Exhibiting at trade shows is a wonderful way to diversify your marketing strategy and build stronger relationships with customers. To succeed with trade show marketing, you must have clearly defined goals that you plan to reach. When everyone in your company understands what you are looking to achieve, it’s much easier to create a plan and communicate your objectives.

As you look to clarify the objectives for your display house, here are a few tips to keep in mind.

Define the goal you want to reach

There are many reasons for exhibiting at a trade show. Some of the most common are:

• Introduce a new product or service. Do you have something new that you would like to share with your audience? Let them be the first ones to see and interact with your products.
• Generate high-quality leads. Your sales team relies on solid leads to drive conversions and sales. Put your brand in front of the right people and capture their information for later communications.
• Build brand awareness. Whether your business is a startup, or you are looking to stand out, you can exhibit at a trade show for added exposure. Plus, this puts your company in front of a targeted audience that is likely to be interested in your products and services.
• Enter a new market. Perhaps you want to enter a new market. Rather than spending all of your advertising dollars on digital marketing, you can position your exhibit house in front of thousands of people on a single budget.
• Retain current customers. You must work hard to keep your current customers engaged. Being at the places they expect you to be builds stronger bonds and enhances customer loyalty.

Decide how you will reach your goals

Once you define your objectives, you must set trade show goals that are reasonable and measurable. For example, if your goal is to capture leads, you can’t just throw out a ballpark number of 1,000 leads. You must determine how many people are attending the event, how you plan to capture leads and what percentage of attendees may reasonably convert.

You will also need to define your ROI metrics. It’s important that you are seeing a return on your trade show marketing strategy. Too often, brands pour everything into their exhibit because they have the “everyone is doing it” mentality. While it’s true that display houses are an investment, they should be pumping your business with awareness, traffic and sales.

Once you exhibit at a few trade shows, measure your goals and track your ROI, you can get a better feel for what you’re doing right and what needs to be changed. As long as you keep on top of these numbers, you can continue making improvements and prevent losing unnecessary time and money.