Measure Your Event Marketing Program on Marketing Effectiveness, Not Sales
A recent study of CEOs by The Fournaise Marketing Group revealed that a sizable majority of CEOs perceive that B2B Marketers have “started (wrongly) to focus on performance indicators that are actually not theirs, such as prospect conversions and revenue.”
This should be an important revelation to event marketers. Marketing must focus and grade itself on creating customer demand for the sales team to prove value, a point I have impressed upon students in my "How to Measure the Value of Tradeshows" classes.
The results of this study support a measurement philosophy that concentrates on marketing effectiveness. I have taken excerpts from this article that I think are the most important points for trade show and event marketers.
“CEOs Want ROI Marketers 100% Focused on Generating, Tracking & Boosting Customer Demand for their Products/Services.”
The Fournaise Marketing Group 2012 Global Marketing Effectiveness Program conducted interviews with more than 1,200 large corporate and small and medium business CEOs and decision-makers in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.
Here are some of the findings I think may be important to event marketers from this study:
“Marketers have lost sight that these (prospect conversions and revenue) are primarily Sales Force-related performance indicators, and that they should focus instead on the customer demand-related indicators directly linked to their job and for which they have 100% control.”
The findings demonstrate that executive management believes “Marketers are too disconnected from the financial realities of companies.”
“78% of these CEOs think Marketers too often lose sight of what their real job is: to generate more customer demand for their products/services in a business-quantifiable and business-measurable way.”
And, here is the definitive answer for the one circumstance most of us fear to be true.
“Unfortunately, 69% of the B2C CEOs believe B2C Marketers now live too much in their creative and social media bubble and focus too much on parameters such as “likes”, “tweets”, “feeds” or “followers” – the very parameters they can’t really prove generate more (business-quantifiable) customer demand for their products/services, and the very parameters judged “interesting but not critical” by CEOs.”
CEOs in the B2B market define customer demand as generating and delivering more qualified, “sales-ready” prospects to the sales pipeline or sales cycle of the business. These qualified prospects should be able to be converted faster into actual revenue by the sales team.
“To earn the CEOs trust, Marketers will need to transform themselves into ROI Marketers,” said Fournaise Group.
“75% of CEOs think Marketers misunderstand (and misuse) the “real business” definition of the words “Results”, “ROI” and “Performance” and therefore do not adequately speak the language of their top management.”
The preference is for marketers to deliver and report on “the level of customer demand they are asked to deliver, instead of drowning everybody with data and analyses that are too remote from the P&L.”
The report demonstrates that 85% of B2B and B2C CEOs would like prospect-driven ROI Marketers to focus on tracking, reporting and boosting Marketing Specific Key Performance Indicators: Prospect Volume, Prospect Quality, Marketing Effectiveness Rate (defined as the percentage of Marketing spending that directly generated prospects) and the business potential generated by Marketing. This last element is what I have been referring to as ”Sales Potential" delivered by the interactions at a marketing event (see Measurement Tip 10)
Jerome Fontaine, CEO & Chief Tracker of Fournaise said, “Marketers will have to understand that they need to start “cutting the rubbish” if they are to earn the trust of CEOs and if they want to have a bigger impact in the boardroom.” “They will have to transform themselves into true business-driven ROI Marketers or forever remain in what 65% of CEOs told us they call Marketing la-la land.”
We can heed these warnings by taking direct aim at delivering sales ready prospects into the sales cycle of our company though events. We must finally embrace the sales team as the customer of marketing. And we must ensure that a large part of our event expenditures are funding those activities that generate prospects. Perhaps this study answers the perennial question, “should we be tracking and reporting sales results?” The answer appears to be no.
You can access the entire study summary here:
http://tinyurl.com/fournaisestudy
Ed
If you would like more information on how to get started on an event marketing measurement program, please call me at +1.770.391.0015 or email me edjones@constellationcc.com
*Source (Articles Referenced):
“80% of CEOs Do Not Really Trust Marketers (Except If They Are “ROI Marketers”). The Fournaise Marketing Group. July, 2012.
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Friday, October 5, 2012
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Measurement Tip 16
Win Lose or Draw, How Do You Know?
The first question usually asked when an event’s marketing team returns home after a show is, “How did we do?” Many times the answers are simply opinions of the most obvious indicators based upon observation and gut feel. For example, “Did we have a lot of visitors?” “Did we get a lot of interaction?” and “Did we collect a lot of leads?” These answers may make us feel good (or unsettled) about our performance, but they do not easily relate our accomplishments to business profitability and Return on Investment necessary to satisfy those who provided the funds.
An opportunity to give you a concise picture of trade show marketing success and how it is reported arose from our evaluation of four companies exhibiting at the International Woodworking Fair (IWF) last week in Atlanta. This is the largest industry event of its type for the woodworking market and the event is organized and sponsored by a group of large trade associations. The audience is well defined by the show management. The show management provided a detailed audience demographics document before the show for exhibitors to use as a valuable resource. Success begins with choosing an opportune show and IWF was a good choice.
The following performance summary presents the key elements of a perfectly sized, successful exhibit at an attractive show. We refer to these variables as Key Performance Measures. They detail efficiency and effectiveness of the trade show marketing effort.
As you will see, the quality of the show has everything to do with the level of success and payback on the event. You cannot (usually) directly affect these variables, but you can choose events and “right-size” your participation based upon these characteristics.
*Note: These variables are based upon averages and assume an average level of visitor attraction.
The variables above are opportunities/limitations of the show attendance. It is possible to forecast your expected traffic before the event begins and to use that forecast to adjust or “right size” you exhibit size, layout and number of staff. What is your cost per buyer, and how much time do you get to spend with them?
For these variables it is important to understand that all “buyers” (as defined by show management) are not necessarily qualified to buy your product. Not all buyers who enter your exhibit will be valid prospects and not all buyers who enter will become engaged with your staff or demonstrations. It is therefore necessary to estimate the number of buyers who become actively engaged with your staff or demos, using the logical assumption that most people who are actively engaged are likely to be qualified. These are the buyers that you are paying to attract.
Only a percentage of your engaged buyers will commit to the desired “next step”. This number is derived from tracking your leads as a percentage of engaged buyers, show by show. The numbers highlighted in green are what you are really paying for.
Very tightly defined leads are much fewer in number but much richer in sales potential and eventual sales results. Therefore, just answering a question about your event’s success with “We got a lot of leads” may not be a true measure of success.
While looking at the number of visitors it is useful to evaluate how well we sized our resources. We refer to this as “right-sizing.” In this case, based upon the number of engaged buyers present per hour and an exhibit that is 55% available for occupancy (otherwise filled with cabinets and equipment) and calculated at 9 sq.ft. per visitor as “full” to capacity, the exhibit size required calculates to approx. 350 sq. ft. The calculation is weighted upwards slightly to account for peak traffic. Note that booth traffic does not come in evenly for every show hour. This method is the correct way to estimate and fund exhibit size and staff resources when planning for an upcoming show.
Marketing is generally about creating sales opportunities and improving the probability of sale. Trade show marketing should be focused on doing just that, among other objectives. Sales are the domain of the sales force. A good measure of success for a marketing event is to identify the “sales opportunity” it created for the company. To do so relies on a few essential elements:
1)Leads must be tightly defined as only qualified people who are committed to take a “next step” defined by the sales team, at a certain level in the sales funnel.
2)The sales team must indicate what the probability of sale is for qualified prospects who take the designated “next step”.
3)The sales team must provide an estimate of sales value for the average deal.
This may require a number of calculations for each product set. This also eliminates the argument on how much credit should be given for a sale to the trade show activity. The show marketing activity produced an opportunity. The sales team most likely closed it.
Events provide numerous ways to reduce the cost of doing business. Consider the savings from travel avoidance, logistical costs of providing customers and prospects access to inaccessible, large or heavy products and systems, business processes such as recruiting, and re-use of creative, deliverables and properties to name but just a few.
Events accomplish huge amounts of exposure for your company and products. The main alternative is advertising. This exposure is not free and has definite value. Consider giving your program credit for at least the cost to create the same exposure through advertising. Advertising equivalency may not be a popular measure in some companies. Still there is value here. Report the impressions and consider, even if only as a subjective benefit, the value achieved.
After considering all of the estimated benefits from all sources, this event paid off well, providing almost $3.00 for each dollar invested. If we remove the estimate of resulting sales potential, the payback remains positive at $1.86/1. Finally, cost savings alone (the most tangible of all these measures) justifies $.83 of every dollar spent on the event.
I would say we could safely conclude this was a successful event! The approach was correct, the exhibit and staff sizes were correct, the necessary numbers of buyers were engaged, enough bonafide leads were collected and the results in sales opportunity, cost savings and promotion were all favorable. Most importantly, we can show our results to upper management in a context of business improvement and return on investment.
It’s a WIN!
This content is subject to copyright 2012 by Constellation Communication Corp.
The first question usually asked when an event’s marketing team returns home after a show is, “How did we do?” Many times the answers are simply opinions of the most obvious indicators based upon observation and gut feel. For example, “Did we have a lot of visitors?” “Did we get a lot of interaction?” and “Did we collect a lot of leads?” These answers may make us feel good (or unsettled) about our performance, but they do not easily relate our accomplishments to business profitability and Return on Investment necessary to satisfy those who provided the funds.
An opportunity to give you a concise picture of trade show marketing success and how it is reported arose from our evaluation of four companies exhibiting at the International Woodworking Fair (IWF) last week in Atlanta. This is the largest industry event of its type for the woodworking market and the event is organized and sponsored by a group of large trade associations. The audience is well defined by the show management. The show management provided a detailed audience demographics document before the show for exhibitors to use as a valuable resource. Success begins with choosing an opportune show and IWF was a good choice.
The following performance summary presents the key elements of a perfectly sized, successful exhibit at an attractive show. We refer to these variables as Key Performance Measures. They detail efficiency and effectiveness of the trade show marketing effort.
As you will see, the quality of the show has everything to do with the level of success and payback on the event. You cannot (usually) directly affect these variables, but you can choose events and “right-size” your participation based upon these characteristics.
The variables above are opportunities/limitations of the show attendance. It is possible to forecast your expected traffic before the event begins and to use that forecast to adjust or “right size” you exhibit size, layout and number of staff. What is your cost per buyer, and how much time do you get to spend with them?
For these variables it is important to understand that all “buyers” (as defined by show management) are not necessarily qualified to buy your product. Not all buyers who enter your exhibit will be valid prospects and not all buyers who enter will become engaged with your staff or demonstrations. It is therefore necessary to estimate the number of buyers who become actively engaged with your staff or demos, using the logical assumption that most people who are actively engaged are likely to be qualified. These are the buyers that you are paying to attract.
Only a percentage of your engaged buyers will commit to the desired “next step”. This number is derived from tracking your leads as a percentage of engaged buyers, show by show. The numbers highlighted in green are what you are really paying for.
Very tightly defined leads are much fewer in number but much richer in sales potential and eventual sales results. Therefore, just answering a question about your event’s success with “We got a lot of leads” may not be a true measure of success.
While looking at the number of visitors it is useful to evaluate how well we sized our resources. We refer to this as “right-sizing.” In this case, based upon the number of engaged buyers present per hour and an exhibit that is 55% available for occupancy (otherwise filled with cabinets and equipment) and calculated at 9 sq.ft. per visitor as “full” to capacity, the exhibit size required calculates to approx. 350 sq. ft. The calculation is weighted upwards slightly to account for peak traffic. Note that booth traffic does not come in evenly for every show hour. This method is the correct way to estimate and fund exhibit size and staff resources when planning for an upcoming show.
Marketing is generally about creating sales opportunities and improving the probability of sale. Trade show marketing should be focused on doing just that, among other objectives. Sales are the domain of the sales force. A good measure of success for a marketing event is to identify the “sales opportunity” it created for the company. To do so relies on a few essential elements:
1)Leads must be tightly defined as only qualified people who are committed to take a “next step” defined by the sales team, at a certain level in the sales funnel.
2)The sales team must indicate what the probability of sale is for qualified prospects who take the designated “next step”.
3)The sales team must provide an estimate of sales value for the average deal.
This may require a number of calculations for each product set. This also eliminates the argument on how much credit should be given for a sale to the trade show activity. The show marketing activity produced an opportunity. The sales team most likely closed it.
Events provide numerous ways to reduce the cost of doing business. Consider the savings from travel avoidance, logistical costs of providing customers and prospects access to inaccessible, large or heavy products and systems, business processes such as recruiting, and re-use of creative, deliverables and properties to name but just a few.
Events accomplish huge amounts of exposure for your company and products. The main alternative is advertising. This exposure is not free and has definite value. Consider giving your program credit for at least the cost to create the same exposure through advertising. Advertising equivalency may not be a popular measure in some companies. Still there is value here. Report the impressions and consider, even if only as a subjective benefit, the value achieved.
After considering all of the estimated benefits from all sources, this event paid off well, providing almost $3.00 for each dollar invested. If we remove the estimate of resulting sales potential, the payback remains positive at $1.86/1. Finally, cost savings alone (the most tangible of all these measures) justifies $.83 of every dollar spent on the event.
I would say we could safely conclude this was a successful event! The approach was correct, the exhibit and staff sizes were correct, the necessary numbers of buyers were engaged, enough bonafide leads were collected and the results in sales opportunity, cost savings and promotion were all favorable. Most importantly, we can show our results to upper management in a context of business improvement and return on investment.
It’s a WIN!
This content is subject to copyright 2012 by Constellation Communication Corp.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Measurement Tip 15
Start Your Measurement Before the Event Even Begins - Forecasting is an Essential Planning Tool and Can Pay Big Dividends
Forecasting can make a significant difference in how your event is perceived, how it performs and how it is evaluated. Forecasting is simply estimating, in advance, the results of your key measures and performance expectations for an event. By doing so, you can tailor your resource requirements and tactics for the upcoming event, e.g. adjustments to size, staff, spending and other activities based upon expected needs and results.
By forecasting an event, you can set realistic expectations with upper management and others regarding expected outcomes. This is extremely important as there is little you can do to deliver a successful result if executives and others already have unrealistic expectations for the results of an upcoming event.
Forecasting is also the tool that allows you to compare a new event that you may be considering with those that you are already doing. This is achieved by forecasting the results of a consistent set of key measures that match those you use to evaluate your current events. Additionally, the payback ratio can be estimated for a prospective event and compared with your existing events. The process is to simply rank all of your current events from best to worst using the most recent performance data and then add in the forecasted event results into the mix for consideration. You will be able to readily see where the new events fall among the existing ones. If the new events appear high on the list by payback, then you may consider eliminating or cutting back lower performing events in order to fund the newer ones.
One caution to consider is that you must ensure that lower performing events are not justified on qualitative factors alone, such as your company president being the chairman of the event sponsor association, etc. When the qualitative considerations have been made, you are ready to total up the expected costs and draw a line where spending meets allocated budget. This will provide the best mix of shows and will also equip you to represent suggested changes in the annual program to others (who may be quite fond of certain low performing events!) based upon fact and not just opinions.
The following variables can be forecasted for an upcoming trade show:
1. Estimating Resources
a. Size - Exhibit or venue size required to address the forecasted number of visitors at the event. Size is not a factor of visitor processing alone; it is also a consideration for your company’s visibility within the exhibit hall or venue.
b. Staff- Too many staff members are perhaps worse than too few. You can derive the correct number of staff required to handle the forecasted number of visitors to your exhibit for the show. Remember that sometimes experts are required to man a demo even though they may not get their share of visitors.
c. Cost– When size, tactics and staff are all adjusted based upon forecasted results, it is much easier to adjust the cost of the event with confidence. The optimum amount to spend on an event should be directly based upon the marketing opportunity associated with participating. This will allow your company to remix investment levels for maximum results.
2. Estimating Results
a. Number of Visitors
b. Number of Engaged Prospects
c. Number of Committed Leads
3. Expected Sales Results
a. Using the sales funnel approach, you can estimate the dollar value of the sales opportunity based upon the number of projected leads by product category.
4. Cost Savings
a. Estimating and then producing cost savings is a great way to enhance your plan and results.
5. Customer Relationship Management Value
a. Number of customers addressable at the event
b. Average value of a customer, and Addressable Current Revenue at the event
c. Cross Selling Opportunities/ Results
d. Account Saves and Associated Value
6. Promotion Impact
a. Number of Impressions (Gross and Targeted)
b. Advertising Equivalent Value (Media Value)
7. Payback Ratio and ROI
a. Estimate the probable value in categories of:
-New revenue (value of the sales opportunity, where practical)
-Customer Relationship and Retention Management
-Cost Avoidance
-Promotion (AVE)
Compare all of these to the event cost. This payback ratio is necessary for assessing the value, ranking and comparison of current or future events. Forecasting is an essential element in event marketing success. Otherwise, there is no way to know what results should be expected and thus how much to spend.
Event marketing budgets should be directly correlated with the opportunity an event presents. And as detailed before, your job will be considerably easier and you will get better results and recognition when you set realistic expectations internally with executives and others about expected results and justification for the investment.
Forecasting can make a significant difference in how your event is perceived, how it performs and how it is evaluated. Forecasting is simply estimating, in advance, the results of your key measures and performance expectations for an event. By doing so, you can tailor your resource requirements and tactics for the upcoming event, e.g. adjustments to size, staff, spending and other activities based upon expected needs and results.
By forecasting an event, you can set realistic expectations with upper management and others regarding expected outcomes. This is extremely important as there is little you can do to deliver a successful result if executives and others already have unrealistic expectations for the results of an upcoming event.
Forecasting is also the tool that allows you to compare a new event that you may be considering with those that you are already doing. This is achieved by forecasting the results of a consistent set of key measures that match those you use to evaluate your current events. Additionally, the payback ratio can be estimated for a prospective event and compared with your existing events. The process is to simply rank all of your current events from best to worst using the most recent performance data and then add in the forecasted event results into the mix for consideration. You will be able to readily see where the new events fall among the existing ones. If the new events appear high on the list by payback, then you may consider eliminating or cutting back lower performing events in order to fund the newer ones.
One caution to consider is that you must ensure that lower performing events are not justified on qualitative factors alone, such as your company president being the chairman of the event sponsor association, etc. When the qualitative considerations have been made, you are ready to total up the expected costs and draw a line where spending meets allocated budget. This will provide the best mix of shows and will also equip you to represent suggested changes in the annual program to others (who may be quite fond of certain low performing events!) based upon fact and not just opinions.
The following variables can be forecasted for an upcoming trade show:
1. Estimating Resources
a. Size - Exhibit or venue size required to address the forecasted number of visitors at the event. Size is not a factor of visitor processing alone; it is also a consideration for your company’s visibility within the exhibit hall or venue.
b. Staff- Too many staff members are perhaps worse than too few. You can derive the correct number of staff required to handle the forecasted number of visitors to your exhibit for the show. Remember that sometimes experts are required to man a demo even though they may not get their share of visitors.
c. Cost– When size, tactics and staff are all adjusted based upon forecasted results, it is much easier to adjust the cost of the event with confidence. The optimum amount to spend on an event should be directly based upon the marketing opportunity associated with participating. This will allow your company to remix investment levels for maximum results.
2. Estimating Results
a. Number of Visitors
b. Number of Engaged Prospects
c. Number of Committed Leads
3. Expected Sales Results
a. Using the sales funnel approach, you can estimate the dollar value of the sales opportunity based upon the number of projected leads by product category.
4. Cost Savings
a. Estimating and then producing cost savings is a great way to enhance your plan and results.
5. Customer Relationship Management Value
a. Number of customers addressable at the event
b. Average value of a customer, and Addressable Current Revenue at the event
c. Cross Selling Opportunities/ Results
d. Account Saves and Associated Value
6. Promotion Impact
a. Number of Impressions (Gross and Targeted)
b. Advertising Equivalent Value (Media Value)
7. Payback Ratio and ROI
a. Estimate the probable value in categories of:
-New revenue (value of the sales opportunity, where practical)
-Customer Relationship and Retention Management
-Cost Avoidance
-Promotion (AVE)
Compare all of these to the event cost. This payback ratio is necessary for assessing the value, ranking and comparison of current or future events. Forecasting is an essential element in event marketing success. Otherwise, there is no way to know what results should be expected and thus how much to spend.
Event marketing budgets should be directly correlated with the opportunity an event presents. And as detailed before, your job will be considerably easier and you will get better results and recognition when you set realistic expectations internally with executives and others about expected results and justification for the investment.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Measurement Tip 14
How to Relate Objectives, Success and Measurement Around Three Factors that Will Make or Break the ROI on Your Event
In my classes I teach "Three Critical Success Factors" essential for trade show return on investment. These factors provide the template for a compelling set of measures of regarding what is most important and what will surely be of interest to your top management.
The "Three Critical Success Factors" are:
* You must attract enough of the right people to your exhibit or event (i.e. those individuals who can actually benefit your business)
* You must deliver compelling messages that motivate those people to act
* You must obtain actions from those participants that lead directly to profit improvement for your company (either an increase in revenue or reduction in cost)
The shorter, easier to remember version goes like this:
* The right people
* The right messages
* The right actions and results
If you miss any one of the three, you are not likely to justify your investment in the event. It is essential that they be executed somewhat in order. That is why pre-event and post-event activities are at just as important as event execution.
These ROI related success factors were developed from years of working with clients to create a solid bridge between sales and marketing. They are core to our event measurement and return on investment philosophy.
Of course, many other things must also go well for a successful result.
As I mentioned in the beginning, the following factors provide the template for a compelling set of measures of what is most important:
The right people
Determine the show demographics profile and know how many people attending the show fit your target profiles. Identify them to the individual level if the information is available.
Make a forecast of how many targets are there and how many you will see. Track the number of people who come to your exhibit or venue. Develop averages and totals for the program year.
Determine how many visitors are seriously engaged vs. just entering a drawing or making a casual walk-through. (Make counts during the events) Use exit polls or surveys while visitors wait for a presentation for example, to find our who is visiting your stand. Report all of these numbers and the mix of people by type in your show summary.
The right messages
The only way to know if your messages are resonating with customers and prospects is to ask them. Use exit surveys or post- show surveys to determine 1) Can anyone recall, repeat or describe what you were trying to tell them? 2) Does the message they retained have any potential effect on their role or plans? I.e., does the message you conveyed present a solution to problems or an improvement in a process or profitability? Do they believe what you told them? A great open ended question is to simply ask your visitors “What was the most important thing they learned during your visit?” Compare their answers with your communication objectives. Remember, “nothing” is a possible answer.
The right actions and result
What specifically will your visitors do as a result of visiting you? This is the most valuable question of all. If their intent matches with your desired follow-up behavior you are on your way to ROI. Are your visitors more inclined to do business with your company? Do they find your company to be a good fit for their needs? These elements can be determined with questions such as, “Do you plan to make changes (or a purchase) based upon what you learned today?" or “Is it more likely that you will purchase products from us ?”, etc. These metrics are guaranteed to be of interest to the top management of your company.
Determining the number of visitors who actually take a prescribed step at or after your show is the ultimate measure of success. You may even be able to place a potential value upon those people taking that step if the step is one the sales team has defined and therefore knows the probable value associated with it.
Ed
In my classes I teach "Three Critical Success Factors" essential for trade show return on investment. These factors provide the template for a compelling set of measures of regarding what is most important and what will surely be of interest to your top management.
The "Three Critical Success Factors" are:
* You must attract enough of the right people to your exhibit or event (i.e. those individuals who can actually benefit your business)
* You must deliver compelling messages that motivate those people to act
* You must obtain actions from those participants that lead directly to profit improvement for your company (either an increase in revenue or reduction in cost)
The shorter, easier to remember version goes like this:
* The right people
* The right messages
* The right actions and results
If you miss any one of the three, you are not likely to justify your investment in the event. It is essential that they be executed somewhat in order. That is why pre-event and post-event activities are at just as important as event execution.
These ROI related success factors were developed from years of working with clients to create a solid bridge between sales and marketing. They are core to our event measurement and return on investment philosophy.
Of course, many other things must also go well for a successful result.
As I mentioned in the beginning, the following factors provide the template for a compelling set of measures of what is most important:
The right people
Determine the show demographics profile and know how many people attending the show fit your target profiles. Identify them to the individual level if the information is available.
Make a forecast of how many targets are there and how many you will see. Track the number of people who come to your exhibit or venue. Develop averages and totals for the program year.
Determine how many visitors are seriously engaged vs. just entering a drawing or making a casual walk-through. (Make counts during the events) Use exit polls or surveys while visitors wait for a presentation for example, to find our who is visiting your stand. Report all of these numbers and the mix of people by type in your show summary.
The right messages
The only way to know if your messages are resonating with customers and prospects is to ask them. Use exit surveys or post- show surveys to determine 1) Can anyone recall, repeat or describe what you were trying to tell them? 2) Does the message they retained have any potential effect on their role or plans? I.e., does the message you conveyed present a solution to problems or an improvement in a process or profitability? Do they believe what you told them? A great open ended question is to simply ask your visitors “What was the most important thing they learned during your visit?” Compare their answers with your communication objectives. Remember, “nothing” is a possible answer.
The right actions and result
What specifically will your visitors do as a result of visiting you? This is the most valuable question of all. If their intent matches with your desired follow-up behavior you are on your way to ROI. Are your visitors more inclined to do business with your company? Do they find your company to be a good fit for their needs? These elements can be determined with questions such as, “Do you plan to make changes (or a purchase) based upon what you learned today?" or “Is it more likely that you will purchase products from us ?”, etc. These metrics are guaranteed to be of interest to the top management of your company.
Determining the number of visitors who actually take a prescribed step at or after your show is the ultimate measure of success. You may even be able to place a potential value upon those people taking that step if the step is one the sales team has defined and therefore knows the probable value associated with it.
Ed
Saturday, June 2, 2012
What Do Others Spend on Tradeshows?
Comparing Total Spending for Tradeshows
Using a Cross Industry Benchmark for Cost per Square Foot
Using a Cross Industry Benchmark for Cost per Square Foot
Clients ask us, “How does our spending compare with that of other companies for our tradeshow marketing efforts?” Specifically they want benchmark data for total spending on a typical tradeshow appearance. That includes all activity except staff cost and travel expense (items typically not reflected in the tradeshow budget.)
There are plenty of references found for “spending per square foot” as a comparative index. However, the numbers we see most frequently cited significantly underestimate total spending. Some references we found indicated average total spending (on a cross industry basis) to be around $60 per square foot, including space rental. An often cited number for a "new builds" is ~$150/ sq. ft. Many of you exhibit managers are shaking your heads wondering how can this be true?!
An index of any sort that spans a large number of companies and industries can at best be a rough guideline, but our curiosity was piqued and we decided to run a “cost per square foot” average, based upon actual results from numerous events in our database. These events were managed by companies in several different market segments in the U.S. and elsewhere. The “cost per square foot” index we found may be a useful way to at least ball park how much money you might need to allocate for an upcoming event or get an idea of how your exhibiting cost compares to the spending of others.
The following table provides some real numbers taken from shows that are represented in the sample.
So How Much Do Others Spend?
Based upon these shows plus many more, we estimate the average Cost/ Sq. Ft. benchmark at approx. $150 - $190/ sq. ft.
Cost is defined as all expenses for a tradeshow type event, except employee (staff) cost. Staff cost is time, travel, food and lodging and other expenses they cover from a different budget. The CPSF index includes all activities and tangibles generally found in an actual event budget, including off-floor activities and expenses such as a customer dinner or event.
As a cross reference, I asked our friend Skip Cox at Exhibit Surveys to perform a similar query against their database. Skip found the average spending per square foot, on a cross industry basis, among hundreds more shows, was similar to our estimate, at approximately $170 per square foot.
We do not present these numbers as scientific. They do however reflect actual spending to size ratios from hundreds of real exhibit programs. Background Variables You Should Consider
The average exhibit size reflected in this data is around 400 – 500 square feet, a medium exhibit size. In the table above you will note that some programs were defined as large, where exhibit sizes average 1,000 square feet or more. Some large programs can be managed at a lower cost per square foot compared to smaller ones due to economies of scale. Other factors you should consider when reviewing this data are 1) the average reflects excellent, good, fair and poor cost management by a number of different companies, 2) the cost for space rental varies widely by show and industry, 3) the degree of off-floor or off-site activities included in the total cost numbers varies by industry and company type, and 4) these averages reflect some programs with a number of international events where cost is almost always 20 – 50% higher. (The data represents results from 2007 and 2008 shows.)
Use this information as a general idea of what others are spending. Developing and tracking your own cost indices will provide completely reliable data about your own program and help you make fact based decisions in the future.
Please call or message me with questions. Constellation Communication Corp. http://constellationcc.com/ +1.770.391.0015
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Measurement Tip 13
A Year of Measurement Tips - A Review of Fundamental Concepts for Positive Event ROI!
One year ago I began this series of measurement tips with the theme of “How to become a manager of the business (not just of the events) by achieving and reporting accomplishments that address the profit equation of your organization.” I sincerely hope that most of your have found ways to do just that using some of the ideas and examples I have provided this past year.
Looking back over the twelve measurement tips provides a useful list of key ideas that we have shared and I believe should be an important part of your program and that will enable you to demonstrate direct influence on the profitability of the business:
1) Sales is your internal customer - Your relationship with sales will largely determine your success. (Tip 2 and 6)
2) What you measure will affect how you perform - Identifying what to measure about your event marketing program is an important step in putting your planning on the right track. (Tip 3)
3) There is more to a marketing event than leads - Cost savings and expense avoidance for your company can provide a large amount of event budget justification. (Tip 4)
4) Customer feedback is essential - The other arbiters of your program’s success are the customers and prospects themselves. They should be heard from regularly. (Tip 5)
5) Metrics such as indices allow you to compare and contrast events - Comparing events on an index basis, as with a payback ratio, is useful for identifying relative performance and improvement opportunities. New events that are only in the exploration stage can be compared to existing ones using a forecast of expected results. (Tip 7)
6) Critical Success Factors for event ROI, miss one and you are toast! - For marketing events to be successful and provide an adequate return on investment you must accomplish three things, in order: 1) You must attract enough of the right people, i.e. those with adequate responsibility of the action you expect of them, 2) You must persuade them to act through very effective messaging, demonstrations and environment, 3) You must tell them what you want them to do as a result of their visit and support them in taking that step. The count of those who take the prescribed step is most closely related to adequate ROI.
(Tip 8)
7) Your event staff is an essential ingredient of success - Staff must effectively engage and qualify visitors and persuade them to act. They are the ones who can best assess an event’s ability to provide a well qualified target audience, how well the environment worked to create persuasive interactions, and even how well your exhibit and activity compared with your competitors and others at the show. They can tell you best what should be continued or changed and even how best to participate in the same event next time. (Tip 9 and 12)
8) Nurture customers and protect the revenue base - Spending time and resources enhancing existing customer relationships and thereby protecting their revenue contribution from erosion or loss to competitors is a wise investment. (Tip 10)
9) Technology is our friend – Technology is making it easier to capture feedback, establish intra-event communication, build communities of interest and distribute meaningful content more directly and in new ways. Today, visitors come to trade shows and events with much more knowledge than they did in the past and expect a lot more from you when they visit. Mastery of digital and social media is essential and the use of technology for research is effective and cost efficient. (Tip 11)
10) Choose vendors who are interested in your success! - MC2 has been a good friend and partner with me in bringing a year’s worth of measurement tips to you through their eConnections Newsletter. They serve as a great example of a company focused on their clients’ goals. That is the nature of a strategic vendor, one that is essential to your organizational success. Thanks MC2!
I referenced all twelve measurement tips in this summary. You may find each one in complete detail on my ROI and event measurement blog: http://constellationcc.blogspot.com/
Best wishes for program and personal success!
One year ago I began this series of measurement tips with the theme of “How to become a manager of the business (not just of the events) by achieving and reporting accomplishments that address the profit equation of your organization.” I sincerely hope that most of your have found ways to do just that using some of the ideas and examples I have provided this past year.
Looking back over the twelve measurement tips provides a useful list of key ideas that we have shared and I believe should be an important part of your program and that will enable you to demonstrate direct influence on the profitability of the business:
1) Sales is your internal customer - Your relationship with sales will largely determine your success. (Tip 2 and 6)
2) What you measure will affect how you perform - Identifying what to measure about your event marketing program is an important step in putting your planning on the right track. (Tip 3)
3) There is more to a marketing event than leads - Cost savings and expense avoidance for your company can provide a large amount of event budget justification. (Tip 4)
4) Customer feedback is essential - The other arbiters of your program’s success are the customers and prospects themselves. They should be heard from regularly. (Tip 5)
5) Metrics such as indices allow you to compare and contrast events - Comparing events on an index basis, as with a payback ratio, is useful for identifying relative performance and improvement opportunities. New events that are only in the exploration stage can be compared to existing ones using a forecast of expected results. (Tip 7)
6) Critical Success Factors for event ROI, miss one and you are toast! - For marketing events to be successful and provide an adequate return on investment you must accomplish three things, in order: 1) You must attract enough of the right people, i.e. those with adequate responsibility of the action you expect of them, 2) You must persuade them to act through very effective messaging, demonstrations and environment, 3) You must tell them what you want them to do as a result of their visit and support them in taking that step. The count of those who take the prescribed step is most closely related to adequate ROI.
(Tip 8)
7) Your event staff is an essential ingredient of success - Staff must effectively engage and qualify visitors and persuade them to act. They are the ones who can best assess an event’s ability to provide a well qualified target audience, how well the environment worked to create persuasive interactions, and even how well your exhibit and activity compared with your competitors and others at the show. They can tell you best what should be continued or changed and even how best to participate in the same event next time. (Tip 9 and 12)
8) Nurture customers and protect the revenue base - Spending time and resources enhancing existing customer relationships and thereby protecting their revenue contribution from erosion or loss to competitors is a wise investment. (Tip 10)
9) Technology is our friend – Technology is making it easier to capture feedback, establish intra-event communication, build communities of interest and distribute meaningful content more directly and in new ways. Today, visitors come to trade shows and events with much more knowledge than they did in the past and expect a lot more from you when they visit. Mastery of digital and social media is essential and the use of technology for research is effective and cost efficient. (Tip 11)
10) Choose vendors who are interested in your success! - MC2 has been a good friend and partner with me in bringing a year’s worth of measurement tips to you through their eConnections Newsletter. They serve as a great example of a company focused on their clients’ goals. That is the nature of a strategic vendor, one that is essential to your organizational success. Thanks MC2!
I referenced all twelve measurement tips in this summary. You may find each one in complete detail on my ROI and event measurement blog: http://constellationcc.blogspot.com/
Best wishes for program and personal success!
Friday, April 27, 2012
Measurement Tip 12
Your staff is essential to obtaining, measuring and reporting great ROI on your events!
It is a demonstrated fact that a well trained staff delivers higher event payback. Did you know they are essential to measuring and reporting your results as well?
To be effective, exhibit and event staff must be clear on the company’s objectives for participating in a marketing event, what the measurable, expected outcomes are and their role in obtaining them. Measurement and reporting of an event requires documenting as many visitors to the event or exhibit as possible, reporting on the number of engagements and meetings that occur, and documenting qualitative aspects of the event such as the quality of the marketing opportunity and competitive intelligence. Reporting tools and skills, for use before, during and after the event are important.
For an event to be successful, the event staff must be capable of separating the highly qualified prospects from the crowd. Once separated, the staff is the logical choice to count and document these engagements. In fact, the “extra-exhibit” activity for most of our trade show clients is considerable and affects results. Documenting how many demonstrations, product reviews, discussions and meetings take place is necessary for reporting on an event’s success. These activities build relationships and reduce the cost of doing business in a number of ways, including the cost of future sales calls. The better these activities are documented, the easier it is for event managers to estimate the potential cost savings from these activities to use as justification for the event investment.
More formal meetings with high value contacts, i.e. those with a specific purpose or topic of discussion, are among the most valuable accomplishments at a marketing event. The sales team, executives and select others are in attendance and are in the best position to document the meeting and its’ results. Documented meetings provide some of the greatest potential cost savings associated with an event. Where practical the “front of house” or information desk staff at larger events can provide much of the meetings tracking. Technology, such as visitor management and meeting management software systems, mobile phone applications and tablet based systems are making it easier for the staff to provide the data.
Someone must be responsible and must be trained to make it happen. Pre-event training via on-line modules and on-site event training through briefings should be given strong consideration.
Another form of input is intelligence gathering, specifically competitive intelligence. Define clear goals with event staff before arriving at the show. Identify the competitors participating at the event and determine what type of information might be accessible at the event that would be helpful to your company’s plans. Consider all of the different places your competitors may share information openly at an event. Remember speeches and workshops, etc. Consider competitors marketing plans that may include a new product introduction for example. Mobile tools make it easy for the staff to input competitive and customer intelligence as it is received. Again, the staff must be tasked and trained to accomplish these missions.
After an event, it is essential for staff to report their experiences at the event. For example, the staff and stakeholder post-event survey allows staff to comment on the effectiveness of the event, the quality of their visitor interactions and their recommendations for making future events more effective. Staff survey participants can rank the quality and quantity of the targeted guests/visitors, assess how the company measured against the competition, rate their own performance, identify high-ranking guests at the event (those wonderful bragging rights about who visited your company at an exhibit) and even specific tactics for future shows. This information, if collected in a consistent fashion, can be accumulated and analyzed to help define the success of the exhibit marketing program and can be turned into a report for company management to justify budgets and staff sizes for the following show cycle.
Make activating and training your staff a priority. You will find not only better results reporting, but a more engaged and effective staff.
It is a demonstrated fact that a well trained staff delivers higher event payback. Did you know they are essential to measuring and reporting your results as well?
To be effective, exhibit and event staff must be clear on the company’s objectives for participating in a marketing event, what the measurable, expected outcomes are and their role in obtaining them. Measurement and reporting of an event requires documenting as many visitors to the event or exhibit as possible, reporting on the number of engagements and meetings that occur, and documenting qualitative aspects of the event such as the quality of the marketing opportunity and competitive intelligence. Reporting tools and skills, for use before, during and after the event are important.
For an event to be successful, the event staff must be capable of separating the highly qualified prospects from the crowd. Once separated, the staff is the logical choice to count and document these engagements. In fact, the “extra-exhibit” activity for most of our trade show clients is considerable and affects results. Documenting how many demonstrations, product reviews, discussions and meetings take place is necessary for reporting on an event’s success. These activities build relationships and reduce the cost of doing business in a number of ways, including the cost of future sales calls. The better these activities are documented, the easier it is for event managers to estimate the potential cost savings from these activities to use as justification for the event investment.
More formal meetings with high value contacts, i.e. those with a specific purpose or topic of discussion, are among the most valuable accomplishments at a marketing event. The sales team, executives and select others are in attendance and are in the best position to document the meeting and its’ results. Documented meetings provide some of the greatest potential cost savings associated with an event. Where practical the “front of house” or information desk staff at larger events can provide much of the meetings tracking. Technology, such as visitor management and meeting management software systems, mobile phone applications and tablet based systems are making it easier for the staff to provide the data.
Someone must be responsible and must be trained to make it happen. Pre-event training via on-line modules and on-site event training through briefings should be given strong consideration.
Another form of input is intelligence gathering, specifically competitive intelligence. Define clear goals with event staff before arriving at the show. Identify the competitors participating at the event and determine what type of information might be accessible at the event that would be helpful to your company’s plans. Consider all of the different places your competitors may share information openly at an event. Remember speeches and workshops, etc. Consider competitors marketing plans that may include a new product introduction for example. Mobile tools make it easy for the staff to input competitive and customer intelligence as it is received. Again, the staff must be tasked and trained to accomplish these missions.
After an event, it is essential for staff to report their experiences at the event. For example, the staff and stakeholder post-event survey allows staff to comment on the effectiveness of the event, the quality of their visitor interactions and their recommendations for making future events more effective. Staff survey participants can rank the quality and quantity of the targeted guests/visitors, assess how the company measured against the competition, rate their own performance, identify high-ranking guests at the event (those wonderful bragging rights about who visited your company at an exhibit) and even specific tactics for future shows. This information, if collected in a consistent fashion, can be accumulated and analyzed to help define the success of the exhibit marketing program and can be turned into a report for company management to justify budgets and staff sizes for the following show cycle.
Make activating and training your staff a priority. You will find not only better results reporting, but a more engaged and effective staff.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Measurement Tip 11
Capture Real Time Event Performance Input from Customers, Prospects and Staff Using Simple Tools
In previous measurement tips I have discussed the importance of gathering feedback from both customers and prospects, as well as from the event staff.
Recently, we created an app for a client that provided instant updates on how visitors were reacting to a special innovation showcase. We also created apps for the staff to provide feedback on visitors and to document important meetings. The great advantage of this feedback mechanism was that it required no equipment beyond the text capable cell phones everyone was already carrying and the information collected was available in “real time”.
Using SMS programming and a short code (think American Idol voting style), it is possible to gather real, instant input from a variety of people. The SMS applications can be sent to the user using a variety of formats and responses can be as simple as texting back a simple letter or a pre-coded string of text that translates to participant ratings.
There are multiple advantages to utilizing SMS applications for event measurement. Some of the more significant advantages are:
1. Information can be collected in “real time”- SMS surveys allow for information to be instantly transmitted from a mobile device to the application.
2. The user can be reached anywhere, at any time- SMS surveys do not have the same limitations that traditional survey techniques have. The respondents to the surveys do not have to connect to a kiosk or speak to someone. The SMS surveys can be completed while a visitor or staff member is on a plane or walking back to his or her hotel room. According to a 2011 survey by MobiThinking, 87% of the world’s population now subscribes to a mobile device. This means that the chances of a visitor to your exhibit or event not having a mobile device are extremely limited.
3. The feedback is available instantly- Current SMS technologies allow for participant feedback to be instantly transmitted to a database. This allows for information from an event to be collected and distributed with very little wait time.
Making adjustments on the fly or after a nightly debrief is a very attractive advantage made possible by hearing directly from your visitors and staff about how well your communication event is working. This is extremely valuable when an effective and engaging staff is needed to create the best possible result at an event.
So, how exactly do SMS applications work? Let’s consider a few examples. You work for SmartCo. Your company chairperson just gave the keynote address at a major industry conference. You ask the audience via the microphone, presentation screen and/or using printed cards, to text “Smartco” to short code 12345 on their smartphone. They immediately receive a message thanking them for participating and a request for their input on three to four questions on the importance of the keynote content. The first question pops up and asks for a reply by simply texting a single letter. For example, the first question may read, “How valuable was the content of this keynote address to your job? Text V– Very Valuable, S- Somewhat Valuable, N– Not So Valuable”. The participant sends the letter and another question appears. Upon answering the last question, the participant receives a thank you screen that may contain a link to your company’s mobile optimized landing page, a link that directs them to a request for contact input, or any other mechanism you might employ.
The applications may be easily tailored with relevant information and can include incentives for participation. Using printed cards along with other promotion tools with this process can create a more meaningful marketing touch. Utilizing a prize drawing, for example, will increase response and draw people back to your exhibit. You can even remain in touch with people after the event.
On the other side of the fence, staff can use a more condensed version of this type of data input to provide feedback on visitors or gather competitive intelligence, etc. Staff members can simply text a keyword followed by their observations or a string of data, such as a lead format, to a short code address. This data accumulates during the event and is instantly accessible or can be summarized at the end of the day. Several of our clients may have three, four or more keyword/short code apps running at one event.
Collecting input using this method requires very careful planning and design on several levels. The first consideration is that short message service (SMS) is limited in the number of characters that may be used, so words must be precise and to the point. Programming these applications takes a creative approach, much like crafting a tweet on twitter. The second element to remember is that participants cannot be confused about how to respond and must not perceive a risk for responding. The third major consideration is that visitors expect privacy and the Mobile Marketing Association has protocols that dictate how SMS applications may be used to better respect participants communication channels. The final consideration is to reflect on how SMS applications can link to valuable resources and establish goal conversion milestones. These capabilities make the applications valuable for not only data gathering, but also for campaign activation.
In summary, there are a variety of benefits to using SMS technologies at trade shows and events to gather visitor and staff feedback. Standard Messaging Service (SMS) applications are a new, creative option for measuring staff and visitor feedback at marketing events.
In previous measurement tips I have discussed the importance of gathering feedback from both customers and prospects, as well as from the event staff.
Recently, we created an app for a client that provided instant updates on how visitors were reacting to a special innovation showcase. We also created apps for the staff to provide feedback on visitors and to document important meetings. The great advantage of this feedback mechanism was that it required no equipment beyond the text capable cell phones everyone was already carrying and the information collected was available in “real time”.
Using SMS programming and a short code (think American Idol voting style), it is possible to gather real, instant input from a variety of people. The SMS applications can be sent to the user using a variety of formats and responses can be as simple as texting back a simple letter or a pre-coded string of text that translates to participant ratings.
There are multiple advantages to utilizing SMS applications for event measurement. Some of the more significant advantages are:
1. Information can be collected in “real time”- SMS surveys allow for information to be instantly transmitted from a mobile device to the application.
2. The user can be reached anywhere, at any time- SMS surveys do not have the same limitations that traditional survey techniques have. The respondents to the surveys do not have to connect to a kiosk or speak to someone. The SMS surveys can be completed while a visitor or staff member is on a plane or walking back to his or her hotel room. According to a 2011 survey by MobiThinking, 87% of the world’s population now subscribes to a mobile device. This means that the chances of a visitor to your exhibit or event not having a mobile device are extremely limited.
3. The feedback is available instantly- Current SMS technologies allow for participant feedback to be instantly transmitted to a database. This allows for information from an event to be collected and distributed with very little wait time.
Making adjustments on the fly or after a nightly debrief is a very attractive advantage made possible by hearing directly from your visitors and staff about how well your communication event is working. This is extremely valuable when an effective and engaging staff is needed to create the best possible result at an event.
So, how exactly do SMS applications work? Let’s consider a few examples. You work for SmartCo. Your company chairperson just gave the keynote address at a major industry conference. You ask the audience via the microphone, presentation screen and/or using printed cards, to text “Smartco” to short code 12345 on their smartphone. They immediately receive a message thanking them for participating and a request for their input on three to four questions on the importance of the keynote content. The first question pops up and asks for a reply by simply texting a single letter. For example, the first question may read, “How valuable was the content of this keynote address to your job? Text V– Very Valuable, S- Somewhat Valuable, N– Not So Valuable”. The participant sends the letter and another question appears. Upon answering the last question, the participant receives a thank you screen that may contain a link to your company’s mobile optimized landing page, a link that directs them to a request for contact input, or any other mechanism you might employ.
The applications may be easily tailored with relevant information and can include incentives for participation. Using printed cards along with other promotion tools with this process can create a more meaningful marketing touch. Utilizing a prize drawing, for example, will increase response and draw people back to your exhibit. You can even remain in touch with people after the event.
On the other side of the fence, staff can use a more condensed version of this type of data input to provide feedback on visitors or gather competitive intelligence, etc. Staff members can simply text a keyword followed by their observations or a string of data, such as a lead format, to a short code address. This data accumulates during the event and is instantly accessible or can be summarized at the end of the day. Several of our clients may have three, four or more keyword/short code apps running at one event.
Collecting input using this method requires very careful planning and design on several levels. The first consideration is that short message service (SMS) is limited in the number of characters that may be used, so words must be precise and to the point. Programming these applications takes a creative approach, much like crafting a tweet on twitter. The second element to remember is that participants cannot be confused about how to respond and must not perceive a risk for responding. The third major consideration is that visitors expect privacy and the Mobile Marketing Association has protocols that dictate how SMS applications may be used to better respect participants communication channels. The final consideration is to reflect on how SMS applications can link to valuable resources and establish goal conversion milestones. These capabilities make the applications valuable for not only data gathering, but also for campaign activation.
In summary, there are a variety of benefits to using SMS technologies at trade shows and events to gather visitor and staff feedback. Standard Messaging Service (SMS) applications are a new, creative option for measuring staff and visitor feedback at marketing events.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Value is a lot More than Leads! - How to Support Your Exhibitors on Broad Array of Profit Improvement Goals
Even though many companies (and some show managers) view trade shows primarily as a sales and marketing activity, there are a lot more opportunities for exhibitors to gain value than simply collecting leads from prospects. Trade shows present many types of face to face interactive opportunities beyond seeing potential customers. Suppliers, partners, channels, integrators, designers, regulators and many others are present at your shows and can potentially impact the revenue stream or cost of doing business for your exhibitors. Any interaction that results in revenue generation, improved retention or lower cost of doing business improves the profitability of an exhibiting company and therefore the value associated with their investment in your show.
Functionally, trade shows are an opportunity to accomplish much more than prospecting for leads. Most companies use trade shows to interact with existing customers to protect their revenue base, to reduce the cost of doing business through lower-cost meetings with key contacts, and conducting purchasing and recruitment activities. Many companies implement significant press and PR initiatives using your show as an anchor point.
Thirty years of identifying and estimating the value of trade events for my clients led me to create the following model portraying the broader scope of profit improvement opportunities at a trade show.
The model is built around two major goals, 1) Business Improvement and 2) Marketing Communications. The following chart shows tactical objectives and targeted audiences for each of the overarching goals:
Supporting your exhibitors’ ability to accomplish these types of goals will provide many more ways for you exhibitors to derive value from your event. Think of the other exhibitors and even speakers and panelists as additional valuable contacts for your exhibitors and sponsors. Any matching mechanism that will help an exhibitor identify all of the potentially valuable contacts available at your event will result in increased value for all parities.
The notion that a show in Chicago is primarily about reaching individuals who happen to attend in Chicago is outdated thinking. Your event can be a conduit to the entire worldwide market for your exhibitors and sponsors. Through direct media, world media, digital media such as live streaming and archived events and social media connections and interactions between events, the exposure opportunity for your exhibitors and sponsors at an event is greatly multiplied.
To be more specific about the breadth of opportunities an exhibitor is looking for at an event, consider the planning guide we suggest for our clients and ways that your event might facilitate their accomplishment:
These tactics provide the basis for optimizing value from any customer or trade event.
A. Executive Participation
1. How can an exhibitor utilize their executives at an event in support of multiple business objectives?
2. Examples of tactical objectives
a. Number of high value contact meetings with visitors, suppliers, partners, and people who are influential in the business environment
b. Use of executives in customer interaction events, thought leadership activities, press interaction and high profile speaking opportunities or appearances
B. Thought Leadership
1. How can an exhibitor take advantage of an event and associated opportunities to position the company as a leader in shaping the capabilities and future of the market served by the event?
2. Examples of tactical objectives
a. Match between though leadership opportunities and marketing priorities
b. Array of speaking or publishing opportunities
c. Number of speakers, appearances
d. Reach – number of people influenced, impressions
C. PR/Press Impact
1. How can an exhibitor take advantage of an event and associated opportunities to influence brand, positioning, awareness and perceptions through the press and analysts associated with your event and motivate them to cover the company’s news, products and services in a positive manner?
2. Examples of tactical objectives
a. Number of press, PR, and/or analyst meetings and briefings
b. Projected number of press hits, actual tracking of event related press by priority messages, tone, focus, geography, etc.
c. Utilization of the event press facilities and contacts
D. Promotion
1. How will an exhibitor use the opportunities afforded by an event to promote the company brand, products and services and communicate marcom and community relations messages to targeted individuals and the broader market in general?
2. Examples of tactical objectives
a. Number of impressions
b. Types of impressions
c. Advertising equivalent value of event promotion
d. Awareness, interest, purchase intent, brand fit, net promoter scores with comparisons of pre and post-event levels
E. Business Development
1. How will an exhibitor use the event showcase, demonstrate and promote priority offerings to the targeted individuals and organizations addressable through an event?
2. Examples of tactical objectives
a. Number of customer/prospect meetings with customers, prospects and others
b. Number of “cost of doing business” related contacts and meetings
c. Number of an exhibit or pavilion visitors and engagements
d. Number of demonstrations for priority products and services
e. Number of follow-up opportunities recorded as a result of event engagement
f. Documented progress in customer relationship maturity through meetings and content for existing customers
F. General Return on Objectives
1. What are the stated objectives the company has that are not explicitly covered elsewhere in this structure
2. Examples of tactical objectives
a. Influence a standards, technical or alliance body to adopt or change a standard
b. Launch a product or program
c. Get a company executive elected to the board or chief position in the host organization
G. Technology and Product Showcase
1. How will an exhibitor utilize the event to showcase products and services that are applicable and valuable to the target audience at the event?
2. Examples of tactical objectives
a. High priority products and services, by division included in the exhibit mix
b. Product showcasing tracks directly with sales goals for divisions and geographies
c. Number and types of products and services showcased
1. Priority focus for messages and product demonstrations
2. Number of documented demonstrations of each
H. Expense Avoidance/ Cost Reduction
1. How can an exhibitor use the event to reduce the cost of doing business for the company?
2. Examples of tactical objectives
a. Cross- over savings associated with travel and other expense offsets such as press briefings, launches, announcements, etc.
b. Logistical expense avoidance associated with high- expense demonstrations, aircraft, etc. to locate near customers and prospects
c. Re-use of creative, web and collateral development for future events or for field sales, etc.
d. Cost of the event vs. the cost to reach high value contacts and show case products and services through other channels.
e. How well does spending at this event on a cost index basis, such as cost per square foot and cost per visitor, engaged visitor or lead compare with average company spending as well as industry spending in general on comparable events
I. Return on Investment
1. How much value can be identified and documents in association with the objectives above and how does that compare to the cost of doing the event? (expressed as a simple payback ratio, i.e. $43/1))
a. Cost avoidance
b. Value of promotion and press impact
c. Sales Opportunity (revenue impact if practical to assess)
d. Value of Customer Relationship Management, value of retention efforts
Most companies are looking for real value from their investments in trade events. They are especially looking for those events that are focused and organized to deliver value on many levels and in many ways. As an event organizer, your challenge is to find as many ways as possible to support your exhibitors and sponsors in accomplishing revenue, cost and promotion related goals. Teaching your exhibitors and sponsors to see more opportunities in your event and how to plan for the accomplishment of a broader array of goals may be a good place to start.
Encourage your exhibitors and sponsors to identify measure and report value internally to justify continued participation and growth. Many event and show managers measure everything they do in the way of face-to-face activity against the types of goals presented here. The best event managers not only use measurement to justify their events and budgets, but also because they know they have room to improve and measurement is their tool to identify and implement improvement. In fact, the more successful a program is, the more likely it is that measurement is an important part of their process. The events that are measured are the most likely to be cost justified in the eyes of executive management.
Functionally, trade shows are an opportunity to accomplish much more than prospecting for leads. Most companies use trade shows to interact with existing customers to protect their revenue base, to reduce the cost of doing business through lower-cost meetings with key contacts, and conducting purchasing and recruitment activities. Many companies implement significant press and PR initiatives using your show as an anchor point.
Thirty years of identifying and estimating the value of trade events for my clients led me to create the following model portraying the broader scope of profit improvement opportunities at a trade show.
The model is built around two major goals, 1) Business Improvement and 2) Marketing Communications. The following chart shows tactical objectives and targeted audiences for each of the overarching goals:
Supporting your exhibitors’ ability to accomplish these types of goals will provide many more ways for you exhibitors to derive value from your event. Think of the other exhibitors and even speakers and panelists as additional valuable contacts for your exhibitors and sponsors. Any matching mechanism that will help an exhibitor identify all of the potentially valuable contacts available at your event will result in increased value for all parities.
The notion that a show in Chicago is primarily about reaching individuals who happen to attend in Chicago is outdated thinking. Your event can be a conduit to the entire worldwide market for your exhibitors and sponsors. Through direct media, world media, digital media such as live streaming and archived events and social media connections and interactions between events, the exposure opportunity for your exhibitors and sponsors at an event is greatly multiplied.
To be more specific about the breadth of opportunities an exhibitor is looking for at an event, consider the planning guide we suggest for our clients and ways that your event might facilitate their accomplishment:
These tactics provide the basis for optimizing value from any customer or trade event.
A. Executive Participation
1. How can an exhibitor utilize their executives at an event in support of multiple business objectives?
2. Examples of tactical objectives
a. Number of high value contact meetings with visitors, suppliers, partners, and people who are influential in the business environment
b. Use of executives in customer interaction events, thought leadership activities, press interaction and high profile speaking opportunities or appearances
B. Thought Leadership
1. How can an exhibitor take advantage of an event and associated opportunities to position the company as a leader in shaping the capabilities and future of the market served by the event?
2. Examples of tactical objectives
a. Match between though leadership opportunities and marketing priorities
b. Array of speaking or publishing opportunities
c. Number of speakers, appearances
d. Reach – number of people influenced, impressions
C. PR/Press Impact
1. How can an exhibitor take advantage of an event and associated opportunities to influence brand, positioning, awareness and perceptions through the press and analysts associated with your event and motivate them to cover the company’s news, products and services in a positive manner?
2. Examples of tactical objectives
a. Number of press, PR, and/or analyst meetings and briefings
b. Projected number of press hits, actual tracking of event related press by priority messages, tone, focus, geography, etc.
c. Utilization of the event press facilities and contacts
D. Promotion
1. How will an exhibitor use the opportunities afforded by an event to promote the company brand, products and services and communicate marcom and community relations messages to targeted individuals and the broader market in general?
2. Examples of tactical objectives
a. Number of impressions
b. Types of impressions
c. Advertising equivalent value of event promotion
d. Awareness, interest, purchase intent, brand fit, net promoter scores with comparisons of pre and post-event levels
E. Business Development
1. How will an exhibitor use the event showcase, demonstrate and promote priority offerings to the targeted individuals and organizations addressable through an event?
2. Examples of tactical objectives
a. Number of customer/prospect meetings with customers, prospects and others
b. Number of “cost of doing business” related contacts and meetings
c. Number of an exhibit or pavilion visitors and engagements
d. Number of demonstrations for priority products and services
e. Number of follow-up opportunities recorded as a result of event engagement
f. Documented progress in customer relationship maturity through meetings and content for existing customers
F. General Return on Objectives
1. What are the stated objectives the company has that are not explicitly covered elsewhere in this structure
2. Examples of tactical objectives
a. Influence a standards, technical or alliance body to adopt or change a standard
b. Launch a product or program
c. Get a company executive elected to the board or chief position in the host organization
G. Technology and Product Showcase
1. How will an exhibitor utilize the event to showcase products and services that are applicable and valuable to the target audience at the event?
2. Examples of tactical objectives
a. High priority products and services, by division included in the exhibit mix
b. Product showcasing tracks directly with sales goals for divisions and geographies
c. Number and types of products and services showcased
1. Priority focus for messages and product demonstrations
2. Number of documented demonstrations of each
H. Expense Avoidance/ Cost Reduction
1. How can an exhibitor use the event to reduce the cost of doing business for the company?
2. Examples of tactical objectives
a. Cross- over savings associated with travel and other expense offsets such as press briefings, launches, announcements, etc.
b. Logistical expense avoidance associated with high- expense demonstrations, aircraft, etc. to locate near customers and prospects
c. Re-use of creative, web and collateral development for future events or for field sales, etc.
d. Cost of the event vs. the cost to reach high value contacts and show case products and services through other channels.
e. How well does spending at this event on a cost index basis, such as cost per square foot and cost per visitor, engaged visitor or lead compare with average company spending as well as industry spending in general on comparable events
I. Return on Investment
1. How much value can be identified and documents in association with the objectives above and how does that compare to the cost of doing the event? (expressed as a simple payback ratio, i.e. $43/1))
a. Cost avoidance
b. Value of promotion and press impact
c. Sales Opportunity (revenue impact if practical to assess)
d. Value of Customer Relationship Management, value of retention efforts
Most companies are looking for real value from their investments in trade events. They are especially looking for those events that are focused and organized to deliver value on many levels and in many ways. As an event organizer, your challenge is to find as many ways as possible to support your exhibitors and sponsors in accomplishing revenue, cost and promotion related goals. Teaching your exhibitors and sponsors to see more opportunities in your event and how to plan for the accomplishment of a broader array of goals may be a good place to start.
Encourage your exhibitors and sponsors to identify measure and report value internally to justify continued participation and growth. Many event and show managers measure everything they do in the way of face-to-face activity against the types of goals presented here. The best event managers not only use measurement to justify their events and budgets, but also because they know they have room to improve and measurement is their tool to identify and implement improvement. In fact, the more successful a program is, the more likely it is that measurement is an important part of their process. The events that are measured are the most likely to be cost justified in the eyes of executive management.
Monday, March 5, 2012
The High Potential Trade Show Marketer
Key Note Address for the Certified Trade Show Marketer Awards Dinner at Exhibitor Show, Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, NV, March 4th, 2012
Given by Ed Jones, President, Constellation Communication Corp.
CTSM Graduates,
Congratulations! I am honored to address you and those in this room who care about you tonight.
There are those of you who are receiving bronze, silver and gold levels of achievement tonight upon your CTSM certification and I congratulate you. And with your indulgence and support, I want to address my remarks tonight to the newest to join your ranks, the new CTSM graduates.
You have learned more than the average brain can accommodate. Your cup runneth over. You know how to do much more than one person can possibly demonstrate. You have earned the right to an opinion that deserves to be heard. You have assumed your rightful place among the few who will determine the future of face- to- face marketing.
You have done this all while riding a bucking bronco of a full time job, on the rodeo circuit of your company’s marketing events, most often without any accommodations on deadlines or resources.
You are now certified, grade A, blue ribbon, 100% CTSM, Certified Trade Show Marketer. Join us in giving yourselves a hand!
You now join a very elite group, 349 graduates, over 20 years of CTSM ,who have propelled and maintained our industry as the number one B2B marketing spend in support of sales, beating out specialty publications, internet, promotions and PR respectively (according to a recent Market Reality Survey).
Now that you have achieved this distinction, you must figure out how to activate the power of knowledge combined with the experience you achieved through your CTSM program for the benefit of yourself, your company, your peers, colleagues and family.
That is what I want to talk with you about tonight: achieving the maximum degree of success from the extraordinary amount of work you have put into this. Because, as you are successful, you will also accomplish the goals of supporting and satisfying others who are important to you.
I have worked in this industry for over 30 years. I know I don’t look old enough, but it’s true! During that time, I have observed little consistency in the career potential of trade show and event managers. It is seemingly dichotomous.
The job of trade show manager, director (or whatever you may be called) can be a highly respected and important position. One where unheard of levels of decision making authority and budget responsibility are exercised daily, the likes of which cannot be found in any other job at a similar pay grade.
Executives seek this manager’s advice, sales teams comply with his or her suggestions, and are grateful for the opportunities created through his/her efforts. This manager’s events are seen as accelerating the buying process and lowering the cost of doing business. This manager is called upon to take on additional roles and responsibilities.
This event manager’s career potential would best be described as “High.”
Yet, in another company, immediately across the aisle at the same show, a marketing events manager gets little, if any respect. They have a hard time gaining control of the staff and receive unfocused criticism at every turn. This manager is controlled by the budget rather than exercising budget control and suffers at the hands of managers from other departments. Budgets and deadlines are dominating measures of satisfactory performance. Note, I said “satisfactory” not “excellent” performance.
A bright spot is that this manager is seen as indispensable to the success of the next event.
This event manager’s career potential must be described as “low.”
I have not made an estimate of which is more prevalent, high potential, low potential or something in between. I have noted some of the common characteristics and qualities of the high potential managers. My goal for you tonight is to share what those things are.
A few secret herbs and spices, if you will, to add to all those ingredients you gathered from the CTSM commissary for your recipe for success.
Truthfully, one of the most important characteristics may be the hardest to effect. High potential event managers almost always have strong interpersonal skills. Why? Because almost everything they and you do requires the help and approval of other people. There is simply no substitute for understanding what other people need, what makes them happy or nervous, and what they regard as success.
The fundamental elements in productive interpersonal skills are listening, observing, thoughtfully considering that which you have heard and seen, and then tailoring your approach for maximum productivity. These steps must be combined with a genuine, measured concern for the well being of others, in concert with your own goals. Do whatever you must to improve upon your interpersonal power, and seek whatever feedback you can get from the perspective of others.
Of equal importance, and, an important element of the first quality, is the ability to communicate effectively. Good verbal and written communication skills are essential, not only to interpersonal success (we are talking persuasion here), but to successful management of any project and for gaining recognition for your ideas and accomplishments.
Effective communication is also an essential element for event marketing success. You must know what constitutes effective communication to know if your events are communicating productively. If you have not studied and developed these skills adequately, do so immediately! Find outlets to speak regularly. Seek opportunities for your presentation skills to be evaluated.
What should you speak about? Your ideas, of course, for making your company more successful through event marketing!
The third characteristic is a heavy reliance upon collaboration with a wide range of supporting individuals, other departments, organizations and suppliers. Getting people and organizations involved in the success of your program depends upon two things. One, how clear it is to them what personal value they will realize by contributing their time and resources and two, how well they understand what needs to be done and can visualize their role in making it happen.
CTSM notwithstanding, you will not succeed without accessing the knowledge and support of those who run sales, communications, product management, PR or any of a host of other functions in your organization. When people are properly activated and motivated they will help you succeed, because through your success, they succeed.
While I am on the topic of teamwork, the most successful managers have carefully picked their suppliers and made them an integral part of their team. Engage support from suppliers who can deliver expertise and capabilities that are complimentary to your own. Then, go overboard in communicating strategy and sharing information with them, so they can activate their own expertise and resources to help you achieve remarkable results. You should choose suppliers who understand how to translate face-to-face interaction into business results.
The fourth characteristic is discipline in planning, managing and measuring projects. I know for certain that you learned these things in your curriculum (I was there!) and you are well prepared to demonstrate them.
The fifth characteristic is the tendency for these managers to share what they know and to take joy in activating the capabilities of others. Take a minute and think back through the numerous faces of those who shared their knowledge and expertise with you through this program. Those are pleasant thoughts, aren’t they? Because those people shared their secrets with you to make you successful. I would bet that you can remember an "Ah Ha" moment quite vividly! Virtually none of those people were paid to do it.
Now think about a time when a CTSM teacher was personally excited for you when you had a success in your job through the application of knowledge and skills they conferred upon you. I know it always makes me really happy when a student calls me or stops me in the hall at Exhibitor Show to tell me of their success.
And that brings me to the last one, a perspective and discipline that will make your CTSM skills pay off in career advancement. This one is probably the most powerful as a career tool. The main focus of most high potential managers is on the success of the company and those around them, not on the success of the next event.
Not to be misunderstood, success in every event is a virtual requirement. However, if you limit yourself to this scope, you will fall short of being recognized for the full depth of your capabilities and contributions. For example, when you report saving thousands on recent events, by refurbishing an exhibit. Of course, that is a very good thing! Your boss will be pleased, but executives may not notice. Why? Because that level of detail is not on their radar screen and while the amount saved may seem quite large to you, it is not material at higher levels of management. You may demonstrate that you can do more with less and that sometimes is what you will get in return.
A much more important message may be that customers you already have, attending the upcoming show, represent $100 million dollars of your company’s most profitable revenue. And through your astute market awareness, you know what your competitors are planning to do to steal them away and more importantly, how to combat it. Executives (and everyone else) are interested in that message!
So how do you do this?
You must become a consultant to the business and focus your efforts on improving the profitability of the company. Make recommendations that will improve earnings. Build collaboration with managers in other functional elements of the business. Show them how they can benefit from a well thought out trade show or event opportunity. Frame your discussions around the elements of the profit equation, increasing and protecting revenue and decreasing expense, i.e. the cost of doing business, through smart event activity.
I have a client in a very large defense technology company who exemplifies the characteristics and qualities I share with you tonight. The chairman of the board of that company mentioned the trade show program on several of the recent earnings calls. Earnings calls are between the top level executives of the company and the most influential people on the planet relative to their financial well being.
The reason? That trade show manager has elevated the perception of accomplishments at marketing events to that of a profitable business equation, one that is important, even to the chairman. That manager is focused on managing his overall program and its impact on the company. Event success is essential to his overall goal.
I was privileged to teach most of you. So with what may be my last opportunity in that regard, I want to challenge you with some questions to consider about your future! With the superior knowledge and abilities you have gained through your CTSM accomplishment, what will you achieve?
• Will you be recognized for making a significant impact upon the success of your organization?
• Will customers thank you for the clarity, value and the overall excellence of their experience at your events?
• Will you show others how to achieve their goals through your programs?
• Will you teach the new recruits how to do the job and accomplish remarkable results?
• Will you give back to the CTSM program your experience and expertise?
If so, it is a certainty that you will be called upon to accept more important responsibilities and you will see your earnings and job satisfaction increase beyond those of your colleagues.
Tonight, you have shown you have what it takes to accomplish these things. You will be the ones that take this industry to the next level.
The next five years will bring more change than the last twenty. Some of what you learned is already obsolete. Digital and social media, interactive demonstrations and visitor management technology are your new tools, making it possible for you to do things we could have only imagined a couple of years ago. These tools are not only new, they are evolving at a dizzy pace. You cannot stop your learning tonight, just as those who will receive higher awards tonight have continued on.
Do something great! Dare to do something unique!
Wow your visitors and your company.
Wow all of us!
Be the “high potential” manager.
I raise a glass to your accomplishments and your future success!
Congratulations and my best wishes to all of you.
Ed Jones
Constellation Communication Corp.
Trade Show and Event Marketing Evaluation, Measurement, Planning and Return on Investment
+1.770.391.0015
inquiry@constellationcc.com
Given by Ed Jones, President, Constellation Communication Corp.
CTSM Graduates,
Congratulations! I am honored to address you and those in this room who care about you tonight.
There are those of you who are receiving bronze, silver and gold levels of achievement tonight upon your CTSM certification and I congratulate you. And with your indulgence and support, I want to address my remarks tonight to the newest to join your ranks, the new CTSM graduates.
You have learned more than the average brain can accommodate. Your cup runneth over. You know how to do much more than one person can possibly demonstrate. You have earned the right to an opinion that deserves to be heard. You have assumed your rightful place among the few who will determine the future of face- to- face marketing.
You have done this all while riding a bucking bronco of a full time job, on the rodeo circuit of your company’s marketing events, most often without any accommodations on deadlines or resources.
You are now certified, grade A, blue ribbon, 100% CTSM, Certified Trade Show Marketer. Join us in giving yourselves a hand!
You now join a very elite group, 349 graduates, over 20 years of CTSM ,who have propelled and maintained our industry as the number one B2B marketing spend in support of sales, beating out specialty publications, internet, promotions and PR respectively (according to a recent Market Reality Survey).
Now that you have achieved this distinction, you must figure out how to activate the power of knowledge combined with the experience you achieved through your CTSM program for the benefit of yourself, your company, your peers, colleagues and family.
That is what I want to talk with you about tonight: achieving the maximum degree of success from the extraordinary amount of work you have put into this. Because, as you are successful, you will also accomplish the goals of supporting and satisfying others who are important to you.
I have worked in this industry for over 30 years. I know I don’t look old enough, but it’s true! During that time, I have observed little consistency in the career potential of trade show and event managers. It is seemingly dichotomous.
The job of trade show manager, director (or whatever you may be called) can be a highly respected and important position. One where unheard of levels of decision making authority and budget responsibility are exercised daily, the likes of which cannot be found in any other job at a similar pay grade.
Executives seek this manager’s advice, sales teams comply with his or her suggestions, and are grateful for the opportunities created through his/her efforts. This manager’s events are seen as accelerating the buying process and lowering the cost of doing business. This manager is called upon to take on additional roles and responsibilities.
This event manager’s career potential would best be described as “High.”
Yet, in another company, immediately across the aisle at the same show, a marketing events manager gets little, if any respect. They have a hard time gaining control of the staff and receive unfocused criticism at every turn. This manager is controlled by the budget rather than exercising budget control and suffers at the hands of managers from other departments. Budgets and deadlines are dominating measures of satisfactory performance. Note, I said “satisfactory” not “excellent” performance.
A bright spot is that this manager is seen as indispensable to the success of the next event.
This event manager’s career potential must be described as “low.”
I have not made an estimate of which is more prevalent, high potential, low potential or something in between. I have noted some of the common characteristics and qualities of the high potential managers. My goal for you tonight is to share what those things are.
A few secret herbs and spices, if you will, to add to all those ingredients you gathered from the CTSM commissary for your recipe for success.
Truthfully, one of the most important characteristics may be the hardest to effect. High potential event managers almost always have strong interpersonal skills. Why? Because almost everything they and you do requires the help and approval of other people. There is simply no substitute for understanding what other people need, what makes them happy or nervous, and what they regard as success.
The fundamental elements in productive interpersonal skills are listening, observing, thoughtfully considering that which you have heard and seen, and then tailoring your approach for maximum productivity. These steps must be combined with a genuine, measured concern for the well being of others, in concert with your own goals. Do whatever you must to improve upon your interpersonal power, and seek whatever feedback you can get from the perspective of others.
Of equal importance, and, an important element of the first quality, is the ability to communicate effectively. Good verbal and written communication skills are essential, not only to interpersonal success (we are talking persuasion here), but to successful management of any project and for gaining recognition for your ideas and accomplishments.
Effective communication is also an essential element for event marketing success. You must know what constitutes effective communication to know if your events are communicating productively. If you have not studied and developed these skills adequately, do so immediately! Find outlets to speak regularly. Seek opportunities for your presentation skills to be evaluated.
What should you speak about? Your ideas, of course, for making your company more successful through event marketing!
The third characteristic is a heavy reliance upon collaboration with a wide range of supporting individuals, other departments, organizations and suppliers. Getting people and organizations involved in the success of your program depends upon two things. One, how clear it is to them what personal value they will realize by contributing their time and resources and two, how well they understand what needs to be done and can visualize their role in making it happen.
CTSM notwithstanding, you will not succeed without accessing the knowledge and support of those who run sales, communications, product management, PR or any of a host of other functions in your organization. When people are properly activated and motivated they will help you succeed, because through your success, they succeed.
While I am on the topic of teamwork, the most successful managers have carefully picked their suppliers and made them an integral part of their team. Engage support from suppliers who can deliver expertise and capabilities that are complimentary to your own. Then, go overboard in communicating strategy and sharing information with them, so they can activate their own expertise and resources to help you achieve remarkable results. You should choose suppliers who understand how to translate face-to-face interaction into business results.
The fourth characteristic is discipline in planning, managing and measuring projects. I know for certain that you learned these things in your curriculum (I was there!) and you are well prepared to demonstrate them.
The fifth characteristic is the tendency for these managers to share what they know and to take joy in activating the capabilities of others. Take a minute and think back through the numerous faces of those who shared their knowledge and expertise with you through this program. Those are pleasant thoughts, aren’t they? Because those people shared their secrets with you to make you successful. I would bet that you can remember an "Ah Ha" moment quite vividly! Virtually none of those people were paid to do it.
Now think about a time when a CTSM teacher was personally excited for you when you had a success in your job through the application of knowledge and skills they conferred upon you. I know it always makes me really happy when a student calls me or stops me in the hall at Exhibitor Show to tell me of their success.
And that brings me to the last one, a perspective and discipline that will make your CTSM skills pay off in career advancement. This one is probably the most powerful as a career tool. The main focus of most high potential managers is on the success of the company and those around them, not on the success of the next event.
Not to be misunderstood, success in every event is a virtual requirement. However, if you limit yourself to this scope, you will fall short of being recognized for the full depth of your capabilities and contributions. For example, when you report saving thousands on recent events, by refurbishing an exhibit. Of course, that is a very good thing! Your boss will be pleased, but executives may not notice. Why? Because that level of detail is not on their radar screen and while the amount saved may seem quite large to you, it is not material at higher levels of management. You may demonstrate that you can do more with less and that sometimes is what you will get in return.
A much more important message may be that customers you already have, attending the upcoming show, represent $100 million dollars of your company’s most profitable revenue. And through your astute market awareness, you know what your competitors are planning to do to steal them away and more importantly, how to combat it. Executives (and everyone else) are interested in that message!
So how do you do this?
You must become a consultant to the business and focus your efforts on improving the profitability of the company. Make recommendations that will improve earnings. Build collaboration with managers in other functional elements of the business. Show them how they can benefit from a well thought out trade show or event opportunity. Frame your discussions around the elements of the profit equation, increasing and protecting revenue and decreasing expense, i.e. the cost of doing business, through smart event activity.
I have a client in a very large defense technology company who exemplifies the characteristics and qualities I share with you tonight. The chairman of the board of that company mentioned the trade show program on several of the recent earnings calls. Earnings calls are between the top level executives of the company and the most influential people on the planet relative to their financial well being.
The reason? That trade show manager has elevated the perception of accomplishments at marketing events to that of a profitable business equation, one that is important, even to the chairman. That manager is focused on managing his overall program and its impact on the company. Event success is essential to his overall goal.
I was privileged to teach most of you. So with what may be my last opportunity in that regard, I want to challenge you with some questions to consider about your future! With the superior knowledge and abilities you have gained through your CTSM accomplishment, what will you achieve?
• Will you be recognized for making a significant impact upon the success of your organization?
• Will customers thank you for the clarity, value and the overall excellence of their experience at your events?
• Will you show others how to achieve their goals through your programs?
• Will you teach the new recruits how to do the job and accomplish remarkable results?
• Will you give back to the CTSM program your experience and expertise?
If so, it is a certainty that you will be called upon to accept more important responsibilities and you will see your earnings and job satisfaction increase beyond those of your colleagues.
Tonight, you have shown you have what it takes to accomplish these things. You will be the ones that take this industry to the next level.
The next five years will bring more change than the last twenty. Some of what you learned is already obsolete. Digital and social media, interactive demonstrations and visitor management technology are your new tools, making it possible for you to do things we could have only imagined a couple of years ago. These tools are not only new, they are evolving at a dizzy pace. You cannot stop your learning tonight, just as those who will receive higher awards tonight have continued on.
Do something great! Dare to do something unique!
Wow your visitors and your company.
Wow all of us!
Be the “high potential” manager.
I raise a glass to your accomplishments and your future success!
Congratulations and my best wishes to all of you.
Ed Jones
Constellation Communication Corp.
Trade Show and Event Marketing Evaluation, Measurement, Planning and Return on Investment
+1.770.391.0015
inquiry@constellationcc.com
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Measurement Tip 10
“The Customer is King” and Customer Relationship Management Provides Substantial Return on Your Event Investments
I hear exhibitors criticized for wasting trade show and event marketing dollars on existing customers. In my opinion, nothing could be more wrong. In fact, this is one of the most valuable aspects of event marketing.
Retention and growth of the current revenue base is an important part of nearly every business strategy. After all, existing customers (and the revenue they provide) is the most profitable of all. Existing customers are the easiest to sell in the future. That is why Customer Relationship Management (referred to as CRM) is such an important function in virtually every organization. Marketing events present an excellent opportunity to:
• Bring customers up to date
• Gain updates on the state of the customer’s business and needs
• Show what cannot be easily seen in field
• Have customers meet with your executives and experts
• Assure customers their needs will be met
• Introduce new ideas and programs
• Provide exclusive, confidential information such as future direction
• Thank customers for their business
All of these accomplishments have a direct and measurable impact on revenue retention and profitability.
Establishing a value for your CRM activity at events can be challenging, however estimating the scope of your effort is not. The scope can be quite large and therefore of great importance to your executive management. For example, a large consumer packaged goods client assesses the various types of customers and the amount of revenue addressable at events they attend. To establish objectives and measurement for an event, they breakdown the addressable revenue as follows:
A. What is the total market share addressable at the event?
• What is the total revenue of the market represented by the event?
• How many customers and potential customers will be attending?
• What is the average number and value of products or services each customer or prospect might be buying, etc.?
B. How much of that market total is comprised of current customers that represent existing revenue? This number becomes the retention target.
The average annual value or lifetime value of a current customer multiplied by the number of customers addressable at the event defines the scope of the event retention opportunity. If 100 current customers can be reached at the event that each have an average annual revenue value of $100,000 each, your retention target is $10,000,000! This puts an important value on the CRM activity at the event.
C. What is the growth opportunity on the existing revenue base at this event? This is the growth target.
For example, estimating the percentage of current customers that are likely to be cross-sold into an additional product line(s) highlighted at the event, establishes the growth revenue target for the event. If 100 customers are addressable, and 25% are likely to be cross-sold, at an estimated revenue value of $25,000, then the growth target is $625,000.
D. What is the market share conquest opportunity addressable at the event? This is the conquest target.
If 500 companies are represented at an event and 100 of them are current customers, then 400 present an opportunity for increased market share and new revenue. Keep in mind that your competitors are looking at your current 100 customers as conquest targets. If these 400 companies are potentially worth $100,000 per year in revenue (similar to your existing customers), then the conquest opportunity at the event is $40,000,000.
These numbers convey a lot more value associated with participating than simply reporting that 5,000 people will be there, and hopefully many are prospects. Defining the addressable revenue targets in this manner helps to understand and report the potential value of an event as well as add focus to the tactics and activities planned for the event.
If your company places a heavy weight on CRM activity as a trade show marketing goal, then it is important to know how well your CRM initiatives are working. CRM is essentially a process for providing optimum value to customers that supports obtaining maximum revenue value for your company. Therefore, it is wise to use measures of success that relate directly to the customers’ perceptions of value. Trade show CRM assessment should be consistent with any other enterprise-wide measures and metrics applied to other CRM initiatives. Briefing senior management on CRM success measures and applying these metrics on an ongoing basis will help to ensure continued funding of your event activities.
As mentioned, customer feedback should be incorporated into assessments of trade show performance. Customer measures may include:
• Increases in average order size
• Decreases in the number of contacts required to close a sale
• Reductions in the number of calls and time devoted to customer service or support
• Changes in customer satisfaction results
• Marketing measures such as net promoter scores
Many of these measures provide some basis for estimating potential return on investment, such as a cost savings through reduction of reliance on customer service or technical support.
Random intercept surveys with customers who have engaged with you at an event are an excellent way to identify changes in their perceptions, what they learned and what they intend to do as a result of their visit with you. Post event research should be considered as well.
Trade show activities can be tied to improvements in customer acquisition, retention, and customer reactivation. Many companies know their retention rates and changes in the retention rates can be significant measures of success. Your company may track the percentage of re-activations among lost customers for the year. Discuss how improvements in these areas can potentially impact profitability and how trade show tactics may be employed to affect results. Tracking these types of measures over time will help identify the improvement related to events.
Estimating the potential value of CRM efforts is similar to estimating the sales opportunity in a sales funnel. What is the effect upon the retention rate among customers seen at events where a CRM initiative was in effect? And by extension, what is that change worth in profitability? The same concept may be applied to “reactivated accounts.”
Investing in retention of existing customers and their revenue at events makes sense. Take for example any business with some level of customer/ revenue attrition each year. An initiative is developed for events that will result in reaching and retaining 50 customers among the 200 or so lost each year. The average value of a customer addressable at these events is estimated at $100,000.
To determine if event reactivation initiatives are a worthwhile investment, consider the following:
Multiply the number of customers retained or reactivated (50) by the average annual revenue value of a customer addressable at events ($100,000): (50 Customers X $100,000) = $5,000,000 in re-claimed revenue. Multiply that times the profit margin on sales associated with existing customers (it will be higher than for new customers, for example 35%) and you will find $1,750,000 in gross profit attributable to those customers who would otherwise be gone. That level of profit contribution is likely to be a high percentage of the entire event program budget. The other ROI justifications of new revenue development, cost avoidance and promotion value accomplished at the same events are icing on the cake.
If a single event is a key part of managing the customer relationship for the year, such as a premier customer conference or the largest annual conference you attend together, then the investment in that activity would likely be a significant portion of the overall amount a company spends on maintaining the business. If the event you are considering is not a main part of relationship management then it might represent only a small fraction of your company’s effort. Regardless, if you add up the current annual revenue of the customers you will engage, brief or entertain at an event, those numbers are usually impressive, and demonstrate what is at risk if those relationships are not maintained.
Consider making CRM one of your most important event marketing goals. Hold discussions internally to understand the value your company is willing to place on retaining and growing existing customers and revenue through investments in event activity.
I hear exhibitors criticized for wasting trade show and event marketing dollars on existing customers. In my opinion, nothing could be more wrong. In fact, this is one of the most valuable aspects of event marketing.
Retention and growth of the current revenue base is an important part of nearly every business strategy. After all, existing customers (and the revenue they provide) is the most profitable of all. Existing customers are the easiest to sell in the future. That is why Customer Relationship Management (referred to as CRM) is such an important function in virtually every organization. Marketing events present an excellent opportunity to:
• Bring customers up to date
• Gain updates on the state of the customer’s business and needs
• Show what cannot be easily seen in field
• Have customers meet with your executives and experts
• Assure customers their needs will be met
• Introduce new ideas and programs
• Provide exclusive, confidential information such as future direction
• Thank customers for their business
All of these accomplishments have a direct and measurable impact on revenue retention and profitability.
Establishing a value for your CRM activity at events can be challenging, however estimating the scope of your effort is not. The scope can be quite large and therefore of great importance to your executive management. For example, a large consumer packaged goods client assesses the various types of customers and the amount of revenue addressable at events they attend. To establish objectives and measurement for an event, they breakdown the addressable revenue as follows:
A. What is the total market share addressable at the event?
• What is the total revenue of the market represented by the event?
• How many customers and potential customers will be attending?
• What is the average number and value of products or services each customer or prospect might be buying, etc.?
B. How much of that market total is comprised of current customers that represent existing revenue? This number becomes the retention target.
The average annual value or lifetime value of a current customer multiplied by the number of customers addressable at the event defines the scope of the event retention opportunity. If 100 current customers can be reached at the event that each have an average annual revenue value of $100,000 each, your retention target is $10,000,000! This puts an important value on the CRM activity at the event.
C. What is the growth opportunity on the existing revenue base at this event? This is the growth target.
For example, estimating the percentage of current customers that are likely to be cross-sold into an additional product line(s) highlighted at the event, establishes the growth revenue target for the event. If 100 customers are addressable, and 25% are likely to be cross-sold, at an estimated revenue value of $25,000, then the growth target is $625,000.
D. What is the market share conquest opportunity addressable at the event? This is the conquest target.
If 500 companies are represented at an event and 100 of them are current customers, then 400 present an opportunity for increased market share and new revenue. Keep in mind that your competitors are looking at your current 100 customers as conquest targets. If these 400 companies are potentially worth $100,000 per year in revenue (similar to your existing customers), then the conquest opportunity at the event is $40,000,000.
These numbers convey a lot more value associated with participating than simply reporting that 5,000 people will be there, and hopefully many are prospects. Defining the addressable revenue targets in this manner helps to understand and report the potential value of an event as well as add focus to the tactics and activities planned for the event.
If your company places a heavy weight on CRM activity as a trade show marketing goal, then it is important to know how well your CRM initiatives are working. CRM is essentially a process for providing optimum value to customers that supports obtaining maximum revenue value for your company. Therefore, it is wise to use measures of success that relate directly to the customers’ perceptions of value. Trade show CRM assessment should be consistent with any other enterprise-wide measures and metrics applied to other CRM initiatives. Briefing senior management on CRM success measures and applying these metrics on an ongoing basis will help to ensure continued funding of your event activities.
As mentioned, customer feedback should be incorporated into assessments of trade show performance. Customer measures may include:
• Increases in average order size
• Decreases in the number of contacts required to close a sale
• Reductions in the number of calls and time devoted to customer service or support
• Changes in customer satisfaction results
• Marketing measures such as net promoter scores
Many of these measures provide some basis for estimating potential return on investment, such as a cost savings through reduction of reliance on customer service or technical support.
Random intercept surveys with customers who have engaged with you at an event are an excellent way to identify changes in their perceptions, what they learned and what they intend to do as a result of their visit with you. Post event research should be considered as well.
Trade show activities can be tied to improvements in customer acquisition, retention, and customer reactivation. Many companies know their retention rates and changes in the retention rates can be significant measures of success. Your company may track the percentage of re-activations among lost customers for the year. Discuss how improvements in these areas can potentially impact profitability and how trade show tactics may be employed to affect results. Tracking these types of measures over time will help identify the improvement related to events.
Estimating the potential value of CRM efforts is similar to estimating the sales opportunity in a sales funnel. What is the effect upon the retention rate among customers seen at events where a CRM initiative was in effect? And by extension, what is that change worth in profitability? The same concept may be applied to “reactivated accounts.”
Investing in retention of existing customers and their revenue at events makes sense. Take for example any business with some level of customer/ revenue attrition each year. An initiative is developed for events that will result in reaching and retaining 50 customers among the 200 or so lost each year. The average value of a customer addressable at these events is estimated at $100,000.
To determine if event reactivation initiatives are a worthwhile investment, consider the following:
Multiply the number of customers retained or reactivated (50) by the average annual revenue value of a customer addressable at events ($100,000): (50 Customers X $100,000) = $5,000,000 in re-claimed revenue. Multiply that times the profit margin on sales associated with existing customers (it will be higher than for new customers, for example 35%) and you will find $1,750,000 in gross profit attributable to those customers who would otherwise be gone. That level of profit contribution is likely to be a high percentage of the entire event program budget. The other ROI justifications of new revenue development, cost avoidance and promotion value accomplished at the same events are icing on the cake.
If a single event is a key part of managing the customer relationship for the year, such as a premier customer conference or the largest annual conference you attend together, then the investment in that activity would likely be a significant portion of the overall amount a company spends on maintaining the business. If the event you are considering is not a main part of relationship management then it might represent only a small fraction of your company’s effort. Regardless, if you add up the current annual revenue of the customers you will engage, brief or entertain at an event, those numbers are usually impressive, and demonstrate what is at risk if those relationships are not maintained.
Consider making CRM one of your most important event marketing goals. Hold discussions internally to understand the value your company is willing to place on retaining and growing existing customers and revenue through investments in event activity.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Measuring Payback and CRM Value for Marketing Events
A great tool for conveying the value of your marketing events is the payback ratio. This is the ratio of the total value of estimated revenue, revenue retention, cost savings and promotion value gained through event activity, divided by the event cost. It is expressed as $XX/1, for example $42/1. The payback ratio serves not only as an indicator of event efficiency, but also as a useful way to compare past, current and future events. The payback ratio is based upon estimates of the four main categories of value derived from marketing events:
1.Revenue (or gross profit margin) from New sales –This element of event value is the most difficult to document as so many people and steps may be required to close a sale and sales cycles can be quite long. It is possible to estimate revenue impact using acceptable internal assumptions such as the “close ratio” associated with well-qualified leads from an event and the “average value of sale” for sales that result from those leads. The best approach is to discuss these assumptions with your sales team and get their agreement. It is also best to have the sales team define the “next step” expected of people who become leads through their interactions at an event. Use “closed loop” systems such as sales automation, warranties, registrations and other types of tracking aids where available.
2.Retention and Growth of Current Revenue Base- Customer Relationship Management (referred to as CRM) is a very important function in companies today. Existing customers and the revenue they provide are the most profitable for most companies. I have heard criticism about companies that devote their event marketing resources to interaction with existing customers, yet I would suggest this is one of the most valuable aspects of event marketing. Keeping customers up to date, reassuring them that their needs will be met, and thanking them for their business has a direct and measurable impact on retention and profitability.
One of our large consumer package goods clients assesses the revenue addressable at an event, broken down like this:
A.How much total market share (expressed in terms of revenue, number of customers and potential customers, average number of products per customer or target, etc.) is addressable at this particular event? (Addressable Revenue)
B.How much of that total is comprised of our current customers, representing existing revenue? (Retention target)
What is the growth opportunity on the existing revenue base at this event (Growth target)? For example, the percentage of current customers that are likely to be cross-sold into an additional product line(s) may help establish a growth revenue target for an upcoming event. The average annual value and lifetime value of a customer are important measures in defining the scope of the opportunity.
C.How much does that leave as additional market share addressable at the event? (Conquest target)
Defining the addressable revenue targets in this manner helps to understand and report the potential value of an event as well as add focus to the tactics and activities planned for the event.
If a company places a heavy weight on CRM as a trade show marketing goal, then it is important to know how well their CRM initiatives are working. CRM is essentially a process for providing optimum value to customers to support obtaining maximum revenue value for the company. Therefore, it is wise to use measures of success that relate directly to customers. Trade show CRM assessment should be consistent with any other enterprise-wide measures and metrics applied to other CRM initiatives. Briefing senior management CRM success measures and applying these metrics on an ongoing basis will help to ensure continued funding of your CRM activities.
As mentioned, customer feedback should be incorporated into assessments of trade show performance. Customer measures may include increases in average order size, the number of contacts required to close a sale, number of calls and time devoted to customer service or support, changes in customer satisfaction results, and marketing measures such as net promoter scores. Many of these measures provide some basis for estimating potential return on investment, such as a cost savings through reduction of reliance on customer service or technical support.
Trade show activities can be tied to improvements in customer acquisition, retention, and perhaps reactivation. Many companies know their retention rates and changes in the retention rates can be significant measures of success. They also must then agree how improvements in these areas will potentially impact profitability. Measurements may exist regarding the percentage of reactivations among lost customers for the year. Tracking these types of measures over time can assist in identifying trends of improvement related to events.
Estimating the potential value of CRM efforts is similar to estimating sales opportunity in a sales funnel. What is the effect upon the retention rate among customers seen at events where a CRM initiative was in effect? And by extension, what is that change worth in profitability? The same could be applied to “reactivated accounts.”
Investing in retention of existing customers and their revenue base at events can make really good sense. Take for example a business with any level of attrition each year. Let’s say an initiative is developed for events that will result in reaching and retaining 10 customers among the 50 or so that are lost each year. The average value of a customer addressable at these events is estimated at $750,000. It is a simple process to determine if event initiatives are a worthwhile investment:
Multiply the number of customers retained or reactivated (10) by the average annual revenue value of a customer addressable at events ($750,000): (10 Customers X $750,000) = $7,500,000 in reclaimed revenue. Multiply that times the profit margin on sales associated with existing customers (it will be higher than for new customers, say 35%) and you will find $2,625,000 in profitability attributable to those customers who would otherwise be gone. That level of contribution is likely to provide a fairly high percentage of justification for the entire event program budget in addition to the other monetary values of new revenue development, cost avoidance and promotion value accomplished at those same events.
If an event is a key element in managing the relationship with an account for the year, such as your premier customer conference or the largest annual conference you attend together, then the value of that activity would likely be a significant portion of the overall amount a company spends on maintaining the business. If the event you are considering is not a main part of relationship management then it might represent only a small fraction of your company’s effort. Regardless, if you add up the current annual revenue of the customers you will entertain or brief at an event, those numbers are usually impressive, and demonstrate what is at risk if those relationships are not maintained.
3.Cost Savings – Cost savings and expense avoidance achieved through trade show activity can be quite substantial. Events present “one on many” and “many on many” opportunities. This value element is a real, traceable source of ROI on an event.
Everyone in your market universe may be gathered in one place, thinking about the same concentrated range of topics. Prospects, customers, suppliers, allies, analysts, press, executives, sales, product management and marketing are all at a single event, usually at their own expense. The number of potential interactions is huge. Consider special approaches to maximize the time, place and focus available through the event.
Be sure your activities at your next event are aimed not only at the income side of the profit equation, but the cost side as well. Realizing these benefits requires dialogue with those managers who can take advantage of the opportunity your event provides. They may also help you estimate the value of doing multiple things at an event instead of doing them one at a time in the future at additional expense.
Reporting these results in your event measurement report will add credibility and financial justification for your investment beyond the primary goal of increasing sales.
4.Promotion Value – This is often the least reported source of ROI, but promotion value at a marketing event provides real, identifiable value. Promotion value may be calculated using “ad equivalency” values, which are derived from what an equivalent advertising cost to accomplish a similar promotional impact would be.
“Ad Equivalency” is a less popular metric today than it was even a few years ago. It is still useful to report promotion value in terms of total impressions made at marketing events as this provides an idea of “reach”. “Gross Impressions” are those that fall on the eyes and ears of anyone. “Targeted Impressions” are those that fall on the eyes and ears of those who fit your target profile. The total impressions are the sum of all gross and targeted impressions made as a result of show budgeted activity. These activities often include promotion activities in direct marketing, media (including digital and social media) show exposure and exhibit exposure.
The payback ratio is a simple measure of success for your event marketing program. By adding the monetary value of all the tracked and estimated revenue and cost avoidance represented in the categories above, we can compare apparent value of an event to its cost. Using the payback ratio as an index is a great way to convey the value of your marketing events. The payback ratio provides qualitative and quantitative analysis of events and often greatly facilitates the discussion with executives over event strategy and funding.
1.Revenue (or gross profit margin) from New sales –This element of event value is the most difficult to document as so many people and steps may be required to close a sale and sales cycles can be quite long. It is possible to estimate revenue impact using acceptable internal assumptions such as the “close ratio” associated with well-qualified leads from an event and the “average value of sale” for sales that result from those leads. The best approach is to discuss these assumptions with your sales team and get their agreement. It is also best to have the sales team define the “next step” expected of people who become leads through their interactions at an event. Use “closed loop” systems such as sales automation, warranties, registrations and other types of tracking aids where available.
2.Retention and Growth of Current Revenue Base- Customer Relationship Management (referred to as CRM) is a very important function in companies today. Existing customers and the revenue they provide are the most profitable for most companies. I have heard criticism about companies that devote their event marketing resources to interaction with existing customers, yet I would suggest this is one of the most valuable aspects of event marketing. Keeping customers up to date, reassuring them that their needs will be met, and thanking them for their business has a direct and measurable impact on retention and profitability.
One of our large consumer package goods clients assesses the revenue addressable at an event, broken down like this:
A.How much total market share (expressed in terms of revenue, number of customers and potential customers, average number of products per customer or target, etc.) is addressable at this particular event? (Addressable Revenue)
B.How much of that total is comprised of our current customers, representing existing revenue? (Retention target)
What is the growth opportunity on the existing revenue base at this event (Growth target)? For example, the percentage of current customers that are likely to be cross-sold into an additional product line(s) may help establish a growth revenue target for an upcoming event. The average annual value and lifetime value of a customer are important measures in defining the scope of the opportunity.
C.How much does that leave as additional market share addressable at the event? (Conquest target)
Defining the addressable revenue targets in this manner helps to understand and report the potential value of an event as well as add focus to the tactics and activities planned for the event.
If a company places a heavy weight on CRM as a trade show marketing goal, then it is important to know how well their CRM initiatives are working. CRM is essentially a process for providing optimum value to customers to support obtaining maximum revenue value for the company. Therefore, it is wise to use measures of success that relate directly to customers. Trade show CRM assessment should be consistent with any other enterprise-wide measures and metrics applied to other CRM initiatives. Briefing senior management CRM success measures and applying these metrics on an ongoing basis will help to ensure continued funding of your CRM activities.
As mentioned, customer feedback should be incorporated into assessments of trade show performance. Customer measures may include increases in average order size, the number of contacts required to close a sale, number of calls and time devoted to customer service or support, changes in customer satisfaction results, and marketing measures such as net promoter scores. Many of these measures provide some basis for estimating potential return on investment, such as a cost savings through reduction of reliance on customer service or technical support.
Trade show activities can be tied to improvements in customer acquisition, retention, and perhaps reactivation. Many companies know their retention rates and changes in the retention rates can be significant measures of success. They also must then agree how improvements in these areas will potentially impact profitability. Measurements may exist regarding the percentage of reactivations among lost customers for the year. Tracking these types of measures over time can assist in identifying trends of improvement related to events.
Estimating the potential value of CRM efforts is similar to estimating sales opportunity in a sales funnel. What is the effect upon the retention rate among customers seen at events where a CRM initiative was in effect? And by extension, what is that change worth in profitability? The same could be applied to “reactivated accounts.”
Investing in retention of existing customers and their revenue base at events can make really good sense. Take for example a business with any level of attrition each year. Let’s say an initiative is developed for events that will result in reaching and retaining 10 customers among the 50 or so that are lost each year. The average value of a customer addressable at these events is estimated at $750,000. It is a simple process to determine if event initiatives are a worthwhile investment:
Multiply the number of customers retained or reactivated (10) by the average annual revenue value of a customer addressable at events ($750,000): (10 Customers X $750,000) = $7,500,000 in reclaimed revenue. Multiply that times the profit margin on sales associated with existing customers (it will be higher than for new customers, say 35%) and you will find $2,625,000 in profitability attributable to those customers who would otherwise be gone. That level of contribution is likely to provide a fairly high percentage of justification for the entire event program budget in addition to the other monetary values of new revenue development, cost avoidance and promotion value accomplished at those same events.
If an event is a key element in managing the relationship with an account for the year, such as your premier customer conference or the largest annual conference you attend together, then the value of that activity would likely be a significant portion of the overall amount a company spends on maintaining the business. If the event you are considering is not a main part of relationship management then it might represent only a small fraction of your company’s effort. Regardless, if you add up the current annual revenue of the customers you will entertain or brief at an event, those numbers are usually impressive, and demonstrate what is at risk if those relationships are not maintained.
3.Cost Savings – Cost savings and expense avoidance achieved through trade show activity can be quite substantial. Events present “one on many” and “many on many” opportunities. This value element is a real, traceable source of ROI on an event.
Everyone in your market universe may be gathered in one place, thinking about the same concentrated range of topics. Prospects, customers, suppliers, allies, analysts, press, executives, sales, product management and marketing are all at a single event, usually at their own expense. The number of potential interactions is huge. Consider special approaches to maximize the time, place and focus available through the event.
Be sure your activities at your next event are aimed not only at the income side of the profit equation, but the cost side as well. Realizing these benefits requires dialogue with those managers who can take advantage of the opportunity your event provides. They may also help you estimate the value of doing multiple things at an event instead of doing them one at a time in the future at additional expense.
Reporting these results in your event measurement report will add credibility and financial justification for your investment beyond the primary goal of increasing sales.
4.Promotion Value – This is often the least reported source of ROI, but promotion value at a marketing event provides real, identifiable value. Promotion value may be calculated using “ad equivalency” values, which are derived from what an equivalent advertising cost to accomplish a similar promotional impact would be.
“Ad Equivalency” is a less popular metric today than it was even a few years ago. It is still useful to report promotion value in terms of total impressions made at marketing events as this provides an idea of “reach”. “Gross Impressions” are those that fall on the eyes and ears of anyone. “Targeted Impressions” are those that fall on the eyes and ears of those who fit your target profile. The total impressions are the sum of all gross and targeted impressions made as a result of show budgeted activity. These activities often include promotion activities in direct marketing, media (including digital and social media) show exposure and exhibit exposure.
The payback ratio is a simple measure of success for your event marketing program. By adding the monetary value of all the tracked and estimated revenue and cost avoidance represented in the categories above, we can compare apparent value of an event to its cost. Using the payback ratio as an index is a great way to convey the value of your marketing events. The payback ratio provides qualitative and quantitative analysis of events and often greatly facilitates the discussion with executives over event strategy and funding.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Measurement Tip 9
Staff surveys after every event define event effectiveness and gently remind the staff of their responsibilities!
Staff and Stakeholder surveys are one of the most valuable measurements of event effectiveness. They provide "internal customer feedback" on your events. This feedback should be a cornerstone for any well run event marketing program.
These surveys serve to measure the perception of event marketing effectiveness among those who worked or funded the event. Often those who staff an event represent the sales function of the business. A post-event survey provides the staff with the opportunity to report their perspectives on the quantity and quality of participants, how the company compared to the competition, documentation of high-ranking guests and other important performance assessments. As a bonus, a staff survey can do much more! A well designed survey reminds and reinforces for the staff what they were/ are expected to deliver and asks them to rate themselves against these expectations. Many of our clients have witnessed notable organizational change through the use of these types of surveys.
Staff and Stakeholder surveys are especially useful for companies with multiple event managers, spread across geographies or divisions. Event managers can filter their own responses from the aggregate data for a division or geo level review of effectiveness at any event. Event managers typically have little time for anything extra. Fortunately a well designed staff and stakeholder survey can be administered by simply sending an email to the staff and then wait for the results to arrive in their inbox. The results for all measured events may be aggregated into quarterly and annual performance summaries for review and program adjustment.
Performance reviews allows the event managers to gather and react to event staff suggestions for improvement and new tactics for future shows. For example, you an event manager may have identified and event that should be cut or significantly downsized. When the staff clearly indicate that an event should be reconsidered, people take notice. It’s hard to argue with rock-solid responses from the company employees who witnessed the action first hand and know the value derived from participation.
Ed Jones
Constellation Communication Corp. provides essential services to optimize event impact and ROI on all types of events, including trade shows, conferences and hybrid events.
Staff and Stakeholder surveys are one of the most valuable measurements of event effectiveness. They provide "internal customer feedback" on your events. This feedback should be a cornerstone for any well run event marketing program.
These surveys serve to measure the perception of event marketing effectiveness among those who worked or funded the event. Often those who staff an event represent the sales function of the business. A post-event survey provides the staff with the opportunity to report their perspectives on the quantity and quality of participants, how the company compared to the competition, documentation of high-ranking guests and other important performance assessments. As a bonus, a staff survey can do much more! A well designed survey reminds and reinforces for the staff what they were/ are expected to deliver and asks them to rate themselves against these expectations. Many of our clients have witnessed notable organizational change through the use of these types of surveys.
Staff and Stakeholder surveys are especially useful for companies with multiple event managers, spread across geographies or divisions. Event managers can filter their own responses from the aggregate data for a division or geo level review of effectiveness at any event. Event managers typically have little time for anything extra. Fortunately a well designed staff and stakeholder survey can be administered by simply sending an email to the staff and then wait for the results to arrive in their inbox. The results for all measured events may be aggregated into quarterly and annual performance summaries for review and program adjustment.
Performance reviews allows the event managers to gather and react to event staff suggestions for improvement and new tactics for future shows. For example, you an event manager may have identified and event that should be cut or significantly downsized. When the staff clearly indicate that an event should be reconsidered, people take notice. It’s hard to argue with rock-solid responses from the company employees who witnessed the action first hand and know the value derived from participation.
Ed Jones
Constellation Communication Corp. provides essential services to optimize event impact and ROI on all types of events, including trade shows, conferences and hybrid events.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Measurement Tip 8
Understanding The Critical Success Factors for Event ROI
1) The right participants, 2) the right messages and 3) the right action are the three essential elements of any successful marketing event. Getting these right will deliver a positive return on your event investment and provide you with results you can measure.
I often spend time with clients discussing "Three Critical Success Factors" essential for trade show return on investment. The three elements of a trade show and event marketing program must be accomplished in order to achieve strong results.
1. You must attract enough of the right people to your exhibit or event (i.e. those individuals who can actually benefit your business)- It is essential to identify, by company and title, if not name, everyone at an upcoming event who can improve your results. Next, contact and arrange per-scheduled, face- to- face meetings with these targeted individuals to discuss mutually beneficial approaches to dealing with market opportunities. Attract and "detail" targeted individuals who visit your stand. If you are able to accomplish the equivalent of an important sales call with targeted individuals in your booth, you will reduce your cost of sale. Broaden your idea of a "target" to include suppliers and alliances. Interactions with these targets reduce the cost of materials or logistics and contribute directly to the survival of the business.
The key measure is the number of engagements and meetings with high-value contacts at your event.
2. You must deliver compelling messages that motivate them to act- You must deliver compelling messages that motivate your participants to act. Your messages should be persuasive. Participants must “feel” that taking the next step with your company is the right thing to do. The key measures are the research into perceptions and recall of key messages and the number of participants who commit to a follow-up.
3. You must obtain actions from the participants that tie directly to profit improvement for your company (either an increase in revenue or reduction in cost) - You must have a specific outcome (step in the sales funnel) in mind for these targets and they must embrace it. Remember it is usually what happens after the event that delivers payback. So, your post-event plan is just as important as the event plan. Keeping all of these targets continuously engaged in a communal relationship with your company is essential.
The key measure is the number of visitors who participate in the designated next step.
The short, easy way to remember the critical success factors for an effective event goes like this:
The right people
The right messages
The right actions
If you miss any one of the three, you are not likely to justify your investment in the event. As you can tell, they must be executed somewhat in order. That is why pre-event and post-event activities are at least as important as event execution.
These ROI related success factors were developed from years of working with clients to create a solid bridge between sales and marketing. They are the core of an event measurement and return on investment philosophy. Of course, many other things must also go well for a successful result.
1) The right participants, 2) the right messages and 3) the right action are the three essential elements of any successful marketing event. Getting these right will deliver a positive return on your event investment and provide you with results you can measure.
I often spend time with clients discussing "Three Critical Success Factors" essential for trade show return on investment. The three elements of a trade show and event marketing program must be accomplished in order to achieve strong results.
1. You must attract enough of the right people to your exhibit or event (i.e. those individuals who can actually benefit your business)- It is essential to identify, by company and title, if not name, everyone at an upcoming event who can improve your results. Next, contact and arrange per-scheduled, face- to- face meetings with these targeted individuals to discuss mutually beneficial approaches to dealing with market opportunities. Attract and "detail" targeted individuals who visit your stand. If you are able to accomplish the equivalent of an important sales call with targeted individuals in your booth, you will reduce your cost of sale. Broaden your idea of a "target" to include suppliers and alliances. Interactions with these targets reduce the cost of materials or logistics and contribute directly to the survival of the business.
The key measure is the number of engagements and meetings with high-value contacts at your event.
2. You must deliver compelling messages that motivate them to act- You must deliver compelling messages that motivate your participants to act. Your messages should be persuasive. Participants must “feel” that taking the next step with your company is the right thing to do. The key measures are the research into perceptions and recall of key messages and the number of participants who commit to a follow-up.
3. You must obtain actions from the participants that tie directly to profit improvement for your company (either an increase in revenue or reduction in cost) - You must have a specific outcome (step in the sales funnel) in mind for these targets and they must embrace it. Remember it is usually what happens after the event that delivers payback. So, your post-event plan is just as important as the event plan. Keeping all of these targets continuously engaged in a communal relationship with your company is essential.
The key measure is the number of visitors who participate in the designated next step.
The short, easy way to remember the critical success factors for an effective event goes like this:
The right people
The right messages
The right actions
If you miss any one of the three, you are not likely to justify your investment in the event. As you can tell, they must be executed somewhat in order. That is why pre-event and post-event activities are at least as important as event execution.
These ROI related success factors were developed from years of working with clients to create a solid bridge between sales and marketing. They are the core of an event measurement and return on investment philosophy. Of course, many other things must also go well for a successful result.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Measurement Tip 7
Use the Payback Ratio to Report and Compare the Value of Your Events
A great tool for conveying the value of your marketing events is the payback ratio. This is the ratio of the total value of estimated revenue, cost savings and promotion value gained through event activity, divided by the event cost. It is expressed as $ Total Value/$ Event Cost, for example $.42/1. The payback ratio serves not only as an indicator of event efficiency, but also as a useful way to compare past, current and future events.
The payback ratio is based upon estimates of the four main categories of value derived from marketing events:
1. Revenue (or gross profit margin) from the Sales Opportunities Afforded by the Event – This element of event value is cited most often, yet difficult to document. Often, many people are involved in many steps required to close a sale. And, the sales cycle may span years. It is possible to estimate probable revenue impact using internal assumptions, such as a “close ratio” associated with well-qualified event leads and an “average value of sale” for sales from those leads. The best approach is to discuss these assumptions with your sales team and get their agreement. It is also best to have the sales team define the “next step” expected of people who become leads through interactions at an event. Use “closed loop” systems such as sales automation, warranties, registrations and other types of tracking aids where available.
2. Retention and Growth of Current Revenue Base - Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is critical for virtually all organizations. Existing customers and their revenue are the usually the most profitable. I have companies criticized for devoting event marketing resources to interaction with existing customers, yet I would suggest this is one of the most valuable elements of a profitable event. Keeping customers up to date, reassuring them that their needs will be met, and thanking them for their business has a direct and measurable impact on retention and profitability.
Just as most companies have a recognized cost of sale, there may be a recognized cost of CRM. A significant percentage of that cost/ value may be accomplished through event activity. For example, a company might spend 5 or 10% of account revenue on customer service/ retention activity. For example, your company might estimate the value of an executive customer dinner held during an industry event,at 1% of your overall CRM effort for those customers for the year. The value estimate would be $.001/ dollar of existing revenue among customers seen at the event. This may not sound like much until you consider that these revenue numbers can be in the hundreds of millions dollars for a large company. For smaller companies, the impact of such an event is likely to be a much higher percentage of the overall CRM effort. Sometimes these event based “customer events” are the major CRM activity for the year, so a range of 20% or more may be reasonable.
Accomplishment of CRM goals is valuable for companies large and small and contributes to event value. Discuss how your company might determine a value of CRM activity accomplished at marketing events. Don’t forget to take credit for the cost savings made possible by using the event as a time and place opportunity.
3. Cost Savings/ Avoidance- Substantial cost savings and expense avoidance may be achieved through trade show activity. Events present “one on many” and "many on many” opportunities. This element of value is the most tangible and traceable source of ROI on an event. Large numbers of people in your "market universe" may be gathered in one place, thinking about the same concentrated range of topics. Prospects, customers, suppliers, allies, analysts, press, executives, sales, product management and marketing are all at a single event, usually at their own expense. The number and types of potential interactions are huge. Your event plan should have specific tactics to maximize the time, place and focus opportunity made possible by the event.
Be sure your activities at your next event are aimed not only at the income side of the profit equation, but the cost side as well. To make these benefits happen requires dialogue with those managers who can take advantage of the opportunity your event provides. They may also help you estimate the value of doing multiple things at an event instead of doing them one at a time in the future at additional expense.
Reporting these results in your event measurement report will add credibility and financial justification for your investment beyond the primary goal of increasing sales.
4. Promotion Value – This is often the least reported source of ROI, but promotion value at a marketing event provides real, identifiable value. Promotion value may be calculated using “ad equivalency” values, which are derived from what an equivalent advertising cost to accomplish a similar promotional impact would be.
It is less popular today to use “Ad Equivalency” values, although I believe it is undeniable that exposure through an event has at least the same value as that derived from paid advertising. However, it is still useful to report promotion value in terms of total impressions made at marketing events and to make comparisons with the exposure of your company versus that of your competitors. “Gross Impressions” are those that fall on the eyes and ears of anyone. “Targeted Impressions” are those that fall on the eyes and ears of those who fit your target profile. The total impressions are the sum of all gross and targeted impressions made as a result of show budgeted activity. These actives often include promotion activities in direct marketing, media, show exposure and exhibit exposure.
Discuss how you might value the exposure generated for your company with those responsible for corporate communications, advertising and PR.
Once you have identified and estimated values for some or all of the four elements of value, add them up and divide them by your event cost. The result is a useful index of event profitability or return on investment.
Using the payback ratio as an index is a great way to convey the value of your marketing events. The payback ratio provides qualitative and quantitative analysis of events and often times helps to more easily facilitate a discussion with executives. Remember to use the payback ratio as a simple measure of success for your event marketing program.
A great tool for conveying the value of your marketing events is the payback ratio. This is the ratio of the total value of estimated revenue, cost savings and promotion value gained through event activity, divided by the event cost. It is expressed as $ Total Value/$ Event Cost, for example $.42/1. The payback ratio serves not only as an indicator of event efficiency, but also as a useful way to compare past, current and future events.
The payback ratio is based upon estimates of the four main categories of value derived from marketing events:
1. Revenue (or gross profit margin) from the Sales Opportunities Afforded by the Event – This element of event value is cited most often, yet difficult to document. Often, many people are involved in many steps required to close a sale. And, the sales cycle may span years. It is possible to estimate probable revenue impact using internal assumptions, such as a “close ratio” associated with well-qualified event leads and an “average value of sale” for sales from those leads. The best approach is to discuss these assumptions with your sales team and get their agreement. It is also best to have the sales team define the “next step” expected of people who become leads through interactions at an event. Use “closed loop” systems such as sales automation, warranties, registrations and other types of tracking aids where available.
2. Retention and Growth of Current Revenue Base - Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is critical for virtually all organizations. Existing customers and their revenue are the usually the most profitable. I have companies criticized for devoting event marketing resources to interaction with existing customers, yet I would suggest this is one of the most valuable elements of a profitable event. Keeping customers up to date, reassuring them that their needs will be met, and thanking them for their business has a direct and measurable impact on retention and profitability.
Just as most companies have a recognized cost of sale, there may be a recognized cost of CRM. A significant percentage of that cost/ value may be accomplished through event activity. For example, a company might spend 5 or 10% of account revenue on customer service/ retention activity. For example, your company might estimate the value of an executive customer dinner held during an industry event,at 1% of your overall CRM effort for those customers for the year. The value estimate would be $.001/ dollar of existing revenue among customers seen at the event. This may not sound like much until you consider that these revenue numbers can be in the hundreds of millions dollars for a large company. For smaller companies, the impact of such an event is likely to be a much higher percentage of the overall CRM effort. Sometimes these event based “customer events” are the major CRM activity for the year, so a range of 20% or more may be reasonable.
Accomplishment of CRM goals is valuable for companies large and small and contributes to event value. Discuss how your company might determine a value of CRM activity accomplished at marketing events. Don’t forget to take credit for the cost savings made possible by using the event as a time and place opportunity.
3. Cost Savings/ Avoidance- Substantial cost savings and expense avoidance may be achieved through trade show activity. Events present “one on many” and "many on many” opportunities. This element of value is the most tangible and traceable source of ROI on an event. Large numbers of people in your "market universe" may be gathered in one place, thinking about the same concentrated range of topics. Prospects, customers, suppliers, allies, analysts, press, executives, sales, product management and marketing are all at a single event, usually at their own expense. The number and types of potential interactions are huge. Your event plan should have specific tactics to maximize the time, place and focus opportunity made possible by the event.
Be sure your activities at your next event are aimed not only at the income side of the profit equation, but the cost side as well. To make these benefits happen requires dialogue with those managers who can take advantage of the opportunity your event provides. They may also help you estimate the value of doing multiple things at an event instead of doing them one at a time in the future at additional expense.
Reporting these results in your event measurement report will add credibility and financial justification for your investment beyond the primary goal of increasing sales.
4. Promotion Value – This is often the least reported source of ROI, but promotion value at a marketing event provides real, identifiable value. Promotion value may be calculated using “ad equivalency” values, which are derived from what an equivalent advertising cost to accomplish a similar promotional impact would be.
It is less popular today to use “Ad Equivalency” values, although I believe it is undeniable that exposure through an event has at least the same value as that derived from paid advertising. However, it is still useful to report promotion value in terms of total impressions made at marketing events and to make comparisons with the exposure of your company versus that of your competitors. “Gross Impressions” are those that fall on the eyes and ears of anyone. “Targeted Impressions” are those that fall on the eyes and ears of those who fit your target profile. The total impressions are the sum of all gross and targeted impressions made as a result of show budgeted activity. These actives often include promotion activities in direct marketing, media, show exposure and exhibit exposure.
Discuss how you might value the exposure generated for your company with those responsible for corporate communications, advertising and PR.
Once you have identified and estimated values for some or all of the four elements of value, add them up and divide them by your event cost. The result is a useful index of event profitability or return on investment.
Using the payback ratio as an index is a great way to convey the value of your marketing events. The payback ratio provides qualitative and quantitative analysis of events and often times helps to more easily facilitate a discussion with executives. Remember to use the payback ratio as a simple measure of success for your event marketing program.
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