Trade shows provide opportunities to showcase your products, drive leads and sales, and stay up to date on industry innovations. Historically, trade shows and other in-person events have taken up the biggest piece of the B2B marketing budget. However, according to research by Forrester, only 18% of event technology providers say their clients can measure their return on investment (ROI). Surely, we can do better than that! The good news: Technology is available to lend a hand. This article provides a 3-step blueprint for measuring the value of your trade show marketing. You’ll also find surefire tips and tools to elevate attendee satisfaction.
ROI shows the value your company gets from participating in a show for the cost.
Costs include registration fees; travel; hotels; booth rental, design, and transportation; staffing; and marketing collateral.
Value comes from direct sales, contracts, leads, referrals, brand exposure, and more.
Virtual events showed the importance of tracking attendee behavior and demonstrating value. Now that live trade shows have returned, senior leadership expects to see the ROI of this channel, too. We know in-person B2B attendees are in decision-making mode. They take time from their hectic schedules to attend and gain insights that inform their buying decisions.
Event measurement quantifies the value of these interactions and helps you prioritize your investment and improve outcomes.
The most straightforward formula is:
ROI = (Net Profit / Total Cost) x 100
Suppose you spent $5,000 to participate in a show and earned $25,000 in revenue.
Total Cost = $5,000
Net Profit = Revenue – Cost
$25,000 – $5,000 = $20,000
ROI = ($20,000 / $5,000) x 100 = $400%
The event generated a return four times the initial investment.
This formula works fine for revenue goals, but tracking other outcomes gets more challenging.
For example, how do you measure gains in brand awareness or customer satisfaction? How do you track deals originating at the show but closing months afterward?
The answer: To show the value of your trade show marketing strategy with less tangible goals, follow this three-step blueprint.
First, determine the main reason you’re participating in the show. Is it to launch a new product? Increase sales? Educate customers and prospects?
Make a list of all your potential event goals. Then drill down to the most important one.
Let this goal serve as your guide to help define content, booth design, activations, outreach, and technology choices.
Create key performance indicators (KPIs) to support your goal.
A KPI is a “measure of performance over time for a specific objective. KPIs provide targets for teams to shoot for… and insights that help people across the organization make better decisions.”
To this end, effective KPIs are specific, measurable, and actionable.
For example, how many quality prospects will you add to your database? How much pipeline will the team generate?
Pro Tips:
But on the upside, shows now attract more senior-level executives with buying power.
When setting goals, concentrate less on volume, like the number of visitors to your booth. New ROI metrics emphasize quality, such as the level of engagement with target accounts and the progression of deals through the pipeline.
Innovative virtual and onsite solutions pump up attendee engagement and capture a goldmine of ROI data. By connecting the dots, you can gain deep customer insights from tools like these below:
Keep your eye on the goal.
It’s clear you have a wealth of options for delighting attendees with memorable experiences that can inform buying decisions. But avoid investing in event technology for technology’s sake.
Choose tools that tie data capture and measurement to your trade show marketing goal.
Take this example below:
Goal: Generate quality leads
What You Can Measure:
Sample Data Collection & Measurement Tools: Lead retrieval app, digital badging, mobile app for events, event check in app, CRM systems, event analytics, and ROI reporting software.
Measuring trade show ROI gets complicated when you patch together single-point solutions that don’t talk to each other. The problem? Data goes missing, and you get an incomplete ROI picture.
By contrast, all-in-one event management technology consolidates real-time data automatically. This includes onsite and digital activities throughout the event lifecycle. Graphics show at-a-glance the value trade show marketing delivers.
Result: All the event intelligence you need is at your fingertips, ready to pull up at a moment’s notice. You gain valuable attendee insights and a comprehensive picture of trade show ROI.
What about deals that originate onsite but close afterward?
Technology provides an easy fix:
Merge event data with your CRM and marketing automation systems. Then you can track buyer behavior for weeks, months, or even years post-event.
You’ll capture the buyer’s journey over the long term. And show with hard data how your trade show contributes to the company’s bottom line.
So now you know how to prove trade show ROI, but there’s still important work to do.
Follow up with leads right after or during the show. Take advantage of fresh attendee insights to customize value-added offerings. With post-event measurement and follow-up done, it’s time to start thinking about the next show. But you’ll improve your marketing strategy by leaps and bounds. Because you’ll draw on new data that shows exactly what tactics worked great and what needs improvement.
Use this intel to refine your approach for even more impressive successes to come.
Wrapping up
Ready to level up your trade show marketing, lift customer satisfaction, and contribute even more to your company’s growth?