Setting up a display at a trade show is expensive business. You have to rent the space, create a display, promote it, stock it, and “man” (or better, “woman”) it. Before you decide to get involved, take a serious look at the costs of all of these components to determine if the ROI (return on investment) is sufficient.
Start planning well ahead. You already know this, right? Keep yourself as organized as possible right from the beginning — even before you book your space. You know how carefully today’s brides plan their weddings. Months, even years ahead, they start thinking about the church, the reception, the dresses, the flowers, the cake. And of course, the cost. Well, you’re the bride. Grab your planning book and start writing down everything you must do to get yourself ready for a successful trade show season — next year’s.
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Even before you decide to go into a show or two you should have a hard look at the costs and expected returns. This is why you create a trade show budget. Whether you admit it or not, everything has a cost, and trade shows are not an exception. Remember that your objective is to make sales, or at least generate opportunities to make sales. So you have to view your costs in that light. Everything should be done with an eye on its potential return.
The Trade Show Budget Preamble
As I’ve said, the normal starting point for your campaign the trade show BUDGET. If you work from a budget you have an outside chance of keeping your costs under control. Of course there is a certain amount of hocus pocus involved in budgeting for things like trade show marketing — especially if you’ve never serioulsy done it before and have no track record to go on. Still, you should give it your best shot. This is not rocket science, and any research or analysis you do will be better than just “winging it” Try using a “brainstorming” process like what follows.
First, ask yourself some BIG questions:
Q1. If I honestly summarize all the costs involved in going to just one show, do I really believe I can recover these costs within a short enough period of time to make it “profitable” (make me more than it costs me)?
A1. Like most promotion and advertising, until you’ve done it , you have no idea how successful it will be. First you will have to summarize all the costs, and then try to figure out how many sales you’re likely to get from this sort of exposure. We’ll take a stab at running some numbers in the next section, after we’ve asked a few more questions.