hall to your exhibit space.  Sometimes it can even be as expensive as the cost to ship your exhibit from your city to the show.  The trend for exhibitors is towards lighter weight, more custom modular exhibits that lower costs like shipping and drayage. 

Planning avoids rush charges and lets you figure out how to do the most shows with the fewest exhibit properties.

3.  Select The Right Trade Shows
With over 13,000 trade shows, conferences, expositions, private and business-to-business events in North America, featuring 1.5 million exhibiting companies vying for the attention of over 80 million attendees, it can be daunting to select where your efforts are best spent. However, there is a method to help you find the best opportunities to market your organization at trade shows.

To start, select the shows you want to exhibit at only after you have set your trade show objectives.  Then dig in to do some serious background research.  The best bet is to look at the trade shows in your industry and carefully weigh the options.  Talk to your fellow employees — what shows have worked in the past?  Where do sales people see the customer’s needs leaning?  Look at who is going to be there.  Talk to your current and prospective customers — is this a show they will be attending?  While you may exhibit well at your large industry show, also consider smaller shows that have a higher proportion of people likely to be interested in your products or services.  You can find shows online to pick from at www.tsnn.com.  Also consider exhibiting internationally.

4.  Space Selection: Where and How Big?
The average trade show has over 400 exhibitors, so how do you choose the best booth space for you?  Most shows give space-picking priority to the exhibitors who have been with them the longest.  Yet some studies have found that where you are in the show hall has no effect on the amount of audience you receive to your booth.  For every veteran exhibitor that requires a space in the center of the action, or at the front entrance to the hall, or near their biggest competitor, there are veteran exhibitors who flee from the same locations.  All the same, the size of your booth space is a very important decision, where you must weigh the need to stand out from your competitors with a large booth, and yet having enough budget to exhibit at all the worthwhile shows for your company.

5.  Trade Show Exhibit Design:  Make Your Exhibit a Marketing Tool
Why does exhibit design matter?  Because well-designed trade show booths are so effective at cutting through the trade show clutter and getting your message to your target audience.  The average trade show attendee will spend 7 to 8 hours on the floor over a period of 2 to 3 days visiting an average of 25-31 exhibits.  This leaves 5 to 15 minutes per visit – just 5 to 15 minutes to make a lasting impression that will give you an edge over the competition.

Create an exhibit that works as a true marketing tool.  Make sure your exhibit graphics say who you are, what you do, and what is your benefit to prospects.  When you state those clearly, and with bold inviting graphics, you’ll bring in more visitors – and more qualified visitors.

Your exhibit is more than a three-dimensional ad.  It’s actually a temporary workspace, filled with booth staffers there for hours or days, and visitors there for just a few minutes.  Increase productivity by giving them enough space to work in, and by designing around their needs, be it for gathering leads, demonstrating product, meeting with key people, or storing their personal items.

6.  Get More Traffic With Trade Show Promotions
Trade show promotions are the secret weapon of the veteran trade show manager.  That’s because, when done right, trade show promotions work so well.

Consider these two items:

1. The average trade show has over 400 exhibitors, where the average attendee will visit about 21 exhibits, and that average attendee walks into the show with a list of 75% of the exhibits he/she wants to see. That means you have to get on their dance card before the show.
2. You can boost your trade show lead counts by 33% with trade show promotions – even thought they require a much smaller percentage of your budget.

So, trade show promotions are money well spent.  Pre-show promotions are the things you do before the show to make attendees want to visit your booth.  At-show promotions are the activities and trade show giveaway items you do during the show to bring in more attendees into your exhibit. 

Just be sure to pick promotions that bring in your desired target audience, not just anyone at the show.  And don’t just give things away – get information about prospects in exchange that will help you qualify and prioritize your leads.

7.  Train Your Booth Staff So They’re Comfortable At Shows
85% of the positive feelings visitors have are due to the staff.  Your booth staff is responsible for drawing in your customers, effectively engaging them and creating leads.  Because of this, it is important that you select the most effective staffers that your company has to offer.  If they are sales people, you have to train them to adapt their selling style to the trade show floor.  If they are not salespeople, guess what – they can still do extremely well, given the proper preparation.

Trade show staffing is uncomfortable for almost everyone at first.  You will give your booth staffer greater comfort and confidence by training them to understand and follow a 4-step booth staffing process:

1. Engage: 30 seconds
Start the process by stopping attendees.  Prepare and practice questions that won’t get a yes or no answer.

2. Qualify: 2 minutes
Determine if the prospect is worth presenting to … and what to present.

3. Present: 5 to 8 minutes
Demo on just the prospect’s needs, not everything you know. Prepare for common objections and questions.

4. Close: 1 minute
Lead card complete? Agree on the next step and go on to the next lead!

8.  Lead Management, Not Lead Neglect
Astoundingly, almost 80% of leads generated are never followed, according to CEIR.  Rather than sending your hard-fought trade show leads into the abyss, strive to be part of the elite 20% that actually follow up on their leads!  We’ve heard horror stories of exhibits pulled out of storage to prepare for a show – only to find the leads from the previous show still packed with their trade show booth.  What a tragedy! 

Rather than just sending a business card from the prospect on to your field sales reps, provide and train your staffers to use a lead card.  It’s a half sheet of paper that has check boxes to the most common qualifying questions, and room for notes about what the attendee said in your booth.  Your sales reps will be much more likely to follow up on a lead when they know what to say, and that it’s worth the call. 

Also, think of your first day back from the show as the last day of the show.  Have your lead fulfillment packages prepared ahead of time, so you can send your responses right away. 

9.  Measuring Results Improves Future Performance
Once you return from a trade show it is important to measure its success.  Why?  Because while trade shows are a great marketing medium, you still have to prove the value of your individual program.  This information can be used to report to management the effectiveness of the show and to improve exhibit performance for future shows.  Success can be measured by simple lead counts, or better yet, by the return on investment, or whatever objectives you set when you started your trade show program.  

By tracking your results from show to show, you can make informed decisions about which shows to continue, expand, contract, or cut.  And when you are armed with data proving the value of your overall trade show program, you can maintain – and even expand – your trade show marketing efforts.

Step Up Your Trade Show Marketing
That’s a lot of ground to cover in just one blog post.  But it’s a good plan to strengthen your trade show marketing, all in one place.  I hope it helps you boost your results out of trade shows, whether you are looking for more leads, better relationships, a stronger brand, or simply sales, sales, sales.  As always, share your thoughts in the comment box below.

Want more ways to improve your trade show marketing?  Click here to get your free 32-page What’s Working In Trade Show Marketing White Paper to give you insights into proven methods for boosting your results and stretching your budget.

Want a well-defined job description?  Then be an accountant.  Want to enjoy a variety of activities, both within exhibit marketing, other marketing, and outside of marketing?  Then aspire to be an exhibit marketer.

That’s one of the insights from the new white paper, The Evolving Role of Exhibit Marketers.  For part of this research study, over 170 exhibit marketers answered questions about what their job entails, including what they do themselves, delegate, or outsource.  Read below for a summary of how they answered, and see how their jobs compare to your own.

Exhibit Marketers: Different Tasks, Different Levels Of Hands-On Involvement
Event marketers perform a wide variety of marketing and non-marketing tasks to help their organizations gather sales leads, build their brands, and achieve their marketing objectives.

Pre-show marketing and planning

• In terms of planning, more than half the exhibit marketers surveyed take personal responsibility for:  
  • Event selection: 71.5%
  • Travel: 66.3%
  • Logistics: 55.6%
  • Staff training: 51.7%

• Pre-show marketing has become increasingly important.  More than one in three exhibit marketers take personal responsibility for:
  • Pre-show marketing emails: 39.8%
  • Schedule in-booth meetings: 37.3%
  • Pre-show direct mailers: 36.5%

• About one in five (19.5%) currently handle their own online social networking to reach attendees (Twitter, Facebook, etc.).  This aspect of the marketing mix is certain to increase if community building proves to hold a competitive advantage. 
• Over the last two years, one-quarter of exhibit marketers (24.8%) say they have been spending more time on social media.

At-show

• On average, exhibit marketers taking part in the study represent organizations that exhibit in 18 shows and sponsor 4 annually.
• More than half (51.5%) go to over 80% of the shows and events they manage.
• More than half the exhibitors (57.6%) said they man the booth at over 80% of the shows and events they manage. 
• Exhibit marketing is more than just manning the booth.  Exhibit marketers take a personal role in:
  • At-show promotions: 53.8%
  • Providing in-booth demos: 42.3%
  • Speaking at educational seminars: 29.8%

Post-show

• More than one in three (37.1%) do their own lead follow-up.  Sixty percent delegate the responsibility in-house.

Other Marketing and Non-Marketing Activities

• Other marketing activities that exhibit marketers are responsible for include:
  • Email marketing: 66.1%
  • Direct mail: 64.2%
  • Corporate communications: 63.6%
  • Product marketing: 63.6%
  • Public relations: 57.6%
  • Market research: 50.9%
  • Sales: 50.3%

• More than half take part in non-marketing activities such as setting budgets (58.8%) or servicing customers (54.4%), while nearly half are active in sales (48.1%), and 31.9% interview and recruit employees.

One of the obvious, yet “aha!” insights gleaned from this research study was that exhibitors with inline trade show booths consider their job to be more strategic (69.5%) than island exhibitors do (49.4%).  That makes sense, because exhibitors in smaller booth spaces are often from smaller companies, where a higher-titled person is doing trade shows along with many other higher-level tasks to market and grow their business. 

So how does this compare to your job?  Are you doing all these things yourself, too?  Or do you have help to get it done, either in-house or outsourced?  Let us know in the comments box below.

Learn more about how your job compares to your peers by getting your own copy of The Evolving Role Of Exhibit Marketers , the new 36-page White Paper from Skyline Exhibits and Tradeshow Week Magazine.  Get your free copy by clicking here now.

While on Twitter reading tweets from fellow business marketers recently, I was pleasantly surprised to see several people in a short time praise trade shows as a valuable experience for them, either staffing their trade show booth or as an attendee. 

So I collected them into one set to share them with you: 

These marketers liked how trade shows generate sales leads, energize and motivate them, and achieve marketing success.  And while a few people also shared that trade shows are hard work and long hours away from home, they recognize it’s worth the effort for the serious business results their trade shows generated. 

Here are the “thumbs-up” parts of the tweets that caught my eye:

• “…had a great day at a trade show…”
• “Getting lots of good business…”
• “Successful week and it’s only Wednesday!”
• “…an all-candy expo was just about as great as you would think it would b.”
• “Have some good leads.”
• “Real energy – and real swag!”
• “Another great trade show completed!”
• “Had a successful trade show this past weekend.”
• “We had a successful trade show yesterday…”
• “Off to an industry trade show…these always inspire and motivate me.”

I hope your next trade show is also successful.  If it is, tell the world in a sweet trade show tweet!

Want to hear more about how your fellow trade show marketers feel about the rigorous, yet fullfilling role they play as trade show marketers?  Click here to get our new, 36-page white paper, The Evolving Role of Exhibit Marketers.

For a limited time, Skyline Exhibits is participating in a member drive for the Trade Show Exhibitors Association.  Skyline clients and prospects can get a TSEA trial membership for only $99, about 2/3rds off the regular membership price of $295. Offer good until July 12.

Why is Skyline partnering with the TSEA on signing up more members?  With your trial TSEA membership, you get access to exhibitor education, resources, and connections to other professionals like you.  But it’s more than that. 

Over the last two years the TSEA has significantly expanded their exhibitor advocacy activities.  The TSEA has been very proactive at getting show owners to listen to the real issues facing exhibitors with show labor and drayage practices, housing practices, independent show audits, and more.  So we think the TSEA is working hard to make trade shows an even better value.  

To get your heavily discounted trial TSEA membership, complete the form attached to this article, including the name of your local Skyline Account Executive as your referrer, and send the form to the TSEA.

This is a very limited time offer – the membership drive only goes until July 12^th, so you must claim your trial membership by then to get the $99 price.  Click on the blue “fullscreen” text in the Scribd bar below to view the full document. 

Ask people about trade shows and you’ll provoke a strong reaction:  they either love them or hate them.  Me?  It’s complicated.  I love trade shows … most of the time.  Here are 6 reasons I love trade shows, and 3 reasons I hate them:

1.  I love to talk with customers at trade shows
At a trade show you have the opportunity to talk face-to-face to more customers in one day than you could in a month or more in the field.  And while talking to hordes of customers is great from a sales standpoint, it’s just as valuable for a marketer like me.  You get to listen to so many clients talk about their needs, challenges, pains, and goals.  If they love your company and products, they tell you, and tell you why.  If they don’t love your company they’ll tell what you need to improve.  It’s like a monster focus group, except you are simultaneously generating valuable sales leads.

2.  I love learning at trade shows
Today’s constant change requires constant learning.  And while I gain lots of new ideas and insights via the web, people I follow on Twitter, magazines and books, I get a more potent infusion of knowledge attending sessions at trade shows.  There is something about getting away from the office and its distractions that make these training sessions that much more impactful.  I simply absorb more when attending a live presentation.  You also learn what is the current state of the industry, as your body is an antennae receiving hundreds of transmissions a day answering the question, “How’s business?”

3.  I love the marketing challenge
Trade show marketing is the epitome of integrated marketing.  You bring together exhibit design, booth staffing, and promotions to create a memorable event that vividly engages your clients and prospects.  Guess what?  So do all your competitors.  So the thrill is devising and executing a theme that stands out and gets attention, yet is clear and concise enough to be quickly understood.  It’s a buzz when your booth is the buzz of the show floor.

4.  I love to see our worldwide network
At our main industry show I get to connect with our far-flung team members who have also traveled to the show.  I love to see friends from London to Los Angeles, Toronto to Texas, Memphis to Montreal, Canada to Costa Rica, and Frankfurt to Florida.  I enjoy hearing how they’ve experimented with new marketing ideas.  They are intelligent, passionate, caring, and just the people you want on your team and at your dinner table.  The only downside: during show hours I am focused on taking leads for them and can’t chat so much then. 

5.  I love to talk to competitors at trade shows
In your normal day-to-day routine you never see your competitors.  But at a trade show there are so many you are surrounded.  That’s a good thing: They are not your enemy, they are your community.  Your competitors share common goals, challenges, and interests.  They can also be funny with a capital FUN.  And networking with your competitors gives you deeper industry insights than you’ll get from talking only with your fellow employees. 

6.  I love the travel

Miami seen from Key Biscane, the day after a trade show.

When I fly to a trade show I always get a window seat because the view still astonishes me (such as Lake Mead on the way into Las Vegas).  And when I get there?  I try to tack a vacation day onto each trip, especially when good friends live there.  Memorable days include biking on Angel Island in San Francisco, strolling the beach at Key Biscayne in Miami, touring the art museum in Philadelphia (no, Traci, I did NOT run up the steps), and rollerblading the Lake Michigan waterfront in Chicago.  Each location has its own delicious flavor, and as a worldwide destination there is the blend of languages I also love to hear. 

That’s a lot to love, but it’s unfortunately not the whole story.  There are things I hate about trade shows:

1.  I hate time away from my family
While I am having fun at trade shows, that’s tinged with missing my family.  I miss the giggles, the growth, and the closeness.  Whether it’s getting the kids off to school in the morning or homework patrol in the evening, I hate leaving my wife to carry a heavier load while I am gone.  This year I will spend the 4^th of July in Shanghai instead of with them, and other years I’ve missed soccer games, school performances, and spent my own birthday over a thousand miles away from the ones I love.  And while milestone days are harder, every day away can suck.

2.  I hate the weight gain
Okay, this doesn’t happen at every show because I’ve learned to watch out for it.  But 8 years ago on a trip to Europe, where even bread and cheese is a culinary delight, I was astounded to find I was the Biggest Winner, putting on 11 pounds in 2 just weeks.  People often tell me I have a hollow leg and can eat whatever I want.  Not anymore, and especially at the tempting tables at trade show meals.  (So sorry, no more seafood buffet at the Rio in Las Vegas.)  Vigilence doesn’t taste as good, but it makes for less stress after the show.

3.  I hate the growing pile back at the office
Sure, we’re more connected now with smart phones and wireless internet in our laptops, but when you truly engage with the entire trade show experience (booth staffing, show floor walking, networking, classes), there’s little time to keep up with the regular workload.  And when you get back to the office after the show with that stack of leads, the pile on the desk competes with the quick follow up necessary to bring that trade show mojo to fruition.  (Which is why you must have an excellent follow-up plan in place.)

With twice as many reasons to love trade shows as to hate them, I’ll be doing trade shows for years to come.  What do you love about trade shows?  Hate about them?  Share your passions and pains in the comments box below.  I’d love to hear from you!

If you’d love to do better at trade shows, then ask for your free copy of our 32-page white paper report, What’s Working In Trade Show Exhibiting.  Click here to get your copy. 

Like others in the industry, I was surprised and saddened to hear that Reed Business Information-US was shuttering Tradeshow Week magazine and its website.  For 40 years Tradeshow Week has been a major source of news and industry statistics for the people who own and put on trade shows.

I will miss Tradeshow Week.  There are some great people there I hope will be able to land on their feet.  TSW research was extremely useful, be it on industry trends, show growth, show size, labor costs, and international exhibiting.  It was like having a top-notch personal research assistant on staff — for about $400 a year.

Most of all, Tradeshow Week did a LOT of custom research and publishing for Skyline Exhibits, partnering on 7 excellent white papers.  I’m proud of the trends and best practices we uncovered in each of these papers, which provide key insights to thousands of exhibit marketers of all stripes:

• Manufacturing & Industrial Exhibition & Event Marketing Trends
• Medical & Healthcare Exhibition & Event Marketing Trends
• Information Technology Exhibition & Event Marketing Trends
• Professional & Business Services Exhibition & Event Marketing Trends
• International Exhibiting Trends & Outlook
• What’s Working In Exhibiting
• The Trend to Custom Modular Exhibits

I’ve been looking for the reasons for the closure, and for the deeper meaning of it.  While some might think TSW’s closing is a harbinger of the fate of the overall trade show industry, I think it more to do with 4 other market forces, including the strength of trade shows: 

1.  A Stronger Competitive Magazine 

I mistakenly thought Tradeshow Week would always remain a healthy publication because they not only did made money on ads, they also charged around $400 a subscription.  However, Michelle Bruno recently noted that their subscription base had recently slipped below a thousand (yes, a thousand, that’s not a typo).

TSW’s high subscription price gave clear entry from Trade Show Executive, a free monthly magazine published by TSW alumna Darlene Gudea.  Trade Show Executive has grown to a much higher circulation, with over 5,000 subscribers to their thicker magazine. 

2.  Growth of the Internet

To keep themselves relevant in the internet age, TSW’s website has much of their magazine’s content online for free, although you needed a subscription to search the archives.  The record has been pretty clear: ads on websites don’t pay as well as in publications.

Plus, TSW’s flagship directory, the Trade Show Week Databook, had been challenged by TSNN.com’s free online database that has similar, albeit much less detailed info.  That probably forced TSW to put their directory of shows online, available for free, and lose more paid subscribers.

3.  Other Sources of Industry Research

Over the last few years, CEIR, the Center for Industry Research, has expanded their research beyond their usual value of trade shows core, to include research about the growth (or contraction) of the number of exhibitors, space, and attendees.  That research is right in Tradeshow Week’s wheelhouse.

 4.  Strength of Trade Shows and Events

This is the main reason TSW’s closure is not a bad sign for events.  According to American Business Media, there has been a shift in revenues for media companies from publishing to events over the last 15 years, hastened by the internet.  Look at IAEM’s Expo! Expo!  Attendance at the show that serves the same market as Tradeshow Week has remained steady with audited attendance in the 1,900-range for 4 of the last 5 years.

On LinkedIn there was an insightful comment (I can’t find it now — if it was your comment let me know!) that the magazines that survive are ones that support a trade show.  For example, there is a strong symbiotic relationship with Exhibitor Magazine and The Exhibitor Show:  Subscribers see ads, mailers, and emails inviting them to the show, and conversely, show attendees tell stories to the magazine’s writers at the show that feed future articles in the magazine.

So what does it mean?  It doesn’t mean that trade shows are terminally damaged – the same markets TSW covered are still well served by Trade Show Executive and Expo! Expo! , which is actually a trade show.  It just means that the traditional business model of magazines is threatened.  And that’s not really news; it’s only news when it strikes close to home.

At the start of the economic downturn two years ago, we asked top exhibit industry educator Marc Goldberg to share his best ideas on how exhibitors could survive, and even thrive, amidst the economic uncertainty.

Marc Goldberg, author of Successful Exhibiting Strategies in Uncertain Times

Marc’s reply?  That trade shows are definitely worth doing.  And that there are many proven methods to boost your trade show results, even in a recession.  Marc shared his justification for trade shows and his top exhibiting ideas in the White Paper we published, Successful Exhibiting Strategies in Uncertain Times.

Now, two years later, taking in account the toll the harsh economy has taken, and the opportunity for turnaround, Marc has updated the report.  You can click here to request a new copy.  Here’s the short form on what’s in it:

17 Strategies For Getting The Most Out Of Trade Shows

Face-to-Face Marketing is now the number one business-to-business marketing medium—why?

The business world has been radically changed and improved by the advent of electronic communication—e-mail, web sites, blogs, PDAs, and even “old” tech like cell phones allow us to very efficiently service many more customers than ever before.  This trend allows fewer client support people to serve more clients—faster, too.

That’s the good news. The challenge is that the central premise of all sales is that people buy from people they “like” and people they “trust”—always.  Like and Trust can be maintained electronically, but it has been proven time and again that customers need some Face-to-Face contact to really get to Like and Trust.  This is one of the reasons that Face-to-Face Marketing has become the number one business-to-business marketing medium.

The other reason Face-to-Face Marketing has become number one is the opportunity to see firsthand the offerings of various suppliers.  For example, if you are looking for services or products related to CRM there is a show called the CRM Summit which is chock-full of every possible provider in that space.  In just a few hours a buyer can get an up-to-the-minute overview and detailed information for the entire industry. From a seller’s perspective, if they are at the right event, they have the opportunity to efficiently expose their offering to a very high percentage of the prospects in that segment.

So what does it take to make Face-to-Face Marketing work?

1. The Plan—have a well-defined plan of what you want to do, what you want prospects to get from their experience, and how you will deliver.  A good plan underpins everything.

2. Pick the right opportunities—the right show or event will make all the difference.  Start by asking your current customers what shows or events they go to and why.

3. Have a great presence—the right trade show booth or graphics help prospects understand who you are, what you do and why they should care.  A great presence also includes having the right people work the event.

4. Follow up and evaluate—manage and measure your results.  A good CRM system is essential.  A plan for fast follow-up on leads and inquiries is vital.

5. Have a good partner—a good plan poorly executed is no plan at all. Find a good partner that can help with all the thousand little details that Face-to-Face Marketing presents.

In the current business climate it is more important than ever to build and maintain Like and Trust with our clients.  Face-to-Face Marketing is one of the best ways to do that.

Get more out of your Face-to-Face Marketing with the free White Paper, Successful Exhibiting Strategies for Uncertain Times. Click here now to get your copy.