Measurement Tip 21

How does anyone determine the success and ROI of a party, networking event or even a golf outing held during a conference or event?

Hospitality and other ancillary events abound at trade shows and conferences.  Most of the ones I have attended were not planned to deliver much in the way of ROI.  However, it is quite practical for receptions, mixers, networking events and even golf outings to produce important and valuable accomplishments for your company and to expand the value derived from participation in the main marketing event or trade show.  Here is how…

My model for event value considers four overall benefit categories for any face-to-face activity.  These four questions will lead you to plan for and establish measures for your accomplishments.  Not every event will provide accomplishments against all four values.  The examples given are in terms of ancillary private events:

1) How will an ancillary event increase sales opportunities for the host? Meeting new prospects and accomplishing the initial steps in establishing relationships benefits sales results.  Sales may be able to provide an estimated value for a new prospect.

2) How will the activity protect and retain existing customers and revenue? A private affair for current customers is a good example. Using an event to protect your existing customer base and then to up-sell a customer provides value you can prove for the company. Current customers may be introduced to new programs or incentives at an ancillary event.  Explore customer retention rates, the average revenue value of a customer and estimated cost to replace a lost customer for your value estimates.

3) How will the event save the host money? Bringing high-value contacts, prospects, partners and suppliers together at the same time to see something or someone (such as an executive or expert) in one place may avoid several future trips and perhaps, events at your company’s additional expense. A great example is a mixer for the press and media when your company is launching a new product.

4) How much exposure will the event generate for the host company's products and brands?  Exposure is counted in the form of impressions. This is the same metric used in advertising and PR efforts. Use signature ancillary events and their associated promotion and publicity to position your company, products and priority messages. Another worthy objective is to establish your company as a thought leader by providing provocative and valuable content during the event. If possible, seek out assistance from your communications team members to help you estimate what the exposure generated at an event may be worth.

Develop your event plan to deliver accomplishments in each of the four elements of value.  Then you can apply metrics to document achievements.  

The basis for all measures is personal interactions.  Counting interactions with people who fit targeting criteria is the basic measure for elements 1 - 3.  Estimate a value for each person "activated" via their interaction with your team at the event for each of your defined goals. The activation may be to become a committed lead, to resign as a customer, to attend a function in lieu of a future one, or to receive your images and messages.

For value #4, Promotion, count impressions made on people. Impressions are visible or audible images of your company's brands and messages that fall on the eyes and ears of many different target audiences addressable through the events. Use your advertising cost per impression as a guideline to estimate value.

If you collect and report any results in the form of accomplishments in any or all of the elements of value listed above, your management will be more confident with their investment and with you as a competent manager of the business.

Measurement Tip 19

What are the Best Event Marketing Strategies for a Tepid Economy?

...How Events Can Help Solve Problems and How You Might Increase Your Own Value to the Company in the Process

2013 will bring with it many unanswered questions and by most accounts a tepid economic forecast (see the table at the bottom of this article). Most likely you are now working on aligning your event marketing activities to cover as many bets as possible, in many cases with lower budgets. Several event and trade show marketing questions are raised:

• “What event marketing goals are most important for our company to achieve at this time?” 
• “What changes can we make that will at least maintain, if not increase, our results?”
• “Are we in the right events for the circumstances?”
• "Where and how do we make cuts if necessary?"

Smart event marketing managers are making recommendations for program changes that will protect their companies.  For example, customer relationship management and revenue retention activities are of highest priority right now. Just ask your CFO! Are you prepared to make the right recommendations for your company for 2013?

We usually think of event marketing in terms of market share, new leads and revenue for the company.  When the economy is sluggish and new business is harder to find, several factors come into play.  First, we know cost control becomes a major issue.  “New revenue" from new customers often comes at a high cost, not only to sell but to fulfill. 

For many companies, existing customers are the greatest source of profit because they are the easiest and least expensive to serve and are the most likely to be sold in the future.  So, when things are tight, smart companies cling even more to their existing business. CFO’s in survival mode know that expensive sales and marketing campaigns to attract business might not be profitable right away, especially under under restricted budgets. Keeping existing customers is essential. 

How Events Can Provide Solutions 

Events provide a way to reach large numbers of people at once, for a variety of reasons, at a relatively low cost. Remember, the purpose of an event is to motivate people to act in a way that benefits the host. Here are a few ideas to consider organized generally by the main elements of marketing event value.

Revenue Retention and Customer Relationship Management

Providing your customers, prospects and others with access to your executives is a sure fire way to protect business and cement deals for new business. The savings from putting fifty or more customers and prospects in front of your executives in just a few days could reach hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings per event.

• You should strongly consider aiming events at existing customers to protect and grow their business. Customer meetings at trade shows, and user and customer conferences produce results in near term sales and reduce service costs for companies that know how to plan and run them correctly.

See the Case Study "What is Your Conference Worth to Your Company”

                   http://constellationcc.com/case_studies.htm

• Executive level customer conferences can create a platform where the top executives from your best accounts come together with your executives to collaborate on mutually beneficial solutions for dealing with an economic downturn. Executive to executive interaction is the most effective way to cement a business relationship.  These meetings may also be hosted in a trade show conference room.

Revenue Generation   
     
Few companies want to totally stop their pursuit of new business and new market share. When economics dictate a reduction in sales force or sales expense, your events can provide a cost alternative for reaching large numbers of potential buyers. 

• Be sure your exhibit experience results in qualified people experiencing the equivalent of a full sales call.

• Private events, i.e. those you host yourself, can be staged in locations close to your targeted accounts.  These events may be perceived by customers and prospects as an opportunity to find specific solutions for dealing with their needs.

•  A good multi-city road show can reduce field sales cost and be the marketing equivalent of a tent revival.

Public events often suffer from lower attendance during an economic downturn. In some cases, the absences are among lower level, less important participants who are not required to be there. As a result the remaining audience may be richer in targets and less expensive to reach.

Cost Reduction, Saving the Company Money

Events can save your company money when it is most needed. Face-to-face meetings reduce the cost of field sales because the prospects and customers have paid their own way to meet with you. 

Broaden your idea of who may be 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.

• Host (see) fewer, more valuable people at a lower cost.  Change your pre-event target marketing strategy to focus on “high probability” and “high value” contacts.  Focus your resources on fewer people to whom your company can most likely sell the most profitable offerings.  In many cases, they might be existing customers. 

• Use the reduction in expected visitors to cut your space and resources.  A small private event may be more efficient than a large public one.  Meeting rooms in the exhibit or off the show floor may be your best investment.

• Handle your existing business volume with fewer people by holding customer conferences, training sessions and support activities conference style perhaps in association with large public events such as an industry tradeshow.  Customer education is a great sales strategy.

• Hold internal meetings around marketing events.  Put executives, product experts, sales management and sales team, even channels, from various geographies together for meetings that reduce future travel and meeting cost.  This can amount to a huge cost savings for the company. Utilize presentations, demonstrations and conference facilities to maximum benefit. For example, hold product training for the sales team using the presentation or demos in the exhibit during off hours.

Promotion Value

Many events provide fertile press opportunities and communications resources such as press briefing facilities, scheduled access to press, distribution of press materials, media and communication technology and more. 

• Use a major industry event to launch a new offering using the event press facilities and resources in place of hiring your own in another place.

• Events with a rich incidence of targeted individuals present may offer a more cost effective opportunity than does advertising in trade publications to introduce a new offer or position products.

• Plan to generate “free press” at every event where by proactively managing the opportunity.

Tighten Up Your Approach

How you approach marketing events should be different compared to how your company normally conducts business at trade shows:

• It is even more essential to identify, by company and title, if not name, everyone at an upcoming event who can improve your results.  These include not only customers and prospects, but suppliers, partners, channels, influencers, regulators, etc.

• Next, contact and arrange pre-scheduled, face- to- face meetings with those targeted individuals to discuss mutually beneficial approaches to dealing with a slow economy.

• Attract and consistently "brief" 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.

• You must have a specific outcome (one of the most important steps in the sales funnel) in mind for these targets, and you must get them to commit to participate.  The step must be valuable for them and focus on improvement of their business results.

• This approach fills the sales funnel with prospects committed to a step in the sales process, ones that may not be coming from a reduced sales force and may help to lower the cost of doing business.

Selecting the Right Events and “Right-Sizing” Investments  

Another clear source of cost efficiency is tailoring the investments you make in each event to the associated sales opportunity.  Even in good times we consistently find about 30% of event marketing expenditures should be reapplied to more productive investments.  Also, your legacy schedule of shows and events may not be the best mix for these economic times.  And even for events that are on target, your tactics might need to be changed.  

If your company revises the sales forecast in terms of products or geographies, the event schedule should be reconsidered as well.

Comparing events against a performance standard such as a payback ratio and “cost per” indexes (e.g. cost per visitor, cost per engaged visitor or lead and cost per square foot), will allow you to rank events from best to worst.  This will tell you a great deal about which events should be scrutinized for budget reductions.

A Real World Example

Due to market conditions a major client preemptively implemented a 40% reduction on the cost of their largest and most important show. We applied considerable effort to revise facilities design, devise a new visitor management plan and develop specific staff skills to deal with a very different approach. Thanks to a successful targeted invitation process, accomplishments in attendance, meetings, documented impact on relationship management, business development and virtually all other key measures were comparable to those obtained previously. This company was cited in industry press and among their peers for having figured out in advance how to make the most of the unfavorable market conditions. Similar changes have been applied across their entire show schedule for the remainder of this show cycle.

What to Do Right Now 

Talk to your sales and customer support executives about how carefully chosen events could help your company deal with the restraints associated with the current economic climate.  Get them on board.

Frame your planning opportunities in terms of impact on company profitability, i.e. Revenue Retention, Revenue Growth, Cost Reductions and Communications or Promotion Value.  Change your plans accordingly.

Evaluate, compare and rank your current shows and events. “Right-size" your investments in budget, staff, exhibit size, properties and other expenditures for the circumstances for each event.  Target changes in event marketing activities that will pay off.  Make the adjustments now.

Your importance to the company is about to rise rapidly.

Ed Jones

If you need assistance with your event marketing measurement program, please give me a call at +1.770.391.0015 or email me edjones@constellationcc.com

Or Click here to make a request for contact!

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.

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