Tradeshow Success for Exhibitors: What Sales and Marketers Should Know

[00:01] Michael McNary: Welcome to Mimeo's Talk of the Trade. I'm Mike McNary. In addition to leading the sales organization here at Mimeo, I'm also interested in unlocking the secrets of sales and marketing. In each episode, I talk with creative leaders to find out how they approach problems like motivating sales teams, structuring the revenue cycle, and fitting product to market. At the end of the conversation, you and I have new takeaways to apply to our every day life. Let's jump in to today's episode. Hey, everyone, Mike Mcnary here with another episode of Mimeo's Talk of the Trade podcast. Excited about our episode today? It's called Tradeshow Success for exhibitors. What Sales and Marketers Should Know. For our episode, our guest is Nicole Bowman. Nicole is the VP of Marketing and Communications at International Association of Exhibitions and Events, IAEE. Nicole, it is great to have you on the show. How are you doing?

[01:04] Nicole Bowman: I'm good. Thanks for having me today.

[01:06] Michael McNary: Why don't we start off with you in IAEE. For those in our audience that don't know much about your organization, tell us a little bit about it and your role within IAEE.

[01:17] Nicole Bowman: Sure. So IAEE is a trade association. Our members are trade show organizers and suppliers that support that ecosystem. We've been around since 1928, so we're coming up soon on our 100-year birthday. So that's kind of exciting. But our sole focus at IAEE is to support show organizers, exhibitors attendees, anybody that comes to and supports a buyer seller marketplace to produce those events efficiently and effectively. We also manage the Center for Exhibition Industry Research, which is CEIR, and that is a research foundation that is solely dedicated to producing research and insights on the B2B exhibitions industry in North America. Also, we work with the Exhibitions and Conferences Alliance, which is a DC based 501 organization made up of ten industry associations. So we do a lot of lobbying efforts and legislation efforts for the B2B industry in DC.

[02:29] Michael McNary: Covers the whole gamut there, and coming up on 100 Years is really impressive. So congratulations to you and everyone at IAEE. Tell us a little bit about your role within the organization. You have all these varied interests under the umbrella. What is it that you concentrate on from a day to day standpoint?

[02:46] Nicole Bowman: So I manage all of the marketing and communications for IAEE and CEIR, and then I do some marketing work for ECA, which again was the Exhibitions and Conferences Alliance. We work a lot with our members in producing member driven insights and examples that others can use and learn from the exhibitions industry tradeshow organizers. It's a very tight knit community. While there are competitors in the space, they are, I'll say few and far between. And everybody just wants to see everyone succeed because events and event revenue tend to be, most of the time, more than 50% of an association's revenue. So it's very important to know what's going on in your industry, in your market vertical, what others are doing, who you can learn from. And so we create those communities and those learning environments for members to come together and collaborate.

[03:44] Michael McNary: Sounds like a great resource. And especially like you're saying, if such a high level of revenue contribution comes from these events, what's your favorite part about the work that you do, Nicole?

[03:54] Nicole Bowman: When you produce events, you get, in a sense, an immediate outcome for your efforts. And I feel like I'm rewarded with that every day. And I love seeing our industry come back from the pandemic and really rally around one another. It was hard. The pandemic just completely stopped the events industry. You cannot take a multifaceted machine like business events and just grind it to a halt and expect it to just start back up again. It doesn't happen. It's been a difficult few years, but we are on the rebound.

[04:31] Michael McNary: Yeah, and that's true. And we're seeing it, I can tell you from our experience here at Mimeo, but many of our customers support events and trade shows, and it seems to be a lot of momentum and a resurgence, really. But I think that's a good segue. I think what we're going to ultimately, I think, lead to is talking about how to optimize lead generation and engagement at events and at trade shows. But let's talk a little bit about where we are today. Right, you mentioned it. It's been a very interesting few years since 2020 in the event space. What's going on in 2023 that our audience needs to know?

[05:15] Nicole Bowman: Let me level set here for just a second about the industry. So in 2019, the B2B exhibitions industry in the US contributed $101,000,000,000 to the US GDP through direct and indirect impact. So that is a number that's calculated every year by our CEIR economists. So when COVID hit, it ground all of that to a stop. And the only impact that was generated in 2020 was from shows that took place, really big shows like Consumer Technology Association, CES Con, Expo Conag by the association of Event Manufacturer, Equipment and Manufacturers. Those events took place in the first quarter, which contributed to about $40 billion in impact to US GDP. So fast forward to now. Preliminary CEIR Index data for 2022 is showing that B2B exhibition attendance more than doubled over 2021, which is 116% increase. So that's a really important number because attendance is what really drives shows success. You hear people talk about quality over quantity or quantity over quality, and it's really about qualified leads now because the people that are making decisions to come to shows are really taking in a lot of factors about why they want to attend. People kind of don't like to travel anymore. They like to stay home with their families. They've changed jobs, or they still have restrictions on their travel budgets, or corporate companies aren't allowing travel back to its full capacity before the pandemic. So there's a lot of reasons why people make that decision to attend, and so they become qualified buyers. So, again, that attendance number is really important that it has increased so much. But we are still 30% below pre-pandemic levels from 2019. But CEIR does expect the rebound to continue this year, and it'll finally surpass 2019 levels in 2024. There are headwinds that are out of our control, including a possible recession and geopolitical tensions. But trade shows, buyer, seller marketplaces happen in all 50 states. They are an economic engine that cannot be ignored. There are just so many great opportunities that present itself for every event stakeholder that comes to a trade show.

[07:40] Michael McNary: Listen, we're talking about $100 billion pre pandemic. And to get back to a point where we're going to be exceeding that number in the coming year, I think is really exciting. And anybody who attends events, exhibits at events or uses them to drive brand awareness and leads, that's really exciting because it's been a lever that many organizations have not been able to pull in, trying to drive new customer awareness and adoption. Right. I know I can speak personally that events was a great lead source for us for years, and figuring out how to fill in that hole in these last couple of years has been not only a creative exercise, but also one that has come with pitfalls and false starts. So personally, I can tell you, as a sales leader, I'm excited to see this channel opening back up and being, like you said, attended, but also leading to a good ROI. I look at it as a sales leader, Nicole, often as, hey, what do we do to generate leads and potential new customer awareness and eventually pipeline and revenue when I'm measuring the success of an event? What are some other things outside of leads that exhibitors are hoping to get out of events nowadays?

[09:04] Nicole Bowman: So that's actually a complex question that you asked because depending on where you are in your product lifecycle as an exhibitor, where you are in your product lifecycle, are you brand new? Are you just trying to maintain relationships that's going to change how you work a trade show? Now, at the end of the day, all exhibitors, it doesn't matter where you are in your product lifecycle or what you're trying to achieve out of exhibiting at a trade show, you still need to do your homework. Organizers provide toolkits for exhibitors to use. Many of them have free marketing tools in them. Many of them have paid opportunities that produce results. And the exhibitors that don't have a good show every single time, you can drill it down to, did they open those emails that we sent that had those free toolkits in them? Did they deploy those resources? Did they do any of the free things that we offered? Did they look up best practices for exhibiting at trade shows, for instance, at IAEE, did they do any of those things? And nine times out of ten, more than nine times out of ten, they didn't do any of those things, so they didn't have a good show. I mean, there's a science to exhibiting at a trade show. And if you're not going to use the tools to promote yourself and to produce, to get people to come into your booth, well, then you're not going to have a good show.

[10:34] Michael McNary: Proven tactics are just that, proven tactics. Historically, they've led to good results. Why try to reinvent the wheel in every respect, right? I think there are certain things that we can lean on and innovate around the fringes and try new things to see if you can find new ways of driving that leads. I think some other things that exhibitors are looking for is what? Brand awareness. Right. Nicole, we've discussed as well as networking, right. Understanding those within your industry, your competitor, your potential customer. So I think there's a lot of value in attending events beyond how many leads did we get, what did it lead to by way of pipeline and then eventual dollars? I think there's more to it and people need to realize that.

[11:22] Nicole Bowman: So I have a couple of stats for you. Through our CEIR Omnichannel Marketing Insights report series that was published in 2022, 40% of respondents feel that exhibiting is the most valuable channel when it comes to achieving their marketing objectives of brand awareness, new product launches and prospect attendee interactions. Another stat was 31% of respondents found that exhibiting is the most valuable for achieving their sales objectives of lead generation, relationship management, a lead qualification, or quality measurement. Interesting, those are two really important stats that, again, even if we are surveying exhibitors for a different type of report series, because CEIR does all manner of data and research, I think it's important to note that these stats really don't change. Using trade shows as a valuable marketing channel is high on the list year over year for brand marketers.

[12:26] Michael McNary: Yeah, and I agree with that. I think, as you mentioned before, within associations it's particularly important. And if you look at it industry by industry, vertical by vertical, there will be a different use case. But no matter what, it is an important resource and channel to driving that brand awareness in that eventual adoption. Right. It's the top of the funnel in many respects.

[12:53] Nicole Bowman: I think also that the pandemic really showed us and by us, I mean anybody that's ever needed a trade show or has attended a trade show or has wanted to launch a product at a trade show, whatever the case may be the pandemic really showed us that face to face matters, being in the same room with another human being, no matter what is being said, you get something from that that you can't get from a computer screen. Now, on the opposite side of that. The events industry rallied and really went full throttle into virtual events wherever they could because they still wanted to provide a way for people to meet even if they couldn't meet in person. So I think what's come from that is a lot of organizations have seen the value in taking some of their events and or communities online versus always trying to meet in person but then keeping other aspects in person. So I think it's become this great blend of more opportunity based on being forced into a virtual environment because of the pandemic and not being able to do face to face and then seeing the value of both. So I think in some respects it's kind of pushed the industry forward in a direction that it may not have gotten to as quickly as it did.

[14:11] Michael McNary: Yeah, and I believe that I think we see it so many places where whether it's a particular type of industry or company had to adapt and some of those adaptations were very pandemic specific and then some are things that we can leverage as we move forward, right. If things have kind of gotten back to as close to normal as they're going to. Right. So I think a lot of folks are using what they learned and discovered during that period and finding ways to apply it into 2023 and beyond. Let's talk a little bit about maximizing trade shows from a lead standpoint. You have mentioned all this great research that your organizations have done and your expertise is vast in this area. So what are some tips and best practices that you can share with our audience that might help to maximize engagement and lead generation for exhibitors?

[15:15] Nicole Bowman: You're asking some tough questions today, Mike, because they sound like simple things to answer, but they're actually quite complex in nature. So earlier in this episode, we talked about exhibitors using the tools that organizers make available to them. So all organizers have an attendee list, obviously, and there are ways that you can communicate with those attendees without reaching out to them directly because most attendees do not want their, if not all attendees don't want their information shared. But there are programs and communities in place where that interaction can take place beforehand. So I would say above anything else, exhibitors need to use the toolkits that organizers provide to them. Because organizers have done the research, they've listened to attendees, they know what the attendees want because they've surveyed attendees, so they know ahead of time who those attendees want on site and what they want to see. So when an organizer is reaching out to an exhibitor to exhibit, there's a reason behind that. It's not just throwing spaghetti at a wall and seeing who's going to exhibit at their show. They're wanting very specific types of people to make that attendee buying and or learning experience as good as it can be on site. Because the show organizer has provided a show floor of who the attendee wants to see.

[16:44] Michael McNary: Interesting. I'm hearing address your audience strategically and one of the best ways to do that is to leverage the available tools that are provided to you.

[16:56] Nicole Bowman: So once you get on the show floor, then it's a whole different ballgame. You have to have an engaging booth. Now, I say that knowing that booth design can be expensive. Some people only can bring a pull up into their booth, but that is where you have to use all the tools that are available to you. Yes, you could have a 50 x 50 island booth that is a double decker and is the most amazing thing in the world. Or you can have a ten x ten that maybe has a pull up and some basic signage, but that doesn't mean that your booth can't be effective. It's little things like have extra padding in your booth so it makes it more comfortable for attendees to stand in. They'll stay longer, don't sit down in your booth and be on your phone. Nobody wants to approach you. If you're on your phone, an attendee will just walk on by because as an attendee, there's still a lot of unless you're the type of person that just can walk into a room and talk to anybody, there's some anxiety on the attendee side. And I can only speak from personal experience that you've got people staring at you from a booth. You feel like you're an animal with people walking by you in a zoo. And it's uncomfortable to walk into someone's booth because it's almost like their home or their room. So you have to make it as inviting as possible. So when I think about the types of people that should staff boost, it needs to be somebody that is welcoming. And I say that with a grain of salt because people can tell, they can tell by the look on your face if you're going to be easy to talk to. So you either know you're easy to talk to or you're not. I mean, most people I would hope, are self aware enough to know if they are approachable, but you need to have approachable people in your booth. But if all you can do is a ten x ten booth with some basic signage, well, then you need to use those free tools and get people excited about coming to your booth. Because maybe your product is good enough, is exciting enough, that you just need to hook that person in your booth and talk to them about it and show them your marketing materials and it really doesn't matter what the signage is in your booth.

[19:12] Michael McNary: Yeah, and I think that resonates quite a bit. Right. I think we found, and also my experience has been when attending events, that if you don't have the right personalities, the right tone and the right approach, in those instances you're taking potential off the table. I really like what you said about the padding. That's a neat tip, right? Make it comfortable physically for them to be engaged and to stay in your environment. So I think a lot of good takeaways there. Let me ask you this. So we touched on staffing the booth, leveraging the tools that are available to maybe make more from less, right. If you don't have maybe the budget to go in and wow your audience with some crazy booth or set up, make sure that you're doing the other things that you can effectively to drive engagement. What is your feeling on running games or raffles or contests at a booth? Does that help with brand awareness in an event or what's your take on that?

[20:15] Nicole Bowman: So I'm going to say yes, that it helps. But I with the caveat of when you attend a show, it doesn't matter if it's 1000 attendees or 100,000 attendees. There are all kinds of different attendees at that show. There are some that are just going to build and maintain relationships. They're going for new product launches, they're younger, they're older managers or they're CEOs. So I think it really just depends on the person coming to your booth. Do I think that games and raffles and prizes and all that helps? Absolutely, but it's not going to help everybody.

[20:54] Michael McNary: Well said. And I think that's the good point, right, is that it's going to get you a subsection of the broader audience. But like you said, if you're not leveraging all of the tools and tips available, then you're probably leaving that other section that's not attracted to things like that off the table. Right. And you're limiting your influence. Good. Now, one of the things that we actually support our customers with is driving engaging giveaways. Right. So at events or within booths, you'll see a lot of times exhibitors have maybe it's branded merchandise or great branded promotional items or even really flashy and engaging collateral. Is that something that you find is a good tool to drive engagement not only at the event but afterwards? Or is it something that doesn't make much of an impact?

[21:48] Nicole Bowman: Oh, no, I definitely think it makes an impact, but again, depends on the person coming to your booth. There are a fair number of shows that don't do attendee bags anymore. So if you're handing out things, it's probably going in someone's backpack or their purse. Maybe they got a bag from another booth. I think that the promotional products that have a separate use like a USB stick or a coffee mug that heats up, whatever the case may be, there's just millions of different promotional products out there. I think if they have a secondary use after the show, but have your information on it, again, this is a personal opinion, but I think something with a secondary use is more beneficial than just a piece of paper about your company.

[22:35] Michael McNary: One of the things that our marketing folks will talk about is, will it be on someone's desk later on? Right. Will it be in use in that person's work station after the event? And if it's something that the answer is maybe yes, then it's probably going to help with brand awareness, then something that is disposable and that's going to just end up in a landfill.

[22:56] Nicole Bowman: I do think though, that if you have a product that you want somebody to use, like a service based product, let's just an Internet product, whatever that is. I think you have to make the ask enough that someone would want to take the risk. And by risk, I mean the time and the energy and the effort to use your new product. You got to make it worth their while. So offering someone a 10% discount off your services, I know that wouldn't sway me to try something new. I would need like 20 or 25%. Like it's got to be something that is a meaningful discount or maybe it's free use of your product for six months or whatever. If you really believe or something and you know that you can turn a lead into a revenue source, then offer your product for free or offer a deep discount on it.

[23:46] Michael McNary: Make the benefit maybe in some way specific to the folks at the event. Make it feel exclusive too, I think is another tactic. Let me ask just kind of one more question before we kind of sum things up, Nicole. Do you think there's a particular mistake or set of mistakes that folks make when they're exhibitors it's? Something that you may see often that may hinder engagement or driving leads?

[24:15] Nicole Bowman: Yes. People are doing their research before they get on that trade show floor. I'm sure there is a percentage, I don't know what the percentage is of people that just show up to an event and just walk around. But most attendees today, they're having to prove to their bosses what their ROI is going to be before they come back. So they're doing their research ahead of time. They're telling their bosses who they're going to be meeting with, what sessions are they going to be attending, how many exhibitors do they think are going to be able to meet with. So they're doing their homework beforehand. So you need to use the tools that are available to you to get your name out there so people will want to meet with you.

[24:55] Michael McNary: Yeah, listen, I think this has been really great, Nicole. If I was going to kind of sum up some of the takeaways for our audience. First, events are back. Okay. Face to face matters. And what we're seeing is that it's back and it will always be a component of this B2B interaction that we all are kind of a part of. Right. And so I think that's a really good takeaway. Second, I'd say audiences are diverse, right. So if you want to make an impression. If you want to drive leads, if you want to drive engagement from that broad and diverse audience, you need to leverage all the tools available, because one tactic may only appeal to one subset and another subset. But in order to get them all and to get all the returns that you're really seeking with these events, you've got to optimize and you've got to listen to the experts. One third point is, if you're going to be leveraging takeaways offers, giveaways, make sure that there's something that has real value, right? Something that's going to drive either longer term brand awareness, have a secondary value, or if you're offering something sort of exclusive, event specific, discount or perk, make sure it's substantial, right? Make sure that it drives someone to be willing to take a chance on your service, on your product, on your platform. Otherwise, it might not be enough to get them over the hump, so to speak. I think it's a really great and I can think of a number of ways that our team can leverage some of this stuff right away. So I'm really appreciative, Nicole, and I think the audience will be as well. Thank you, and hopefully we'll have you on again sometime soon. Okay, thank you.

[26:46] Nicole Bowman: I appreciate the time.

[26:47] Outro: Talk of the trade is hosted by Mimeo, the better way to print Find out more at www.mimeo.com.