It is possible to generate good trade show results from an inline exhibit. We've been telling our 3D Exhibits clients this for years, and now we have quantified results from our own trade show booth to prove it.
At EXHIBITORLIVE 2015, 3D Exhibits tried an experiment. We completely enclosed our 20' x 30' island exhibit for private meetings—and did all of our visitor engagement and qualification from a 10' x 20' inline exhibit. The result: We achieved roughly the same number of qualified trade show leads from our 10'x20' trade show exhibit as we had in previous years when we worked the aisles from a 20' x 30' display. And we were able to identify and disengage from the visitors who did not qualify as leads more quickly than we'd been able to do in the past.
The result was that we were able to invest more attention in the right visitors, and waste less time with the wrong ones. And we've already closed some new business!
Here's how you can achieve great results from your small trade show display:
1. Reach out to attendees pre-show. When we do trade show measurement for our clients, we often survey attendees during coffee breaks to ask them how they decide which booths they will visit. More often than not, they tell us that they identify 80% of their stops before they even get to the show. Knowing this, we made sure to get on the radar of as many attendees as possible through eblasts to the show pre-reg list, invitations to customers and prospects, press releases, magazine ads, blog posts and social media. We also used an online application to pre-schedule meetings.
2. Draw attention on the show floor. When we survey attendees on the show floor, the other thing they tell us is that they will stop at booths when they see something "new." Of course, what they really mean is that they stop when something catches their eye. So we made sure to create an active, attention-capturing environment that included vibrant electronic graphics and sweet treats to lure people over. (Note: people who stopped by for a treat but didn't meet our lead criteria were not included in our lead count.)
3. Design a trade show exhibit that represents your brand accurately. Even though it was only a 10'x20' display, we invested in a custom trade show exhibit design that integrated the same messages and graphic images as our website.
4. Select and train the right exhibit staff. We hand-picked our exhibit team members based on how well their skill set matched what we needed on the show floor. Interestingly the people who made the cut weren't necessarily our best sales people. But they were our best engagers. Then we delivered exhibit staff training to ensure that everyone understood both our overall objectives and their individual responsibilities. (And yes, our team did win the trophy for Best of Show Booth Staff.)
5. Choreograph the experience. We assigned specific roles to specific staff members. Our most outgoing team members were assigned with engaging attendees in the aisle and bringing them into our exhibit. From there our qualifiers asked more questions and implemented a qualification survey that eliminated the tire kickers and identified serious prospects. These qualified prospects were then invited to schedule a private presentation to discuss the specific service areas that they were interested in.
6. Customize the experience. Our qualification survey asked visitors to identify what products and services they needed to support their personal Journey to trade show success. We then used this information to customize the rest of their visit to meet their needs.
7. Let visitors options of how to engage. We recognized that not everyone would be able to invest 20 minutes in a private presentation. When an attendee wanted to learn more, but couldn't make the time commitment for a full presentation, our qualifiers used the monitors in the 10'x20' exhibit to deliver a quick overview of the services and capabilities that interested each visitor. Believe it or not, some of these leads have turned into RFP opportunities.
How have you achieved great results from an inline exhibit? We'd love to hear.
