The attraction of exhibit marketing is in the quality of traffic tradeshows attract.  Attendees are both highly segmented, based on the show’s theme, and motivated – they’ve chosen to spend time and resources to attend the show.

When I try to decide whether to exhibit and a particular show I weigh the benefit or value of whatever I have to give up, you know the alternatives, against whatever marketing objective(s) I hope to achieve by attending the show –most often it’s to introduce Zanderpants or to reinforce our brand to prospective buyers.

As my first step, I review the brand message I’ve already crafted,  Zanderpants ignites conversations that shape perceptions and change minds.  We help health care practitioners expand their practices with a powerful balance of traditional and digital marketing tools.

The message helps me focus my attention on my one clear purpose for exhibiting at any show.  I want to introduce Zanderpants to people who are already searching for new ways to expand their health care practice.  Because I’ll be investing my time and resources, I want my efforts focused on the best opportunities available.  And that means I never want to talk to everyone at the show.

I want to focus my time and attention on the attendees who are most likely to find value in my message.  So my next task is to determine who that might be.  Depending on the size, length, and cross section of attendees, I create profiles of the people I want to connect with.  Normally I will create more than one profile, rarely more than three.  For example, I might create a profile around a practitioner who is often the ultimate decision maker, as well as the office manager or others who may influence the selection of marketing services.

After creating separate profiles for the people I’d like to meet, I go back and adjust my brand message for each profile.  And because I’m often a little tongue-tied with strangers, I rehearse my presentation scenario.  I don’t memorize a script, but I do rehearse the key message points.

So, now that I’ve done my homework, I have a good idea of who I might encounter at the particular show and how a conversation might evolve.  And I’m in a pretty good position to create a clear, measurable objective.  It might be along the lines of,  “I will be successful if I meet 17 people who closely fit one of our profiles and have time to ignite a valuable conversation.”

The last step my trade show strategy is selecting a way to test the outcome.  Because, I’m interested in opening a valuable conversation, a good indicator that my message is valuable is when a contact somehow follows up on the connection after the show.  My testing technique might be a simple as looking for a spike in general web traffic, or the acceptance of a special offer available at a unique tracking url, or the response rate to my follow-up email.

Of course, strategy is merely the foundation of my planning.  I still have to tackle the tactics – how will I attract the attention of my target audience, what call to action will be most effective, etc. And then there’s always the logistics that need attention.  But all those tactical and logistic plans may end up for naught, if they chase the wrong objective.

But when I start out for a trade show with a clear understanding of what it will take to be successful, well rehearsed scenarios to support my message, and a follow up plan, I’m usually pretty proactive in making it happen. Even if I run into a logistic nightmare.