How to Establish Your Trade Show Objectives

There are a number of reasons why a company enters a trade show, and it's important that you spell out your trade show objectives before making this decision.

To make sales is, of course, the most common objective. The trade show can play a unique role in leading a prospective buyer from mild interest to the decisive act of placing an order. While making sales and sales contacts is the most common objective of an exhibit, it is certainly not the only one

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Planning and understanding your trade show objectives will influence all your choices.

1. Pinpoint your objectives. It's essential that you define exactly what you want your exhibit to accomplish, and then see that all decisions about design, copy, scheduling, and so on, are based on these decisions.

2. Break your company's marketing goals down into goals for each division or perhaps for each product or product line.

3. When you set an objective, be sure it is meaningful and measurable. Objectives are written statements of measurable goals, prepared before participation in a trade show. Putting these objectives in writing not only helps you, the exhibitor, clarify your planning, but provides specific guidelines for everyone else involved: in design; implementation, participation and evaluation.

Tips & Warnings

• These objectives have two components: your target audience (to whom, specifically, are you trying to reach and communicate with?)and they must be quantifiable objectives.
• It is not adequate enough to say: "My objective is to display our new product" This is not measurable.

Resources

• The Trade Show Edge

[sgfgirl]

on 2/28/2009 Thanks for the insider info!

[MyJB]

on 2/28/2009 This is good information on why I want to be part of a trade show. Thanks for explaining how its done. 5* and 1 reommend.