Measure Trade Show Effectiveness: Metrics + Strategies
Everyone attends a trade show with a clear purpose and goal, including brands. Brands participate in trade shows for many reasons, like product releases, to redefine their brand image, generate leads, and close sales. Every goal must be measurable to be evaluated and understood. In this guide, we explain how to measure trade show effectiveness.
What makes a trade show successful?
There are many ways to judge success. Sometimes you may get a feeling of success, and while this is meaningful, judging by this metric alone is insufficient for serious brand activations like trade shows. The purpose of attending a trade show is to meet business goals, which must be determined at the beginning of the process, monitored throughout the event, and assessed post-show. Ultimately, a successful trade show meets or exceeds the event's objectives.
Set your goals at the beginning of the planning process and make sure they are S.M.A.R.T.:
- Specific – The outcome must be clearly defined so everyone is on the same page.
- Measurable – The objectives must be quantified, allowing the progress to be measured.
- Achievable – The goals must be realistic. Break ambitious goals down into smaller components.
- Relevant – The objectives must align with the company’s mission and fulfill the desires or needs of the target audience.
- Time-Bound – The goals must have a deadline.
Trade Show Success Metrics to Track
While you can track any metric that meets the S.M.A.R.T. criteria, here are some of the most common metrics tracked for trade shows.
Brand Awareness
You increase your company's visibility by raising brand awareness at a trade show. If brand awareness is your goal, design your exhibit to reflect this. Dedicate more space to your brand story, create immersive experiences, and generate a lasting impression. Leverage architectural elements to capture visitors' attention across the trade show floor. Set S.M.A.R.T. goals for the number of exhibit visits, length of engagement in the space, and the types of visitors.
Leads
Trade shows are excellent opportunities to form meaningful relationships with prospective buyers and begin to lead them on their customer journeys. To reach qualified buyers, consider creating and marketing V.I.P. experiences, product demonstrations, guest speakers, or exclusive opportunities to engage with your products. Set S.M.A.R.T. goals that measure leads' number, quality, and progress.
Sales
Brands that attend trade shows to generate sales must set metrics that focus team members on orders and profit. Begin by determining your end sales goal for the entire show and then break that goal into several smaller daily S.M.A.R.T. goals, number of sales, or items sold. Keep track of social media mentions, email newsletter subscriptions, and website traffic.
Measuring Trade Show Effectiveness
We created a specific tool to help brands measure trade show success:
Hamilton inSIGHT®
Hamilton inSIGHT® is our proprietary lead capture solution designed to capture qualifying information from every booth visitor on your own device, regardless of where they are engaged in the booth. It includes the same badge scanning and survey qualifiers as show-provided lead retrieval, plus key differentiators such as compatibility across all mobile devices, branding opportunities, on-demand reporting dashboard, lead scoring, text alerts, image capture, in-booth engagement integration, custom CRM formatting, and voice-to-text notes.
Measure Event Success with Hamilton
Hamilton is a full-service event marketing agency with a 75-year legacy creating immersive brand experiences for companies throughout North America and worldwide. We design, produce, and execute integrated experiences that drive meaningful connections between your brand and audience. Our solutions include exhibits, events, environments, and digital experiences.
To learn more, watch our video Hamilton Meetings and Events. Contact Dody Kenny – Director, Hamilton Special & Proprietary Events, to receive expert assistance and make your trade show successful:
317.829.2808.