TRADE SHOW ROI: More than a Face in the Crowd

BY JENNIFER EGAN AND GINNY ROBINSON, THE POWDER COATING INSTITUTE

In 2012, The Powder Coating Institute (PCI) decided to go beyond past marketing efforts and incorporate trade show participation into our marketing strategy. This decision was made for several reasons—PCI wants to expose powder coatings and our members to other industries. Trade shows are a great way to make face-to-face contact with new prospects and current members, they give opportunities to create and build upon new relationships and partnerships, and it allows collection of quality technical information from exhibiting companies.

As a trade association and host of our own industry trade show, we have heard much feedback on trade show participation. When developing a marketing strategy and 5- Year Plan, PCI and its members believe it is very important to be involved with trade events and we would like to share why.

PCI puts real purpose to our mission to promote powder coatings, to support and promote our members, enhance marketing efforts for our association, and to gain awareness of our annual trade show. For example, in 2012, PCI displayed at The Waterborne Symposium, The Electrocoat Show, The Minneapolis Paint & Coating Expo, The American Coating Show, the Design2Part Show, and SUR/FIN. Most of these events are not powder coating events, but we saw real interest from attendees who do powder coating and didn’t know about us, who have heard about us and are meaning to join, who want to get into powder coating, as well as those who never knew all the capabilities that powder coating offers. Attendees and exhibitors from all of these events were very eager to learn more about everything we represent – from becoming a member, our current members, training programs, to publications and events offered through The Powder Coating Institute. We found participation in each exhibit significantly enhances the awareness of PCI and definitely found a return on investment.

Face-to-face interaction is a critical tool to get your sales message to prospects and current customers. At one of the trade events PCI attended, we met a sales manager who indicated that his exhibit at the show was very successful. Although this particular event didn’t have a large amount of traffic, he made quality contacts, one of which became a sale. He said one contact, one deal, one sale paid for his entire exhibit, personnel travel and expenses incurred at the event. If he hadn’t been there, he would have missed out on the opportunity in gaining a new customer that will potentially lead to more sales.

At several of the industry related shows, we have run into the same exhibitors and attendees. What does this tell us? Companies are out there attending various events. If you aren’t there, you are missing out— missing out on opportunities you could be losing to your competitors.

If you are at the right show that directly targets your market (not just a show with a lot of attendees), have the right marketing message that stands out, provide the products or services customers want and have valid contact information to follow up, you have greatly increased your ability to sell. Finally, if you track your leads and follow up properly then ultimately you know the sale can be attributed to that event. This is trade show ROI.

Trade shows have changed throughout the years—there are more shows, rising costs, less staff, and new ways to expose your brand through website, web advertising, social networking and more. In past years, booth traffic was flowing and you didn’t have to do much to get people to visit your booth. Now exhibitors must make their presence known and determine strategies of how to get attendees to their booth. Today, many visitors know the booths they are going to visit before they even get there and have done TRADE SHOW ROI their research online. Exhibitors invest thousands of dollars being at each of these shows and shouldn’t just cross their fingers and hope things will work out. It’s almost like planning a wedding but forgetting to send out the invitations.

Currently, companies are more optimistic and looking forward to engage personally with potential customers or partners, learn something new, and gain exposure. In fact, “more than 80 percent reported feeling “confident” or “extremely confident” that their trade show program will achieve better results in 2012 than it did in 2011. But the biggest indication that we might be midway through recessionary recovery is that exhibitors plan to attend 12 percent more shows in 2012 than they did in 2011, including a 17.5-percent net increase in national shows and an even more impressive 38.7-percent increase in international exhibitions,” (EXHIBITOR Magazine).

For PCI’s annual trade show, COATING 2012, great attention and effort has been paid to helping exhibitors get coatings professionals to their booths. There’s a buzz about the marketing program and the tremendous efforts made to draw quality attendance. The marketing campaign this year will reach an estimated total of 1.6 million people. We have also made it easier for exhibitors to promote their participation at the event, from Custom Web Banners, Exhibitor Guest Passes, and Custom HTML eBlasts, which are all free opportunities.

There is no doubt trade shows involve work. Budgets must be set, booths must be designed, products and services ordered, staffing assigned, not to mention creating a strategic marketing plan to bring quality attendees to your booth. This is why it is so important to attend those shows that are targeted to your product in order to bring a positive return on investment. Some factors considered when deciding to exhibit may be demographics, trade associations involved, traffic flow, and costs. Determine where you will get the best quality sales leads, industry exposure, partnerships or alliances, the best education, networking, recognition and outcome to qualify your return.