A trade show is a different beast from other channels when it comes to lead generation.
There’s a stark contrast between how you approach, qualify, and convert a trade show lead vs. a lead from, say, a Google ad. There are also distinct differences in conversion rate, lifetime value, and cost per lead.
That’s why it’s imperative to have sales staff at your booth who understand the fundamental differences between a lead from the trade show floor and a lead acquired online.
As a seasoned strategic trade show partner, we appreciate how important trade show leads are to your pipeline.
We also understand why trade show-generated leads are innately more valuable than leads acquired from other sources.
Our article will explain why they are and also outline:
- How to measure the value of trade show-generated leads vs other leads.
- How to pursue quality on the trade show floor.
- How to fine-tune your lead generation efforts.
- Where our strategic services fit into your lead generation goals.
5 ways trade show leads differ from digital marketing leads
How leads are obtained has a huge impact on their quality and lifetime value.
Here are the five main differences between a lead generated from a trade show compared with a lead obtained via other sources.
1. Highly qualified through face-to-face interaction
When you converse with someone on the trade show floor, you can quickly determine whether or not they are your ideal buyer.
One of our favorite questions to ask a potential lead when exhibiting is, "What are you looking for at this year's show?".
The answer they give lets us know immediately whether or not they are looking for (or suitable for) our products or services.
It also opens us up to helping them find the right people if it's not us.
As your sales staff ask questions and receive responses, it’s crucial they collect detailed notes. (We’ll return to this point later in the article.)
If they don’t do this, they’ll never remember the nuances of a conversation later.
2. Faster relationship building
At a trade show, your sales staff can not only build relationships with prospects faster than via online communication, but they can do so in a more fun, immersive, and authentic way.
For example, by turning your trade show displays into a game, using powerful visuals to encapsulate your offering, or incorporating demonstrations that encourage audience participation.
However, building relationships at trade shows must be done carefully and sincerely.
Building rapport is very important, but sometimes it can be done in a way that makes attendees feel like they're talking to a cardboard cutout.
Being genuine and providing real value are two self-explanatory ways to avoid this fate.
Another way is to read Chris Voss's book, "Never Split the Difference."
This book outlines the importance of tactical empathy, listening with intent, and psychological leverage when interacting with a prospect.
3. Captured at a critical buying stage
Attendees at trade shows are often in research or decision-making phases of the buying journey. Almost half (46%) of attendees are in the final stages of their buying decision.
Furthermore, four out of every five participants are current or future consumers of exhibitors that attend trade shows, according to The Center for Exhibition Industry Research.
They're at the event to evaluate solutions, which means trade show leads are typically further down the funnel than general inbound marketing leads.
Knowing that you’re meeting people at this critical buying stage allows you:
- Prepare relevant questions and topics accordingly.
- Capture their interest early.
- Fill your pipeline with future opportunities.
4. Opportunity for multi-sensory engagement
Trade show leads are generated in an environment where prospects can see, touch, hear, and experience your product or service in real life.
This level of sensory engagement makes the interaction more memorable and persuasive compared to leads generated through ads, content, or email.
You’re able to draw upon finer details and talk them through with your ideal buyer in a way you simply can’t when presenting them with material from afar.
5. Higher immediate cost per lead, greater lifetime value
Trade show leads often come at a higher cost due to booth fees, travel, lodging expenses, and staffing. At the time of writing, the average cost per lead generated at a trade show is $112, compared with $18.68 for Facebook ads, $25 for Instagram ads, and $75 for LinkedIn ads.
However, trade shows tend to deliver stronger ROI. This is because trade show-generated leads are warmer, more qualified, move through the pipeline faster, and can result in larger or longer-term contracts compared to lower-cost digital leads.
On average, trade shows return $4 for every $1 spent, according to the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR). Furthermore, 14% of Fortune 500 companies reported a 5:1 ROI from exhibiting at trade shows (in other words, they earned $5 for every $1 spent).
By contrast, the average ROAS (return on ad spend) for Google Ads is 200%, which translates to earning $2 for every $1 spent. The median ROAS for LinkedIn Ads is 113%, or $1.13 for every $1 spent.
You get the picture.
The short-term ‘pain’ is worth it for the infinitely higher gain.
How to measure success from a trade show
When it comes to measuring success and defining a ‘high-value’ lead from a trade show, your sales team should focus on these two things:
- They made a meaningful connection with the person to the point where that person is going to remember them.
- The buyer made a clear indication to your sales staff, in some form or fashion, that your solution fits their problem.
Lead generation at trade shows starts and ends with people—people with a very specific problem and desire for connection.
So, if you can achieve one or both of those outcomes, you're golden.
If you have any badge scans to hand that you ranked ‘solid’ and you do a good follow-up and they close, that's ultimately how you judge whether or not a show was a success—not simply by the foot traffic in the aisle in which you were placed.
Based on our experience, it can take six, nine, or 12 months for you to figure out if the trade show you attended was worth your effort. It could even be years.
So, again, hopefully we don’t need to hammer the point home, but don’t pass judgment on an event while you’re at the event itself.
A simple equation
Here’s another quick way of measuring success from trade show lead generation.
If you have 250 badge scans, you can multiply that by the percentage of qualified leads (say, 30%), and then multiply that by the average cost per qualified lead on Google ads (say, $175), and you will have saved $13,125 in MQL generation costs.
Here’s how the equation works:
Value of Marketing Qualified Leads =
(# of Badge Scans) X (Percentage of Qualified Leads) X (Average Cost Per MQL Generation)
This neglected metric gives insight into the potential lead generation cost savings at events like trade shows.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQH5B1jTL7E
How event coordinators can fine-tune their trade show lead generation efforts
Like everything in sales, the real route to success lies in the follow-up.
That’s why it’s extremely important to make detailed notes that you can refer to after the fact.
Not having a tablet to hand on which to write down important information is one of the cardinal sins of trade show exhibiting. Imagine how much money gets left on the table through this simple oversight!
Whether it’s the specific pain point your ideal buyer wants to solve or something as trivial as the sports team they follow, your sales staff should touch on these points in their follow-up after the show.
Doing this will prove that they’re a good listener and that they care about something other than trying to sell a product or service.
How the right exhibit design can support your trade show lead generation efforts
Now that we've covered why trade show leads are so important, how to obtain these leads, and what to look for, let’s look at the role your exhibit plays in securing high-quality leads at trade shows.
As we referenced in point four of the opening chapter, your exhibit design can give your audience an unrivaled, immersive experience—the like of which you can’t achieve via digital marketing.
But here’s the thing.
For an exhibit to immerse—i.e., deeply absorb—an attendee, it’s got to really stand out.
Another (relatively) simple equation
A mid-to-large B2B trade show in the US will typically attract in the region of 500 to 1,500+ companies, and the average trade show attendee spends 5.5 hours at a live event such as a trade show.
Let’s say that attendee spends two minutes, on average, talking to exhibitors.
Then let’s subtract an hour and a half for the time spent surveying the trade show floor, eating, and bathroom breaks.
For argument’s sake, let’s assume the event contained 1,000 exhibitors.
This person, although only communicating with less than 15% of exhibitors, is still speaking to 120 companies in one day.
Imagine if you conversed with 120 people at a party. How many of those people would you truly remember in the days and weeks after?
This exact principle applies to your trade show exhibit.
It’s either going to be like Carl, the data entry worker who talks to you about the weather, or like Katie, the gregarious video game designer who talks to you about her travels around the world and has just finished writing her first novel.
People pick and choose who or what they remember—so make sure they remember you.
Trade show exhibiting allows you to tell a more engaging story than you can over email, so make it count.
Whether it’s lighting, graphics, or structural design, every detail matters in doing justice to your business’s story.
With almost 40 years of exhibit design experience under our belt at the time of writing, we have a keen eye for the minutiae and an intrinsic knowledge of what works—and doesn’t work—for attracting and retaining the attention of high-quality trade show leads.
How The Trade Group can help you create a storytelling exhibit
If you’re interested in working alongside a strategic trade show partner that can help you tell your story and attract and close leads, we’re all ears.
We have three distinct differentiators in our industry.
1. Our amazing people
We have people with decades of experience, and we have people with months of experience.
But those people with months of experience have come to The Trade Group from a diverse range of backgrounds and offer heaps of value to us moving forward.
We have around 200 employees at the time of writing, and there's not a soft one in the bunch.
When you work with us, you’re working with innovative thinkers, problem solvers, and people who aren’t afraid to tell you their honest opinion if they think it’s in your company’s best interests.
2. Our world-class facility
We work in a 350,000-square-foot bespoke building designed purely to work on your project.
We put our money where our mouth is, and we built a building that contains a genius bar for our designers and a trade show showroom that prospects can come walk through and actually touch and feel. Our competitors can’t offer you that.
We have a gigantic warehouse with ample storage space for our clients to keep their assets with us.
We have some of the most responsible warehouse workers in the industry. These workers treat every exhibit like their own, as they recognize that the client's success at a trade show is their success and our company's success.
3. Our design team
We would put our designers up against anyone in the industry.
We are oftentimes not the cheapest strategic trade show partner in our industry, yet on many of those occasions, we still won the business.
This is because our designers come up with some unique shape language, textures, and features that many of our competitors don't.
When the client provides us with a sketch of what they’re looking for, our designers turn it into a Picasso.
The client falls in love with it the moment they see it, and they quickly realize the extent to which we understand their vision.
Start telling your story with us today
Standing out in your ideal buyer’s mind through a memorable trade show exhibit is an investment that could pay dividends for years.
At The Trade Group, we’ve helped businesses like yours create cutting-edge custom trade show exhibits and generate high-quality leads since 1986.
Call us today at 800-343-2005 to get the ball rolling.
