Imagine you just got finished with a show, and on the surface, everything went very well. After some time, you receive an email from your boss asking how everything went, and you reply to him saying “everything went very well!!” This is not going to be an acceptable answer, what your boss wants is some solid analysis of the event because without some hard data it is not possible to prove that your show has succeeded in every single aspect.
The only way your management is going to believe that your event went well is by showing them the effectiveness of the show which is ‘returns’, more specifically your management wants to know how much money did your event made by investing their money into it and more importantly how is your “show” helping the company as a whole.
The procedure of recording and maintaining return on investment is not too easy and it can be very lengthy and tedious as well. It starts days before the event and can end months after the end.
Measuring Return on Interest
As the name suggests we are meant to calculate the ‘return on investment’ hence the basic formula for calculating trade show ROI is (Profit – Expenses) / Expenses. Now this formula may look way too simple, but remember that you won’t be able to get these numbers right away, you will have to complete full sales cycle before you will be able to determine how much profit in total you have generated.
Here are a few ways you can increase your Return on Interest
- Cultivate a Pre-Show Content Approach
To improve your show’s rate over interest, you need to generate excitement or hype beforehand because just having a great booth is not enough.
Here are a few ideas which will help generate excitement for your event
- Promote your Booth: The first thing you should do is target your audience and make sure they know how to find you. Distribute pamphlets, booth numbers or provide them with a map which can help your prospects find you easily.
- Provide your prospects with gifts: Your prospects should be given product demos, giveaways or perks of visiting your booth.
- Take advantage of Social Media: Using social media is one of the best ways to gain traction. Use hashtags that are relevant to your product and promote your show on different websites and social media pages like Facebook and Instagram.
- Target Popular Influencers: Having relations with an influencer can be very helpful for promoting your brand, products, and events as well. There is a really good chance that their audience will attend your event and you will get even more interaction.
- Make content according to the event theme: Your content and product design should be related to the theme of the event only then you will gain the maximum traction.
2.) Catalyze Media Coverage
As we all know for a fact that booth visits are the main source of the show’s lead generation. However, if the event is enough mainstream the host company will invite different news outlets, bloggers and industry leaders to provide media coverage.
Media coverage allows participants of the event to promote their services, brand, and products on a mainstream level. But you should be aware of the fact that there are going to be hundreds of booths at the event, to get the attention of the media towards your product or brand you will have to stand out and portray yourself worthy of the attention.
Here are some ideas which will help you gain the media’s attention
- Get a hold of the media list that will be visiting the event so that you can plan how to reach out to every media outlet that will be present there if you cannot get a list of these media outlets, try checking the names of the media coverage of previous years, there is a good chance that bloggers, influencers, news outlets, and other media outlets which visited the event previous years will visit the event again.
- After you have acquired the list of the media coverage outlets, now you must let them know that you will be showcasing your product at the event as well. Write them an email in which you will briefly introduce your company, product, and services. Then request them for scheduling a short interview for that day. By doing this you will secure a huge amount of traction for your product.
- Now it is very important to remember that the media will not care for your product unless it is newsworthy, media is always in search of stories. You need to present your product or services in such an innovative way that has never been done before. Only then the media will be interested in your product and only then your product will gain traction.
3.) Make your Booth Stand Out
Now, this is one of the most obvious advice but it is the most important. The only way people will show interest in or enter your booth is when you will make your booth stand out. Even when a prospect has entered in your booth the work is not over yet, now you need to keep the prospects interested and convert them into customers only then your return on interest will increase or improve.
- The most important thing which most people forget about is how you portray your product, make sure to get creative with the posters and pamphlets. Make sure that the prospects have a clear idea of what you are offering and why is it so important for them.
- Make sure to schedule product demos to portray how important and useful will the product be for the prospects. Other than that, make sure to distribute small samples or any giveaways to boost your conversions.
Why is it so Important?
Return on investment is very important for any business because it lets you know that whether your strategy is working, will improve over time or will not work at all. ROI is the only way by which you can identify the best marketing strategy. So, if you really want your business to grow you better start calculating those critical numbers.