One of the most common question asked of any marketing team after exhibiting at a trade show is, “What is our return on investment (ROI)?” The answer to this question is integral in determining if a show strategy was successful, and can affect your allocated budget for shows moving forward. As you can see in the data below, collected by The Exhibit Survey from 2010-2015, over 80% of show attendees have buying power. Therefore, it is important to have a sound strategy to reach those attendees and increase revenue. Many of our clients come to us, asking if there is any magical tool out there that easily calculates ROI from a trade show, and while there are many tools and technology that can help, there is no one-step solution. Calculating your ROI requires a sound strategy and consistency.
While there are other objectives to a successful trade show, such as brand awareness and product launches, we are only going to focus on the shows you identify as your best lead and revenue generating shows. Much of the data around brand awareness can be tracked by social media interaction and impressions. From our experience, there are three main categories that are critical to calculating ROI. They are;
