exhibitor express

FREE Trade Show Training newsletter - helping exhibitors gain more leads & orders from trade exhibitions

Unless your company is truly unique, you're in the same boat as other EXHIBITOR magazine readers. Your exhibit programme is under increased pressure to measure results. There is plenty of research to prove that trade show exhibits are successful in accelerating the sales process but research is no longer enough. Today's management focuses on results for all functions of business and trade shows are no exception. Utimately, managerment wants to know: What was out return on investment (ROI)

The ROI Conundrum - Your company's management defines ROI as the amount of revenue generated by an investment. For them, ROI is black and white. This point of view creates an analysis problem. Sales conversion research confirms that most sales generated from trade show leads result from an integrated marketing effort. This means a lead generated by an exhibit that turns into a sale has multiple customer touch points (sales calls, web site visits, advertising etc.) that impact that sale. In other words, there is no black and white.

Therefore, there is no pure ROI from exhibits. Exhibit ROI can't be measured in a vacuum. To measure true ROI for each element of the trade show marketing mix, you'd have to examine each sale and each customer touch point in the sales process.

The ROO Solution - So, how do you measure an exhibit's success? ROO Return on objectives - the marketing objectives intended to move visitors along the purchasing path. Here are the underlying assumptions of ROO:

1. the target audience represents enough potential revenue to justify the investment

2. the objectives are relevant - they advance visitors along the purchasing path

To use ROO, objectives must be realistic, specific and measureable. These criteria ensure that the investment is in line with intended results. Non-specific objectives are usually not measureable. For example, an objective such as 'we want to increase awareness of our company and enhance our image at XYZ Show' is neither specific, nor measureable. On the other hand, an objective such as 'to make 30% of our target audience aware of our new line of instrumentation'is both specific and measureable.

This was part of an article in the current edition of EXHIBITOR MAGAZINE who can be contacted at www.exhibitormagazine.com - they even have a FREE newsletter for exhibitors, full of really useful tips. Next week we will look at establishing exhibition objectives

My name is Belinde Holz. I've been involved in the exhibtion industry for 12 years now. Please see my cv attached. I am currently seeking employment in sales, co-ordination or design management, although I do have mostly design background I wish to move on. If you have anything available or know of anything, please contact me on 073 282 2417.

'We appointed Behnaman Azin Mehr as an agent in Iran for Afribuild/Afriwater 2003. This company contracted exhibitors - collected their fees and disappeared with their money'.

Rebuilding Iraq gets nod from U.S. government
The U.S. Department of Commerce has officially endorsed the Rebuilding Iraq show, to be held Jan. 10–13, 2004, in Amman, Jordan. Originally, the show was planned for Baghdad; however, ongoing security concerns and the lack of necessary infrastructure to support the event resulted in its move to neighboring Jordan. Report from EXPOnewsI

'How to be a successful exhibitionist' - useful pocket-sized booklet for South African exhibitors, that immediately improves the return on your exhibition investment, which means more leads, orders and new business, the next time you exhibit.. Price R79.00 including local postage.

If you would like to find out how to maximise your exhibition results then diarise to attend the 3-hour exhibitor workshops that EXSA Exhibition Association of Southern Africa will be hosting in Johannesburg on :

For more information on attending these workshops, or to reserve your place, click here. The cost is R599.00 plus VAT. To see what delegates to previous workshops thought, please click here. Visit EXSA for complete exhibition calendar at www.exsa.co.za

The purpose of this newsletter is to help you achieve maximum results from trade exhibitions. There will be regular free tips and advice that will pep up your performance and help you gain the best return on your exhibition investment. If you have specific questions on exhibiting, please e-mail them to: joy@donovan.co.za or phone 011-792-9958. More free help and advice is available at www.exhibitor.co.za Please feel free to pass this newsletter onto friends and colleagues, who can arrange their own free subscription at joy@donovan.co.za

The workshops and this e-mail is presented by Joy Donovan M.D. of South Africa’s first Trade Show Training company. Joy’s 30 + years in the exhibition industry, mainly as an exhition organiser, well equipped her to identify the need in the exhibition market and produce training that significantly improves exhibitor's results. If you require information on in-house exhibitor training, coaching or mentoring, please e-mail joy@donovan.co.za phone 011-792-9958 fax 011-792-7597.