A Riposte to Criticism Towards Trade Shows
In recent years, there have been more and more articles springing up, warning against the perils of trade shows and how they are going to destroy your finely balanced budget. They speak of how wonderful inbound marketing can be and the potential it has. Now, there is very little doubt that this kind of marketing approach is beneficial, but the idea that exhibitions should just be thrown to the wayside is a little overblown. It’s true, trade shows can be expensive, but only if you walk into it, cheque book in hand and willing to write one out to anyone who says they can help you to make it a success.
Exhibiting at trade shows is a challenge and there is no doubt about it. Those who fail and ultimately waste money are the inexperienced, newbie exhibitors who believe a fancy backdrop and a few glossy leaflets will equate to mega-money deals. The reality is that experienced attendees who have spent years on the circuit have learned about how to make a return on their fairly significant investment. For the relatively uninitiated, there are pitfalls in the exhibitions industry, however the case is the same for other forms of marketing and it is through skills and expertise that these can be overcome.
Quality Over Quantity When It Comes to Outreach
One of the major criticisms directed towards exhibiting is that your audience is limited. Even if you attend a major trade show where a few thousand people will be in attendance, this is short change in comparison to the millions which are available online. On the surface, this is true, so why then do so many businesses return to trade shows when there is a such a disparity in audience sizes compared to online? Simply put, it is because every attendee has the potential to be relevant. If you are attending the same event, then you can be sure that there will at least be some common ground for you to work from.
Online marketing can be like fishing in an ocean. Sure, there are millions of potential interested individuals out there, but being able to entice them is a significantly harder task. You can spend weeks, months or even years developing strategies to attract those 1% of individuals who actually want to do business with you. Even then when you get them through to your site, the whole deal hinges on the infrastructure you have laid down. If a page is poorly laid out, all they have to do is press that little red cross in the corner and that potential business is gone forever.
Trade shows provide you with the unique opportunity to interact with these clients, something which online marketing is still light years away from achieving. You might be a small business, but a bright idea and your passion showing through could be all that is required to secure a deal which will drive genuine growth in your business. Before you attend, arrange meetings with industry professionals you wish to meet in person. When doing business, a tweet or a short message just are not going to cut it.
Make The Most of the Experience
Exhibiting at trade shows will require you to be pro-active. If your planning consists of spending thousands on a fancy exhibition stand and then just standing next to it waiting for people to approach you, then you would be better off not attending at all. Trade shows consist of much more than just attendees milling around and chatting to stand owners. There are presentations held with leading experts in the field, meetings can be made beforehand to have a one-to-one conversation and frankly, the attendees simply do not have time to stop and chat with each stall holder.
While exhibition stands do their part to help you stand out somewhat, the crucial aspect of converting is going to come down to you and your team. There is no guarantee that everyone you talk to will be interested in your product, but having a conversation of what you do and how you do it can open up potential avenues which you may have never considered before. It is important to remember that trade shows are about much more than just sales.
Be Prepared
The biggest mistake that many businesses make which leads to a negative experience is not putting the necessary preparation in beforehand. Admittedly, it would be unproductive to commit months of your year to a single event. However, committing a large portion of your budget to an event, only to spend a few days working on your strategy is a good way to end up wasting it. At the end of the day, the style of your backdrop is not going to win you much business, so look towards large display boards, which are a much more versatile display which can then be re-used again.
Instead, commit your time and your budget to researching the event. Find out who is attending and shortlist potential businesses and clients who you think you will be able to work with. Waiting for this type of person to walk up to your stand is hardly going to harbour many results, so get yourself in front of them and pitch your ideas.
Like any kind of marketing, these methods take time and practice to perfect. Due to the up-front cost of exhibitions, it can be deterring when the first event does not go quite as planned. However, there is a good reason why exhibitions and trade shows continue to thrive and that is because there is a great deal of potential to be found. When done in moderation while you learn, exhibitions do not have to be a waste of money and can just as easily be done in conjunction with inbound marketing, rather than as a separate entity.
