Marketing departments seem to need more justification to attend trade shows? With a variety of reasons to choose from, trade show marketing is still an effective choice to get in front of multiple audiences for multiple purposes.

Trade Shows provide a unique opportunity that cannot be replicated in any other type of venue

1. Accelerate your product into new markets

2. Achieve qualified leads for personal follow-up

3. Attract new sales representation

4. Augment and strengthen your distribution chain

5. Change or improve the perception of your organization

6. Communicate technical benefits / data / features

7. Comprehend customer problems

8. Continue customer contract at all levels

9. Coordinate post-show factory visits with your prospects

10. Demonstrate new products and features of old products

11. Develop leads

12. Discuss benefits with feedback from booth visitors

13. Distribute product samples and mementos

14. Dramatize your message of features and benefits

15. Enhance word of mouth market expansion

16. Establish distribution networks

17. Evaluate your competitors’ products and marketing

18. Expand leads for joint ventures and licensing agreements

19. Extend your reach to unknown prospects

20. Generate more prospects for old and new markets

Important facts that will open your eyes to reasons to exhibit:

* 88% of attendees have not been seen by a member of your company’s sales staff in the preceding 12 months
* Seven out of ten attendees plan to buy one or more products
* 76% asked for quotes and 26% signed purchase orders (average all shows)
* 72% of show visitors say the show influenced their buying decision
* 87% of attendees will share some of the information obtained at an exhibition
* 64% of attendees tell at least 6 other people about the event
* 58% attend only the show in which you are exhibiting
* 40% are first-time attendees
* It costs 22% less to contact a potential buyer at a show than it does through traditional field sales calls
* 54% of exhibitors do not set objectives, and a much larger percentage have no formal process to either measure objectives or report about what happened at their events.

In the wake of our economic downturn, many people are debating the value of most marketing efforts. So how do you make informed decisions about continuing to invest in face-to-face marketing efforts like Chicago Trade Shows & Events?

Exhibitions work because they are face-to-face. They provide us an opportunity to accelerate the selling cycle by matching needs with a company’s ability to fill those needs. They work because adults are visual learners. Exhibiting is a visual medium – the exhibit, products, the graphics, collateral materials and promotional products are visual elements. Buyers are also experiential. Trade shows and other face-to-face events provide an experience through the dynamics of the display process.