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64
Education
Convenience and Petroleum Retailing's major show,
and some of the related regional or state shows.
If your company is recommended or endorsed by
a particular business group or association, consider
exhibiting at any of said organization's events. If
exhibiting seems overwhelming or too expensive,
seriously consider having one or more members of
your sales team attend to network, generate leads
and canvas the show floor for business and competitive
intelligence purposes.
3. Allocate resources
Once you've firmed up your show list, allocate your
budget and create goals and objectives for each
event you plan to exhibit at or attend. Ultimately,
your event strategy should drive everything you do
for each of these events in the tactical phase.
4. Tactical planning
To begin the task of tactical planning for each event,
give attention to your exhibit space, as it is the
centerpiece of your tradeshow presence. Think of it
as a portable, temporary office with the purpose of
attracting an elite set of shoppers. Use professionally
designed graphic images; your exhibit serves as
a billboard for your company. Signs and advertisements
need to be easy to read and understand, and
they should properly reflect your brand image and
event messages.
Exhibit structures can be large, lavish and expensive,
but spending lots of money is not mandatory.
Many cost-effective booths are available for purchase
or rent, and even using small tabletop displays
or simply utilizing banner stand signage can
create a favorable impression of your organization.
The next step is to develop a promotional plan based
on your event goals. Spend as much of your exhibit
dollars and resources as you can on the sales and
promotional efforts at your booth. This is where you
will realize the greatest benefits from your efforts.
Define what to promote so that preshow, at-show
and post-show tactics effectively communicate your
company's brand and messaging.
Event tactics should support your tradeshow strategies.
There's a lot to consider, decide and tackle in
this step: executing pre- and/or post-show direct
mail or e-mail campaigns; creating an event Web
micro site; developing advertising, press releases
and collateral materials; facilitating crowd enticers
though giveaways, door prizes, contests and
drawings; holding private meetings or lunches and
dinners; securing speaking opportunities; preparing
product demonstrations, presentations and videos;
determining how to qualify leads; the list goes on
and on.
The key is to develop memorable promotions that
can be executed to realistically achieve your event
goals within your established budget. Again, if
you're on a tight budget, the best area to concentrate
on is planning and preparing your sales and promotional
efforts.
5. Define success metrics
Don't forget the important step of defining metrics
so you can measure tradeshow results against your
goals while justifying event activities and expenses.
Some of the questions you should answer in the
process of defining metrics include:
• What does success look like?
• What needs to take place over time to make
the event a success?
• What do we need to do to get the results we
expect?
• Can we do what's required?
• What constitutes a qualified lead?
• How do we measure each activity and tactic?