After the Trade Show

NOVEMBER 18, 2019| SpeedPro Cleveland East

You’ve taken the time to order your trade show materials, display your booth at the trade show and (hopefully) meet new prospective customers for your business. Immediately after the event ends is typically the best time to reflect on the wins and losses of your most recent trade show or conference. Questions to evaluate your success should be centered around your booth setup, staffing roles and follow-up cadence. If you believe your trade show efforts were successful, you should be eager to do a thorough evaluation in hopes of having an even better trade show season next year.

On the other hand, if you didn’t have the trade show season you were hoping for, maybe this evaluation is the key to yielding better results next year. After evaluating the results of your trade show(s), take some time to brainstorm with the appropriate parties to figure out the best approach for your next trade show. 

• Sales & Marketing Follow-Up for New Leads
  Clearly, one of the main goals of any trade show is to generate more prospects which eventually will lead to more revenue. The best way to maximize your new leads is to map out a follow-up approach consisting of multiple touch points. Get connected with new leads on social media platforms, engage them through email marketing efforts and make periodic phone calls to uncover a potential need for the goods or services you can offer.  

• Booth Evaluation
  A big mistake when it comes to trade shows is not realizing when your booth is in need of an overhaul. This is an area where your local event and trade show printing partners at SpeedPro Imaging Cleveland East come into play. If you have any doubts or questions about the usability of your existing trade show display elements, feel free to get in touch with us.

  We may be able to offer suggestions for replacing certain elements of your display without creating an entirely new one (although we are happy to provide that for you too). If you have multiple trade shows a year, it’s probably beneficial to make these evaluations after each stop as opposed to once all of the trade shows are completed for the season. Doing so could provide better results than originally anticipated.

• Incremental Improvements and Customization 
  Once you’ve evaluated your booth to find out if anything needs to be replaced, consider making improvements around personalizing your booth to the location of the trade show. Additionally, if there are any changes in the audience from show to show, creating fresh new messaging that resonates with the audience is likely something you’ll want to consider as well.

  When it comes to making changes to a trade show display while on the road, logistical challenges can be expected. By working with SpeedPro Imaging Cleveland East on your trade show display you’ll have the advantage of utilizing our nationwide network of studios, allowing you to have elements of your trade show ready and waiting for you in the city of your next show.

• Closing the Loop
  The final step in evaluating your trade show success is by measuring the amount of traction you’ve received by visitors that were interested in your booth. This could be done by measuring sales from leads you’ve gathered since the event, measuring the amount of promotional items you’ve distributed, and by evaluating any increases in website traffic since the show. Following the trade show ask new clients how they heard of your company – and keep a record of how many new customers either saw your booth at the trade show or were referred to you by someone present at the trade show.

  Lastly, any new contacts that you’ve made at the trade show that haven’t ordered from you provide a great opportunity. These contacts should be a starting point for next year’s show. Keep these contacts on hand so you can make appointments for a meeting in advance of next year’s show. A more personalized opportunity to meet could allow them to learn more about your company’s goods and services that they may not have been aware of previously.  

Don’t let your next trade show pass you by without doing everything possible to put your best foot forward. By contacting SpeedPro Imaging Cleveland East today, you’ll be taking the first step in seeing the results you’ve been hoping for from your trade-show efforts. Stop in or give us a call once you’re ready to take your trade show display to the next level.